STARKVILLE – For the first time since 2021, Dudy Noble field is hosting postseason baseball.
The Bulldogs earned the No. 14 overall seed in this year’s field, and are set to host Cincinnati, Louisiana and Lipscomb this weekend for the regional round. The regional will end a streak of five straight seasons without postseason baseball at The Dude.
Mississippi State hosts Lipscomb in Game 1 beginning at 1 p.m. Friday.
The stretch with no home postseason baseball is one most in the maroon and white would love to forget. It included two seasons without a tournament appearance, two losses in regional finals and the firing of former head coach Chris Lemonis.
Now, in his first year with the program, head coach Brian O’Connor has his team at home in May for the right reason.
“I’m so happy for our guys that they get to play more in this great stadium. I’m so happy for our fans.” O’Connor said. “It’s great to have postseason baseball back here at Dudy Noble.”
State finished the season at 40-17 and 16-14 in SEC play, marks that had the Bulldogs on the bubble to host in many projections before the bracket was released. MSU played the eighth toughest schedule in the country, according to D1baseball.com, which included 23 Quad-1 games. MSU went 9-14 in those games, and 4-3 in Quad-2 contests.
In Quad 3 and 4 games, MSU went 27-0 and finished the season 10th in the NCAA in Rating Percentage Index, which calculates a team’s ranking by strength of schedule and strength of record.
Even with the Bulldogs’ struggles against top talent, O’Connor said he believed MSU’s season was enough to host a regional.
“A lot is to be made every year about the host sites and who should get one,” O’Connor said. “The committee has a responsibility to look at the body of work of all the teams under consideration, and I’ve just always believed that our body of work throughout the whole season speaks for itself.”
State will open up their regional against No. 4 seed Lipscomb. It isn’t the first time the Bulldogs and Bison have faced this season, with MSU sweeping Lipscomb in March. The series was highlighted by State’s 26-0 shellacking of Lipscomb in Game 3 of the series.
Lipscomb held its own in Game 1 of the series, keeping State off the board through five and even holding a 1-0 lead after the top of the sixth. MSU blew the game open with a five-spot in the bottom frame en route to a 8-3 win.
Alexander Linas, Lipscomb’s number one starter, is someone O’Connor remembered giving State some trouble. He pitched the first game of the March series and went five innings with six hits, three earned runs and four strikeouts.
Senior outfielder Bryce Chance said there is a chance to take “a little bit” from his at bats in the Lipscomb series to see how the Bison pitched to him then, but said it’s important to take into account what they’ve done recently.
“Teams are changing and evolving throughout the year,” Chance said.
Scouting the opponents
Lipscomb comes into the series riding the momentum of an Atlantic Sun tournament championship. The Bison are 29-24, but finished the regular season 6-1 before going undefeated in the double-elimination conference tournament.
Lipscomb’s offense is led by junior Cam Pruitt, who leads the Bison in batting average (.356), hits (73), RBI (48) and total bases (104), in 205 at bats.
The No. 2 seed in State’s region is the Cincinnati Bearcats. The Bearcats of the Big 12 are 37-20, with ranked wins against Auburn, UCF and West Virginia. They entered the Big 12 tournament as the No. 17-ranked team in the country with an outside shot at hosting a regional, but a 10-2 loss in the opening round of the conference tournament has the Bearcats traveling to Starkville.
Quinton Coats leads the offensive charge for the Bearcats. He has a 1.195 OPS and 28 home runs, playing in all 57 games. Nathan Taylor and Logan Knight are the two main men on the mound for Cincinnati. Taylor has a team leading 120 strikeouts and a 3.86 ERA in 15 starts. Knight has started 13 games and has a 4.99 ERA.
Louisiana, the No. 3 seed, fell just short of the Sun Belt Championship against Southern Miss. The Ragin’ Cajuns finished 39-23 overall and 16-14 in the tough Sun Belt Conference. Junior Andrew Hermann is the Ragin’ Cajuns number one option on the mound. He’s started 17 games and holds a 4.43 ERA.
Jake is the Mississippi State athletics reporter for The Dispatch.
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