After three days of softball in Oregon that rewrote some pitching records for Mississippi State’s softball team, the squad finds itself in waters it has rarely chartered this weekend with an opportunity to make even more history.
The No. 20 Bulldogs begin the battle of their second-ever Super Regional against softball powerhouse and eight-time national champion No. 2 Oklahoma in Norman at noon today. This deep into the postseason, to the winner goes all the spoils, and for MSU (41-18) a series win over the Sooners (51-8) would deliver the team its first-ever Women’s College World Series appearance. Game 2 is slated for noon Saturday, and both games will be broadcast on ESPN2 and ESPN, respectively.
The series also marks the first time head coach Samantha Ricketts is set to coach against her alma mater in the postseason. Ricketts was an All-American for the Sooners during her playing career in Norman under Patty Gasso, who still remains the team’s head coach.
“It’s always a special moment to be able to go back to where I played (and compete against) the coach I played for,” Ricketts said. “At this stage it’s special every game, we’re not going to take it for granted, and for us we are just going to get back to work like we’ve been doing all year.”
The Bulldogs are riding the wave of three straight victories in the Eugene Regional that featured back-to-back shutouts, a no-hitter and a walk-off victory. Pitcher Alyssa Faircloth dominated in the circle in the final two games and set new program regional records for strikeouts in a game (14), total strikeouts (26) all without allowing a score through her final 15.2 innings pitched. MSU’s pitching staff boasts the second-most strikeouts in the country (503) and allows the fourth fewest hits per game (4.42).
Senior Nadia Barbary said this Super Regional is special because of the progress made since she first joined the team in 2023.
“My freshman year we started at the bottom a little bit, didn’t make the postseason, and now we are going to supers, and I wouldn’t want to do it with any other group of girls, “ Barbary said. “I’ve said it since the fall, ‘This is the closest-knit team that I’ve ever been a part of here at State,’ so just knowing that we’re doing it together and everybody has their role and everybody plays their role really well, and it’s just a very cohesive group.”
A tough opponent
The Bulldogs will pit their pitching against the hot bats of Oklahoma, which is making its 16th-consecutive Super Regional appearance. The Sooners also had no issue in cruising through its regional games as they got two shutout wins over Binghamton (11-0) and Kansas (9-0) before taking down Michigan (8-1) in the regional finale. The squad features one of the best hitting units in all of softball with nation-leading marks in hits (317) and batting average (.390) while ranking second in home runs (182) and runs scored per game (10.15).
But In order to reach the WCWS, the Bulldogs will have to break a spell that’s been plaguing the program since 1983. MSU and Oklahoma have collided 11 total times on the diamond – including a spree of eight games since 2021 – and the Sooners have won each and every matchup. Last year, State was swept by Oklahoma on the road despite losing Games 2 and 3 of the series by a combined four runs.
Luckily, the Bulldogs just might have an ace up their sleeve powerful enough to quell their streak of defeats against the Sooners – broccoli.
After noticing a man named Jim celebrating with the vegetable in the stands during their games in the Eugene Regional, the Bulldogs managed to get some broccoli of their own and celebrate with it in their dugout. It quickly became a rallying totem for the team and they cheered and waved it around every time someone made a play or something good happened, which turned out to be fairly frequent. A video posted on the Bulldogs’ social media feeds this week confirmed that the spiky green vegetable is indeed making the trip with them.
To some it might seem silly to some to celebrate with a vegetable, but it brings them joy, Barbary said, which at the end of the day is all that really matters.
“It’s fun, softball is fun,” Barbary said after State’s final game in the Eugene Regional. “It’s a privilege to be able to be here, a privilege to play it and just take it and be excited about it.”
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