The last image of Raelin Chaffin in the pitcher’s circle was not a pretty sight, with Mississippi State’s ace grabbing her throwing shoulder after making a play to first base on Apr. 20 at Oklahoma.
Chaffin was removed from the game and did not pitch in the series finale as the Bulldogs were swept. But based on her performances this past weekend at Kentucky, it was impossible to tell that she had been injured at all.
With the weather forcing No. 17 MSU to play its fifth doubleheader in seven weekends in Southeastern Conference play, including four of them on the road, Chaffin tossed complete games on back-to-back days, firing a three-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts and no walks on Sunday to lead the Bulldogs to a series win over the Wildcats.
“This week looked really different for me,” Chaffin said. “Just getting a lot of treatment, whatever I had to do. The whole goal out here was to compete for my team, and I’m really glad I got to do that.”
Chaffin was sharp in the first game of Saturday’s twinbill as well, allowing two solo home runs but just one hit otherwise, striking out eight in a 12-2 victory. MSU (35-15, 11-10 SEC) missed out on the sweep by losing Saturday’s second game but is still in contention to host an NCAA regional heading into the final series of the regular season against rival Ole Miss.
Rest of pitching staff struggles in middle game
It’s become an all-too-familiar story this year, especially against teams in the bottom half of the SEC. Kentucky (29-22, 7-14) scored multiple runs in five different innings in Saturday’s nightcap, defeating the Bulldogs 14-8.
Delainey Everett got the start but could not record an out in the second. She walked the leadoff batter in the first, then gave up a two-run homer to Peyton Plotts. The second inning was a similar story as Everett plunked the first hitter before allowing another two-run shot, this one to Karissa Hamilton, who went 4-for-4 in the Wildcats’ lone win on the weekend.
Lexi Sosa relieved Everett but found more trouble in the third, with Allie Blum’s leadoff homer sparking a four-run frame. Josey Marron worked the final 3 ⅓ innings, but she could not keep Kentucky’s offense down either, giving up four more runs in the fourth and two in the sixth on Hamilton’s second homer of the game.
Entering the weekend, the Wildcats had averaged less than 1.5 runs per game over their previous nine SEC games.
“We talk about this all the time,” MSU head coach Samantha Ricketts said. “You have to be ready every single game, every weekend in the SEC. Everyone in this conference is a postseason type of team, and we have to find a way to regroup and come out ready for another battle.”
Offense keeps sizzling
The Bulldogs scored in the first inning of all three games. Morgan Stiles and Jessie Blaine each hit an RBI single in the opener to give Chaffin an early lead, and MSU put that game away with eight runs in the seventh. Nadia Barbary hit a two-run blast in that inning before Ella Wesolowski broke it wide open with a three-run shot.
Barbary hit a three-run homer in the back half of the doubleheader, her 10th of the season. The junior third baseman hit just four in each of her first two years in Starkville.
“It’s really, really cool when you get to see players continuing to get better as upperclassmen,” Ricketts said. “She’s really been grinding the last couple of weeks to really find her swing again. She did a great job of really handling some of the pressure and the failure lately. That’s really what hitting is, how do you bounce back mentally. To have a big day shows her maturity and how she works hard and approaches the game each day.”
Kylee Edwards opened the scoring with a solo homer in the middle game, and Morgan Stiles helped bring her team closer with a two-run single. The hot bats carried over to Sunday, when Blaine’s two-run single highlighted a three-run first to give Chaffin more than enough support in a 5-0 win.
The breakout star of the weekend was first baseman Riley Hull, a senior from the state of Kentucky who was mostly a bench player last year and came into the series without a hit since Mar. 22. But she had three hits in each game Saturday and two more Sunday, driving in a run and scoring four times.
“I’m just really proud for Riley,” Ricketts said. “She’s worked over the last few weeks just to get back to where she was feeling confident again in the box. It’s really special in her homecoming, being back in her home state, for her to have the (weekend) she did. You could just see her having fun, being confident and swinging the bat with authority.”
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