Mississippi State softball returns to Nusz Park today for its annual “All for Alex” weekend.

The No. 13 Bulldogs (33-9, 5-7 SEC) host No. 8 Arkansas in Starkville, the program’s sixth ranked matchup of the season and third Top 10 SEC opponent.

MSU has taken at least one game from every series so far this season, taking Game 2 in each series loss against Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. The Bulldogs took the No. 5 Gators to the wire in every game last weekend, only to lose the series on a walk-off home run on Sunday.

The Razorbacks (33-5, 8-4 SEC) continue to climb in the rankings and conference standings with back-to-back series wins over No. 3 Florida and Auburn. They swept the Tigers in dominant fashion last weekend, allowing just one run through all three games.

Razorback ace Robyn Herron boasts one of the most impressive ERAs in the country at 1.52 through 64.2 innings, but the real strength of the team is the offense. Arkansas is sixth in Division I with a team-wide .370 batting average and an average of 8.82 runs per game.

The Bulldogs, on the other hand, have struggled to get going offensively in conference play, but have been able to lean on the pitching staff of Peja Goold, Alyssa Faircloth and Leila Ammon, who have the team sitting second in the SEC behind Tennessee with a 1.55 ERA. 

All for Alex

The Bulldogs will host the sixth annual “All for Alex” weekend in honor of Alex Wilcox, an MSU player who passed away in 2018 after a three-year battle with ovarian cancer. They will wear their white uniforms with teal letters and numbers to represent the teal ribbon for awareness of the disease.

Wilcox’s No. 8 jersey was retired on Sept. 15, 2018, making her the first female student-athlete in MSU history to receive the honor. Every year since 2020, SEC teams havr participated in the “All for Alex” weekend, as well as multiple non-conference teams, including South Alabama, where Wilcox’s sister, Kassidy, played, and UTSA, where former MSU head coach Vann Stuedeman is now at the helm.

Last year’s “All for Alex” weekend saw the Bulldogs take a game off of No. 1-ranked Texas in a 2-1 series defeat.

The Bulldogs and Razorbacks will begin with Game 1 today at 5 p.m. at Nusz Park. The Saturday contest will take place at 2 p.m., in between the football scrimmage at 9:15 a.m. and Game 2 of MSU baseball series against Tennessee at 6 p.m., and Game 3 will begin at 11 a.m. Sunday. All three contests will be available to stream via SEC Network+.