STARKVILLE — This weekend, the Mississippi State baseball team will face Oklahoma, the 2022 Men’s College World Series runner-up.
But the Sooners might not even be the best squad the Bulldogs will face.
A hot-starting California team and an Ohio State roster featuring an ace will also stand in MSU’s way at the Frisco College Baseball Classic, which will be played from Friday to Sunday at Riders Field in Frisco, Texas.
Winners of three straight, the Bulldogs (6-3) will meet Ohio State (3-5) at 6 p.m. Friday. Mississippi State and Oklahoma (4-4) square off at 1 p.m. Saturday, and MSU closes the event against Cal (6-1) at 11 a.m. Sunday.
The Bulldogs will hope to build on their three-game hot stretch, which began with a series win over Arizona State at Dudy Noble Field last weekend.
On Tuesday, Mississippi State orchestrated a late-game comeback to beat No. 25 Southern Miss, 10-9 in what coach Chris Lemonis said afterward was decidedly a rivalry game.
“Some people say it’s not a rivalry. In baseball, it is,” Lemonis said. “We’ve got some great baseball teams in our state. That’s a really well-coached team.”
Now, MSU leaves the Magnolia State for the first time, heading eight hours west to play in Frisco, a city north of Dallas.
The Bulldogs will be thrown into the fire right away against an Ohio State team that has struggled but still owns some impressive wins. The Buckeyes split a four-game series with UConn, a Super Regional team in 2022, before losing three of four against Grand Canyon and Gonzaga last weekend.
Left-hander Isaiah Coupet will be on the mound for the Buckeyes on Friday coming off two excellent starts to begin the year.
Coupet struck out nine in six one-hit innings in the season opener against the Huskies, then took a hard-luck loss with one run over seven frames against Grand Canyon in a 1-0 loss.
Coupet struck out 98 batters in just 64 2/3 innings last season and has a 0.69 ERA this year with 18 strikeouts in 13 innings.
“We’ve got a really tough matchup on Friday night,” Lemonis said. “Their pitcher, they’ve got a really good arm throwing against us.”
Oklahoma might, too.
Will Carsten, the Sooners’ Saturday starter through the first two weekends, has given up just three runs in 10 total innings. His 2.70 ERA leads OU’s starting corps.
Carsten has gone five innings in each outing, albeit with just four strikeouts in each game.
The Sooners lost their opening series to Cal Baptist before winning two of three against Rider last weekend.
Cal, MSU’s final opponent in Frisco, currently sports the best résumé of any of the three teams.
The Golden Bears have only one loss, which came in the finale of a three-game series at Houston to open the season. They knocked off No. 2 Stanford by an 8-4 score in Palo Alto on Feb. 21 and beat UConn in their only meeting with the Huskies.
While Mississippi State heads into the tournament on a hot streak of its own, the three teams it will play in Frisco aren’t pushovers.
“It’s good to just start a win streak and keep going,” pitcher Nate Dohm said. “We’ve just got to keep playing and do our job and come out and compete every night.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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