STARKVILLE — During the lengthy bottom of the fourth inning of Saturday’s softball Super Regional game against Arizona, Mississippi State catcher Mia Davidson took a hard hit from a ball fouled straight back.
In seconds, Davidson shook it off, and play resumed.
“She’s been beat up pretty much for five years,” MSU coach Samantha Ricketts said. “I think that’s just an example of how she’s played — just puts her body on the line for everything. She’ll go all out, run into a wall, a net, whatever it takes to make a play for her team.”
Ever since coming into the program as a freshman in 2018, Davidson has been the Bulldogs’ dependable star, both behind and at the plate.
Now, Mississippi State will have to carry on without her.
Saturday’s 7-1 loss to the Wildcats eliminated MSU from postseason play, closing the book on Davidson’s historic career in Starkville.
The North Carolina native was a three-time all-Southeastern Conference first-team pick. She leaves as the SEC’s all-time home run leader. And she’s headed into the professional ranks with Athletes Unlimited this summer.
“She’s been the rock and the backbone of this program since she got here, and she pretty much has every record in her name,” Ricketts said. “Mississippi State softball is going to be synonymous with the name Mia Davidson.”
That’s not why Davidson came to Starkville, though. She wanted to bring the Bulldogs moments like this — a home Super Regional in Nusz Park, the outfield deck packed with people, the maroon chairbacks full, the concourse nearly impassable because of the crowd.
It was what Davidson dreamed of ever since committing to play for Mississippi State the summer between eighth grade and ninth grade.
“From the get-go, that’s what I set out to do,” she said. “I wanted to come to a program and make something of it and leave it better than I found it.”
There’s no question Mia Davidson has done that.
As a freshman, she helped Mississippi State make a regional final for the first time 2005. The Bulldogs did the same the next year and again in 2021.
This season, they took it a step further. MSU upset No. 2 Florida State twice in a regional final in Tallahassee to not only make its first Super Regional but host it.
Ricketts said it’s no accident Mississippi State stepped up its game around Davidson — it’s what the Bulldogs star pushed for each day in practice and in games.
“Just wanting everyone to be great — she started off with herself, and then she pushed everyone around her,” Ricketts said. “I think she really raised the level of every player in this program.”
Her days of doing that might not be done. During preseason media day, Ricketts said she’d be happy to figure out a way to keep Davidson around as a coach; the Bulldogs head coach hinted postgame at success in that objective.
“She was such a great extension of the coaching staff, and she’ll be around next year, and I know she’s going to be pushing them even harder now,” Ricketts said.
It would be a fitting postscript for a player of Davidson’s caliber. The Bulldogs star was brought to tears in the postgame press conference as she discussed the school she came to love.
“I just know that Mississippi State will always have my heart, and it will always be a home no matter what,” Davidson said. “Thank you, Coach Ricketts, for the opportunity to live out my dream as a little girl from Hillsborough, North Carolina. I couldn’t ask for anything else from this program, from the school, from (athletic director) John Cohen, from everybody.”
Davidson said she gave MSU “my all and my heart and my soul” ever since her commitment. In her final season, she managed to give the Bulldogs something extra.
“She wanted to build something, she wanted to be the first, and that’s exactly what she did,” Ricketts said. “She made history.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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