STARKVILLE — Mississippi State softball suffered its first loss of the season at home on Friday against Belmont, but recovered over the next three games to improve to 14-1 on the year.
Belmont held MSU to just one hit in a 1-0 Friday win behind the arm of All-American ace Maya Johnson. The national leader in strikeouts per seven innings shut out the Bulldogs in a dominant performance, striking out 13 batters while allowing no walks and only one hit by pitch.
MSU matched with aces Peja Goold and Alyssa Faircloth, who combined for 10 strikeouts with Goold allowing just four hits, but it wasn’t enough as the visitors handed the team its first loss of the season.
The Bulldogs knew they would get another swing against Belmont on Saturday, though, and rattled off three straight wins over the rest of the weekend. They registered a 6-2 win over Samford to end the day on Friday and followed with a 4-1 win over Belmont and a 19-1 win over Delaware State on Saturday.
A Sunday game against Delaware State was cancelled due to changing travel plans.
“I thought we had a good response to yesterday,” MSU head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “I thought, in both games, we did a really good job in the first inning of coming out and setting the tone. That’s one of the little things that we work on and make sure is a heavy emphasis for the offense. I think there definitely are still some little things we want to work on. It was good to see up and down the lineup, some of the bats getting going again and getting some opportunities for some of those who haven’t had a ton of innings yet this season. Overall, I like the energy. I like the focus and the bounceback. That’s something that we’re going to have to make sure we do with a quick turnaround.”
Getting an outing against an ace pitcher like Johnson will go a long way for preparations for the upcoming SEC campaign. All of MSU’s conference opponents this season are currently ranked in the Top 25, including No. 1 Tennessee, who comes to Starkville for the teams’ SEC opening series on March 13.
The weekend’s big positive was the return to form at the plate after Friday’s loss, as the Bulldogs tallied 11 hits against Samford, nine in the follow-up game with Belmont and 16 in the demolition of Delaware State. The Bulldogs got a balance of home runs on Saturday, but were most proud of the extra-base hits.
“I think it’s just that our main focus is trying not to hit a home run,” Morgan Bernardini said on Saturday. The senior outfielder recorded three RBI from five hits over the weekend.
“We’re thinking doubles and line drives. Home runs will come. That’s just having team at-bats, trying to stick with the plan and just looking for good quality at-bats to help the team.”
MSU will travel to Atlanta on Wednesday to face Georgia Tech for its second true road test of the season and then move on to Clemson, S.C., for the Tiger Invitational. No. 23 Clemson will host State, along with Wofford and Georgia Southern, for weekend action.
After the invitational at Clemson, MSU will play a midweek matchup with UAB in Birmingham, and then travel to Mobile for the Jaguar Classic at South Alabama.
The Bulldogs will not play another game in Starkville until a midweek doubleheader against Southeast Missouri on March 10, followed by the SEC opener against the No. 1 Vols the following weekend.
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