STARKVILLE — In between innings, Nusz Park turned into a dance party.
As Kentucky pitcher Alexia Lacatena would work through her warmup pitches, its infielders going through a normal pre-inning, ground ball routine, the Mississippi State softball team jumped out of its dugout and danced to the stadium music until it was time to hit.
The Bulldogs, during Sunday afternoon’s final home game of the season, were having a blast, hardly looking like the team that had lost 14 straight Southeastern Conference games in a row heading into the weekend series.
More look like the group that ended that drought 48 hours ago, then won back-to-back games Saturday night for the first time since March 18-19 against South Carolina.
A handful of players wore traditional Samoan ies, to go along with Sunday’s “Samoan Day” festivities. Others wore flowers around their necks or behind their ears.
Don’t be fooled, all of it was by design.
“We just decided to come and be like, what do we have to lose,” senior infielder Paige Cook said following Sunday’s 7-4 win over the No. 20 Wildcats, securing the series sweep.
At this point in the season, more than anything, this MSU team is aware.
Aware that, sitting at 27-22 (6-14 in SEC play) the cards are stacked against it for postseason play.
Aware that the only way to get to the NCAA Tournament, with four regular season games (Thursday at Samford then a three-game series at No. 17 Auburn) and the SEC Tournament remaining, is to keep winning.
If this weekend was any indication, the Bulldogs don’t plan on going quietly into the night.
“Once we just stopped putting so much extra pressure on ourselves and making every game bigger than it needed to be, it just felt like things loosened up,” MSU head coach Samantha Ricketts said Sunday afternoon. “…It was fun to see them catch fire.”
In their sweep, the first since opening SEC play against South Carolina in mid-March, the Bulldogs set a program record for home runs hit in a conference series, tallying 10 between the three games.
MSU didn’t out-hit Kentucky, but it made its chances count.
“This weekend just showed what we can do, what we have been able to,” senior outfielder Chloe Malau’ulu, who hit one of four MSU home runs in Sunday’s win, said. “I am happy that we unlocked it now”
Nobody in that Bulldog locker room is complaining that everything seemed to finally click, from the mound to the plate this weekend.
In Friday’s win, MSU received a strong four-inning start from freshman Reis Beuerlein, allowing one earned run and five hits. Beuerlein nearly pitched as many innings as MSU got from its starters in last weekend’s entire series at LSU (6 2/3 innings).
Not only did the Bulldogs hit for power, but in the clutch, too. Shea Moreno’s fifth-inning grand slam helped MSU come back from Saturday’s 5-0 deficit and win 12-6. On Sunday, MSU immediately answered every inning Kentucky had scored in.
Cook hit a solo home run in the first to tie the game at one. Malau’ulu’s homer came right after Kentucky had cut MSU’s lead to 3-2 in the top of the fifth, then Matalasi Faapito added a two-run homer in the sixth after the Wildcats cut the lead to 5-4.
“All along we had a good team,” senior catcher Jackie McKenna said. “We have the talent and everyone we need up-and-down the lineup. It was a matter of slowly getting the wins and breaking out of that 14-game losing streak.”
One series sweep won’t be the deciding factor to MSU’s tournament hopes. The Bulldogs are aware of that, too.
But it did show that this team wants to play for a lot more than just the regular season.
“(The NCAA Tournament) has been the goal and still is,” McKenna said. “We are one step closer now.”
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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