Any ideas of Mississippi State hosting a Super Regional at new Dudy Noble Field were dashed by the NCAA early this morning.
Instead, the Bulldogs are bound for Nashville this weekend to battle fellow SEC foe Vanderbilt for a shot at the College World Series. The series gets underway Friday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2 and continues Saturday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.
A third game will be played Sunday at 5 p.m. on ESPN2 if necessary.
MSU (35-26) is making its third straight and eighth overall Super Regional appearance. The Bulldogs are 5-10 all-time in Super Regionals and have advanced ahead to Omaha twice since the NCAA switched to that format in 1999.
Vanderbilt (34-25) swept its way through the Clemson Regional this past weekend, knocking off St. John's 2-0 then beating the host Tigers 4-3 and 19-6.
The Commodores also swept State in Starkville to open conference play this season. Vandy won those games 5-0, 10-1 and 4-3 respectively.
MSU punched its ticket to the Super Regional after avoiding elimination four times and winning the Tallahassee Regional with an 8-1 victory over Oklahoma on Monday afternoon.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our team and our pitching staff,” said MSU interim head coach Gary Henderson. “The reality of it is we had a bad day Friday and there was a lot of second guessing and disappointment. That comes with the territory and I get that. But we responded how I thought we would and I’m really proud of them.”
It is the second straight year MSU has had to maneuver through the loser’s bracket in a regional and reaches a Super Regional for the third consecutive season.
Against the Sooners on Monday, Henderson decided to go with Tulane graduate transfer JP France, whose only other start this season came on Feb. 21. France (5-5) provided State with seven strong innings, giving up only one run on two hits with five strikeouts and a pair of walks.
“I noticed a lot of stuff was working in the bullpen and I knew it was going to be a good day,” France said.
“It was just a matter of me hitting my spots and having the defense make plays behind me.”
Riley Self, a Greenwood native with several ties to this area, came on to toss the final two frames and earn his first save of the season.
“I’m really proud of both of those kids,” Henderson said. “What they did was really impressive.”
Mississippi State had 11 hits on the day and padded its 4-1 lead with a four-run ninth inning. Rowdey Jordan, Justin Foscue and Dustin Skelton all doubled and collected two hits while Jake Mangum connected on a two-run home run to close out the scoring.
“We have a lot of confidence and knew we’d have to score a lot of runs to win this regional,” Foscue said.
“Everybody had the same thought to do it as a team. We knew everybody would have to pitch in at least a little to win this regional and that’s what we did.”
Oklahoma managed just four hits during the game and saw its season end at 38-25.
MSU right fielder Elijah MacNamee was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Regional hitting .363 with a double, three home runs, seven RBIs and seven runs scored.
Joining MacNamee on the Tallahassee All-Regional Team from the Bulldogs were Skelton, Jordan, Mangum and France.
