STARKVILLE – Mississippi State Softball has been the underdog all postseason long, and head coach Samantha Ricketts wouldn’t have it any other way.
More than 2,400 miles from home, the Bulldogs upset No. 14 overall seed Oregon en route to the program’s second-ever super regional berth. MSU then rolled to two of the program’s biggest wins against softball giant Oklahoma, clinching its first-ever appearance in the Women’s College World Series.
State has earned a lot of eyes during its improbable run to the WCWS, but that doesn’t mean people will look at them any differently headed into college softball’s biggest week.
The Bulldogs are the only unseeded team of the remaining eight and no team has won the WCWS in its first try since Oklahoma in 2000.
“We’re not supposed to be here, according to all the experts, and that’s exactly how we like it,” Ricketts said. “We’re very much a program and a team where we don’t want people to pick us, we want to be counted out, because then we get to play free and loose and prove people wrong.”
The mindset is one Mississippi State has adopted throughout the entire season. The Bulldogs played eight SEC series against Top-25 opponents, a feat Ricketts said no other team in the conference has faced. The grueling conference slate beat the Bulldogs up, with State going just 9-15 in SEC play, but Ricketts said the schedule prepared the Bulldogs for their postseason run.
State’s first test in the WCWS is a date with “another giant,” Ricketts said, against No. 11 seed Texas Tech. The reigning runner-up Red Raiders took the softball world by storm last season when they reached their first-ever Women’s College World Series on the back of star pitcher Nijaree Canady.
Texas Tech landed Canady from Stanford through the transfer portal before last season — with some help from a hefty NIL contract worth more than $1 million — putting her immediately in the national spotlight. She rose to the occasion, boasting a 1.11 ERA through 240 total innings.
She was a First-Team All-American, Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, D1 Softball Pitcher of the Year and a top-3 finalist for USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year.
MSU faced Canady three times in 2025, getting the best of her in a 3-1 February win against the Red Raiders. Canady got her revenge in the first round of the NCAA regional, holding the Bulldogs to one run in a 10-1 Texas Tech win. Canady eliminated State later the regional in a game MSU hit her well. The Bulldogs put up eight hits and six runs, three earned, against Canady in a 9-6 loss.
“I think it helps that we saw them last year,” Ricketts said. “We’ve had some familiarity with some of their pitchers, with their lineup, but at the end of the day, on this stage… you’re gonna have to play clean in all three phases.”
Canady is back this season, this time with some help from junior hurler Kaitlyn Terry, to give the Red Raiders the nation’s sixth-best team ERA (2.12). The Red Raiders are just as good, if not better with a bat in their hands, averaging 9.55 runs per game.
Junior Mia Williams and senior Jackie Lis are names to watch in the Red Raider lineup. The duo has 153 combined RBI and 44 home runs. In Tech’s decisive Game 3 win in the Gainesville Super Regional, the two drove in seven of the Red Raiders’ 16 runs — Lis with five and Williams with two.
Terry, who is a star on the circle with a 1.68 ERA, can also make a difference at the plate. She leads the team in batting average (.457) and has 10 home runs.
“It might be one arm, it might be all four (to face this Texas Tech offense),” Ricketts said. “It’s going to take everybody, and that’s OK.”
Texas Tech’s offense has rolled in the postseason, averaging 10.3 runs in its six tournament games.
The Red Raider’s pitching, however, has faltered in the postseason. Texas Tech has allowed eight or more runs three times in the tournament. Canady hadn’t allowed five earned runs in a game all season, but has twice in the NCAA tournament.
State will play another game in the WCWS regardless of win or loss against Texas Tech. The Bulldogs will face Texas or Tennessee. Beat the Red Raiders, and MSU has a day off and will play the winner of the Longhorns and the Volunteers at 2 p.m. Saturday. Lose to Tech and the Bulldogs will hit face elimination against the loser in the battle of UTs at 6 p.m. Friday.
Defending national champion Texas is the No. 2 overall national seed and SEC Tournament champion. The Longhorns dropped their first game of the Super Regional against Arizona State, but outscored the Sun Devils 9-3 over the next two contests to earn a third-straight WCWS appearance.
Tennessee is the No. 6 overall seed, but struggled against State this season. MSU took two out of three contests against the Volunteers in March. The Bulldogs held Tennessee to just three runs over the three games.
Jake is the Mississippi State athletics reporter for The Dispatch.
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