STARKVILLE – After a weekend in which several college baseball teams struggled to win home regionals and several more – including the Nos. 1 and 2 national seeds – were sent packing, Mississippi State had no such trouble with its opponents in the Starkville Regional.
MSU outscored its foes 39-11 across the three games and never trailed at any point. The Bulldogs pounded opponents’ pitching for 33 hits across three games, posting a collective .383 batting average during the regional.
State fans did their part, too, as the regional drew 57,794 fans across the weekend, including 9,901 for Sunday night’s championship game.
Here are some takeaways from Mississippi State’s dominant weekend, where the Bulldogs captured their 17th regional championship.
Bombs away
With the second-best batting average in the SEC (.317) and the third most homers (117), it’s been no secret that State can swing it with the best of them. But the team somehow managed to one-up itself on the biggest stage of the year so far.
In Friday’s 10-1 opening win over Lipscomb, the Bulldogs won the old-fashioned way – getting runners on bases and putting balls in play. No unrelenting barrage of long-range bombs, just RBI singles and doubles – although freshman Jacob Parker and Gehrig Frei each hit solo homers – a sign of what was to come – as the Bulldogs outhit the Bison 10-6.
That led to Saturday’s contest against Cincinnati, where Ace Reese went deep to start the game and MSU pulled away with three runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth inning to cruise to a 10-5 win behind 13 hits and advance to Sunday’s finale. The Bulldogs produced four doubles against the Bearcats, three of which combined for four RBI.
After taking down Cincinnati earlier on Sunday to earn the right to play MSU in the regional championship game, Louisiana’s bullpen was limited in its available options, and State took advantage. Reese, Parker and Ryder Woodson each hit solo homers in the first two innings and the rout was on. Reese and Woodson added two-run blasts in the fourth and seventh innings, respectively, Parker hit his second bomb in the eighth for two more runs and Vytas Valincius capped the game off with a grand slam in the ninth. With the championship on the line, the Bulldogs produced seven home runs on 20 hits. Through all three games, State outhit its foes 43-17 with the second-most home runs (11) by any SEC squad in a regional.
Tomas Valincius, Duke Stone, Reed Stallman, Frei, Reese, Parker and Vytas each landed on Starkville Regional All-Tournament Team and Parker took home the Most Outstanding Player honor as well.
About the pitching
Just like the hitting, the starting pitching was also excellent with Stone fanning 10 on Friday to get the ball rolling. Tomas Valincius picked up where Stone left off on Saturday and struck out 10 more to keep the Bearcats at bay, and on Sunday, Ryan McPherson sent seven Cajuns back to the dugout. But after the Bulldogs’ starters left the mound, the relief pitching struggled to continue the pace. On Saturday, Maddox Webb came in for Tomas Valincius and immediately walked two in the eighth inning, prompting Ben Davis to come and help. He gave up two runs on three hits to make the game closer than it should’ve been, and that theme carried over to Sunday.
McPherson was pulled after five innings and set about a rotation of four more Bulldog pitchers all seeing time on the mound to try to close out the game. Jack Bauer gave up three runs, and Maddox Miller, Davis and Dane Burns all combined for four walks and three strikeouts in the last three innings.
The Bulldogs likely could have scored more runs had it not been for some bad bouts of baserunning throughout the weekend. That, plus some occasional sloppy play within the infield are things O’Connor said need to be cleaned up before taking on Georgia for the third time this season.
“We’re going to have to tighten some things up even from this weekend to come out of there and advance to Omaha. So, I’m excited about putting that plan together and we’ll go at them with everything that we have.”
Chance’s last chance
Sunday was an emotional one for Bryce Chance as the fifth-year senior wrapped up his final game at Dudy Noble Field. During his last at-bat of the game in the top of the eighth, every single person rose in attendance to their feet and serenaded him with loud cheers and applause, and during the switch to the bottom of the eighth the cheers continued as he took a teary-eyed moment to stand on the third-base line and soak it all in.
“Bryce is such an awesome guy, such an awesome leader for both of us as young guys and he’s really shown us what to do as a player,” Parker said. “He goes about his business the right way and it’s really special for us to see because this place means so much to him, and hopefully we can carry on the legacy he has.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
