Elijah MacNamee tried his best to be the embodiment of cool as he walked up to the plate in the ninth inning of Mississippi State’s elimination game at Florida State in the 2018 Tallahassee regional.
He spotted some of his friends in the crowd and took the opportunity to project what he was feeling. He wanted the big moment, he wanted the chance to make a difference, and he wanted to prove that to everyone watching.
“Hey boys, watch this,” MacNamee said on his way up to the biggest at-bat of his life.
Moments later, he was behind in the count, 0-2.
He hadn’t lost his cool, though. The second pitch he took was a high fastball, meaning a good chance at an off-speed pitch on the next toss.
He kept his head, but above all he kept his confidence.
“I would always try to be overconfident in big moments,” MacNamee said to The Dispatch this week, reflecting on his walk-up to the plate. “I would try to accept the moment I’m in, and it’s easy for failure to creep in in baseball, especially the big moments.”
His swing connected, launching a three-run walk-off home run beyond the outfield wall at Dick Howser Stadium. The Bulldogs were against the wall, down 2-0, and won 3-2 to stay alive.
“I can still picture it coming off the bat in my head seven years later,” he said. “It’s just such a surreal moment, kind of what our whole year looks like. It would have been amazing if any of my teammates did that, it just happened to be me. I can’t put into words how that exactly felt, but I wish every human on earth could feel what I did that day.”
The win kickstarted a run through the regional that eventually led to Omaha and the College World Series.
The 2018 Mississippi State Bulldogs created several special moments, but MacNamee’s moment stands out above the rest this week as the current iteration of the Diamond Dawgs prepares for their own trip to Tallahassee for a regional.
Both teams had to endure losing their head coach midseason and ride their success with an interim at the helm. The odds were stacked against them, but the 2018 squad carved out a path to Omaha with a special postseason run.
“It’s literally like the same exact thing that happened to us that year,” MacNamee said. “It started off rough, we lost our coach and ended up going 15-15, lost the first game of the SEC tournament, and then here they are in 2025 doing the same. You can’t write that any better, heading back to Tallahassee.”
The comparison between the squads is not lost on anyone, especially not the current team.
On Tuesday, Bryce Chance remarked on his memory of the game, as well as a retelling of the story he and the other players had heard from assistant coach Jake Gautreau at practice, who was on the staff in 2018.
“It was cool, and hearing the story from (Gautreau) yesterday was cool too,” Chance said. “They played Oklahoma in the first game, they were up big and ended up losing 20-10 and had to move through the loser’s bracket. So it was a cool story, and obviously, the radio call is stuck in your head from Jim Ellis every time I even think about Florida State. Growing up a Mississippi State fan, it’s a memory that sticks with you.”
The legacy of that team has stuck with the current group, given the comparisons, though the 2025 squad still has to prove itself this weekend in Tallahassee. MacNamee spoke on the comparisons, noting the togetherness it takes within a squad to overcome a coaching change.
“I think that’s what builds true teamwork, but also, you lost your head honcho, and all you have is each other,” he said.
MacNamee added that while it’s a new experience for the players, they’re lucky to have the coaching staff they do, with Gautreau and Kyle Cheesebrough both in the building
“You can’t get better guys around, and I just know they’re taking care of them,” MacNamee said. “It’s exactly what we went through, and at the end of the day, I truly think it’s going to bring them even closer together to try and prove the world wrong.”
While the 2025 group is playing well, on a 9-2 run under interim head coach Justin Parker, they’re not taking their placement for granted. Chance remembers the heartache of losing at the Charlottesville Regional last year. As a fan, he loves a history lesson on the Diamond Dawgs as much as anyone, but he and the team know that their journey isn’t written in stone.
“There are definitely similarities, but at the same time, we’re writing our own story right now,” He said of 2018 comparisons. “It’s cool to compare, but we have to find our own way to do what they did. The similarities are there, but writing our own story is the main thing right now.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
