The Mississippi State baseball team finally learned Monday morning the other three teams coming to Starkville to start the postseason.
MSU (46-13, 20-10 SEC), as the No. 6 overall national seed, will take on Southern University (32-22, 18-6 SWAC) in the opening game of the Starkville Regional at noon Friday at Dudy Noble Field as the No. 6 national seed.
Miami (39-18, 18-12 ACC) and Central Michigan (46-12, 22-5 MAC) will also join the Bulldogs in the bracket. MSU is 1-3 against Miami all-time with the last meeting coming in the Coral Gables Regional in 2005.
The Bulldogs have played Southern just once — a 5-0 midweek win April 4, 2018 — and have never played the Chippewas.
Central Michigan and Southern both earned bids by winning their respective conference tournament. Miami earned an at-large selection out of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“We get to play at home in front of our fans in this stadium and just looking forward to it,” MSU coach Chris Lemonis said. “And finally glad to know who we’re playing.”
Following last weekend’s 12-2 throttling at the hands of LSU in the Southeastern Conference tournament, MSU has seemingly flushed the poor outing heading into the NCAA tournament.
“I don’t even think they’re thinking about it,” Lemonis said. “They had the last two days off so their morale and their focus is on protecting our home turf.”
Senior center fielder Jake Mangum continued his campaign to pack the stands at Dudy Noble Field this weekend, making a plea to fans that a raucous environment will help fuel the team come tournament time.
“College baseball teams aren’t used to 14, 15, 16,000 people,” he said. “I’ve done it for four years and I’m still not quite used to it. Your presence matters. If you want to get to (the College World Series in) Omaha, show up, be loud, bring cowbells, all of it. It goes a long way.”
While there is still work to be done in Starkville, the regional winner will be paired with the champions of the Stanford Regional. Joining the Cardinal out in California are Sacramento State, Fresno State and UC-Santa Barbara.
If MSU wins its regional, it would also host the super regional round.
In all, 10 SEC teams were selected for the field of 64, while six (MSU, Vanderbilt, Arkansas, LSU, Ole Miss and Georgia) were chosen as regional hosts.
“That’s why they built this place — to host regionals, to host super regionals and our fans will be out,” Lemonis said. “It will be a great weekend. It will be very competitive, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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