OXFORD — It was a series win that left Mississippi State’s players with a bitter taste in their collective mouths given how Sunday’s finale unfolded, but a series win for the No. 24 Bulldogs nonetheless on the road against their biggest rivals.
MSU got excellent pitching performances from co-aces Josey Marron and Aspen Wesley on Friday and Saturday, respectively — with the fifth-year Wesley tossing her first collegiate no-hitter — before Ole Miss took Sunday’s back-and-forth game 10-9 on an extra-innings walk-off home run in the opening weekend of Southeastern Conference play.
“This is the toughest conference in college softball,” head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “Every weekend feels like a Super Regional, and you have to bring it every single day. It doesn’t matter how the first two games went; you have to be locked in for day three as well. It’s just something for us to continue to learn.”
The Bulldogs (19-4, 2-1 SEC) used small ball to manufacture three runs in the first two innings Friday night, which were more than enough for Marron in a 5-1 victory. The sophomore went the distance, allowing just one run on three hits, and recorded 14 of her 21 outs on ground balls including two double plays. Freshman Salen Hawkins’ two-run single in the seventh gave MSU some late breathing room.
Wesley dominated the Rebels (16-7, 1-2) in a 4-0 win Saturday, striking out nine and walking three in her no-hit effort. It was the Bulldogs’ third no-no of the season after Marron and Matalasi Faapito each no-hit IUPUI in five innings during the first weekend of the year.
Once again MSU opened the scoring in the first inning when Nadia Barbary hit a one-out double, moved to third on a Paige Cook single and scored on a force play. The Bulldogs doubled the lead in the second on a Kylee Edwards triple and a Hawkins sacrifice fly, and Madisyn Kennedy added another run in the fourth with a leadoff home run. Hawkins’ RBI double later in the inning provided the game’s final tally.
“I didn’t really know that I was throwing a no-hitter until Riley (Hull), as soon as the game was done, she runs up to me and she goes, ‘Oh my gosh, you just threw a no-hitter!’” Wesley said. “I turned around and I looked at the scoreboard, and then that’s when I saw it. We just all jumped up and down and it was so much fun.”
Kennedy’s bat remained red-hot Sunday, and she got things started right away with a three-run blast to left field in the first inning to put MSU out in front. She went into launch mode again in her next at-bat in the third, taking an outside pitch and depositing it over the wall in center for a two-run shot. Her seventh long ball of the season gave her five RBI on the day.
In the fifth, Kennedy roped a double into the left field corner before drawing walks in her final two plate appearances.
“She’s shown glimpses throughout her career, but this is the most free I’ve ever seen her play,” Ricketts said. “She’s relaxed and confident and having fun, and really playing with nothing to lose. It’s fun to see that take over and show up in the results on the scoreboard. She’s been a great leader all year long. … That confidence, that mentality, that leadership has really led to what she’s doing in the box as well.”
Ole Miss finally showed some fight offensively in Sunday’s game, though, rallying back with four runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game 6-6. Angelina DeLeon’s two-run double chased Faapito, the Bulldogs’ starter, and the first batter that new pitcher Lexi Sosa faced, pinch-hitter Annie Orman, drilled a two-run homer over the fence in left to even the score. Aynslie Furbush’s RBI single in the fourth gave the Rebels their first lead of the weekend.
MSU was hardly finished, plating the tying run in the fifth on Edwards’ sacrifice fly and retaking the lead, 9-7, in the sixth on back-to-back run-scoring hits with two outs by Barbary and Cook.
“Everyone in that lineup has each other’s back, and if I don’t get it done, someone else will,” Kennedy said. “We showed a lot of fight there. We obviously didn’t get it done in the end, but I am proud of how our team fought.”
Marron took over for Sosa in the pitcher’s circle in the fifth but ran into trouble in the sixth, as Ole Miss plated two runs of its own to again knot the game at 9-9. MSU left the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, and after Edwards’ outstanding defensive play at shortstop stranded the would-be winning run at third base and sent the game to extras, the Bulldogs left two runners on base in their half of the eighth.
They paid for their failure to capitalize immediately when Lexie Brady led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk-off blast over the wall in right-center.
MSU returns to Nusz Park for a midweek game Wednesday against Louisiana-Monroe, then hosts No. 17 Texas A&M for a three-game set next weekend.
“They’re gritty, they’re fighters, they’re confident,” Ricketts said. “They come in with a different sense of poise and approach to the games, and it’s really refreshing to see. The freshmen too, the freshmen are not afraid. It was fun to get a little bit of the nerves out of the way and see them fight.”
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