Samantha Ricketts remembers well her playing days in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
When she starred for the University of Oklahoma from 2006 to 2009, Ricketts made multiple trips to face the Sooners’ in-state rival on the road.
OU wasn’t yet the nine-time defending Big 12 Conference champion, but the Sooners were a cut above in those “Bedlam” rivalry matchups. The atmosphere at Cowgirl Stadium couldn’t quite match the experience of taking in a game at Marita Hynes Field in Norman.
But when Ricketts led Mississippi State into the weekend’s Stillwater Regional against Oklahoma State, the No. 5 national seed, a lot of things had changed. Fans filled the bleachers behind home plate, occupied the wooden stands in left field and dotted the berms in right. After the Cowgirls beat the Bulldogs 10-2 on Sunday to win the regional, Oklahoma State players started from the left-field foul pole and jogged along the outfield fence, high-fiving the joyous supporters who stretched their arms onto the field.
“The difference between back when I played and what it is now is night and day,” Ricketts said.
The special atmosphere — and the dominant team — she saw in Stillwater is what the second-year head coach hopes to bring to Starkville.
Mississippi State has yet to host an NCAA regional since joining the Southeastern Conference in 1997. Ricketts wants to change that.
“That’s definitely the goal,” she said. “That’s what we’re setting out to do every single year.”
The Bulldogs have come close with solid years under Vann Stuedeman, who led the program from 2012 to 2019. Mississippi State won 30 or more games in seven of Stuedeman’s eight seasons, making NCAA regionals all seven times.
But MSU never finished with a winning conference record. Their best season under Stuedeman ended in a 39-21 mark in 2014, but the Bulldogs were 10-14 in SEC play and tied for seventh in the league.
In 2021, MSU earned the No. 9 seed in the SEC tournament and finished with a 35-25 record. Twelve of the 13 teams in the conference made a regional, and seven were regional hosts.
So maybe it’s no surprise what the Bulldogs saw in Stillwater didn’t exactly faze them.
“It was like just another SEC series,” first baseman Fa Leilua said.
Now, Mississippi State must get its program to that level week in and week out. An 0-13 beginning to SEC play thinned out crowds at Nusz Park, although COVID-19 protocols limited attendance for much of the season. Instead of the lows of the “rocky middle,” as outfielder Christian Quinn described it, and the high of a late-season run, the Bulldogs must find consistency — from game to game, week to week and season.
Oklahoma State, Ricketts said, offers a good model. The 45-9 Cowgirls are coached by Kenny Gajewski, who took over in 2015 with the task of restoring the program to the heights reached by Sandy Fischer in a 23-year reign from 1979 to 2001. In 2016, Gajewski’s first season, OSU won 32 games. The Cowgirls posted 38 victories in 2017 and 39 in 2018, making regionals in all three seasons. In 2019, Oklahoma State won 45 games and went to the Women’s College World Series.
Mississippi State could have been poised for a similar breakout in 2020, Ricketts’ first year as head coach. The Bulldogs had 25 wins, the most in the nation, and just three losses headed into conference play. But the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the season short March 12 and forced its cancellation five days later.
Playing a tougher nonconference schedule, Mississippi State made its way to 15-5 before its first conference game of 2021. The Bulldogs were swept by Ole Miss, Florida, Arkansas and Missouri before grabbing a win against Texas A&M, taking a series from South Carolina and sweeping Tennessee and Georgia to round out the regular season. MSU beat Ole Miss in its SEC tournament opener before another loss to the Gators.
The hot streak earned the Bulldogs not only another regional berth but a No. 2 seed, which seemed almost unfathomable just a few weeks prior. When the Bulldogs walked into Cowgirl Stadium, Quinn reminded her teammates of the program’s goals.
“Hey, this is where we want to be,” she said. “We want to be hosting one of these soon.”
Coming from the fifth-year senior in her third and final season with the program, that was significant.
“For the younger ones to hear that from not just their coaches but their teammates as well, I think that means a lot to them,” Ricketts said.
Now, the focus turns to getting the Bulldogs back to that goal. Leilua, Quinn and reliever Alyssa Loza won’t return in 2022, but Mississippi State will have plenty of returning — and incoming — talent to display.
If the Bulldogs can find the consistency they seek, a Starkville Regional at a packed Nusz Park may not be too far away.
“I think we have the facilities and the fans to do it, and we have to continue to push forward and put a good product on the field and draw the fans in,” Ricketts said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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