Bulldogs and Golden Eagles meet at Trustmark Park with first pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 3
STARKVILLE – The Mississippi State baseball program will play its fourth neutral site game of the season on Wednesday (March 3) as they travel down to Trustmark Park in Pearl to face off with Southern Miss. First pitch is slated for 6 p.m.
The Bulldogs and Golden Eagles will meet for the 126th time in program history, with MSU holding an 83-42 edge on the all-time ledger. This will be the 10th meeting between the two programs at Trustmark Park, with MSU owning a slim 5-4 edge at the ballpark that was opened in 2005.
The Diamond Dawgs collected a series victory over Tulane last weekend, winning the final two games of the season in walkoff fashion to move its record to 5-2 on the season. Luke Hancock and Tanner Allen provided the ninth-inning heroics, as Hancock’s grand slam on Saturday and Allen’s two-RBI single on Sunday helped cap an exciting home-opening weekend.
Southern Miss is coming off of a weekend series win over UCONN that saw the Golden Eagles win the first two games before dropping the finale. On the season, USM owns a 4-3 record behind a pitching staff with a 7.58 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The Golden Eagles are hitting just .191, but 27 of the 40 hits have gone for extra bases on the season. The pitching staff owns 91 strikeouts in 60 innings of work to go along with a .249 batting average against and a 4.50 ERA.
Gameday Info
Wednesday, March 3 (6 p.m.)
Probable Starters
MSU: Houston Harding, LHP, Jr.
USM: Drew Boyd, LHP, R-So.
Live Video: None
Live Audio: https://hailst.at/audio
Live Stats: http://hailst.at/StatBroadcast
Quick Hitters
- Mississippi State jumped in the national polls for the second straight week and owns its highest ranking since the 2014 campaign at No. 2 per Baseball America.
FULL POLLS ON PAGE 4 - The Bulldogs are 12-2 in the last 14 regular season games against ranked opponents dating back to the 2019 season. That includes a 6-0 mark against top 10 teams.
- Against the Green Wave, State won in walk-off fashion in each of the final two contests, with Luke Hancock’s grand slam ending Saturday’s game in the ninth inning and Tanner Allen’s two-RBI single capping another comeback on Sunday in the ninth inning.
- Prior to the Tulane series, the last time Mississippi State won back-to-back games via walkoff came in 2014 against Tennessee. That season Seth Heck & Cody Walker helped walk-off the Volunteers in back-to-back games, both coming in extra innings.
- In three games against Tulane, Allen reached base seven times, scored three runs and drove in at least one RBI in each game. He also threw out a runner at home plate.
- Second-year freshman Landon Sims continued his strong start to the season with another double-digit strikeout effort against Tulane in the middle game of the season. He has struck out 10 batters in each of his appearances in 20201, which marks the first time a Bulldog pitcher had consecutive double-digit K games since Ethan Small in 2019 (vs. Vanderbilt, 5/23 – 11; Central Michigan, 6/1 – 10).
- Sims leads the NCAA with 23.48 strikeouts per nine innings through the first two weeks. His 20 total strikeouts rank No. 7 nationally and are No. 2 in the SEC.
- As a team, Mississippi State ranks No. 9 nationally and No. 3 in the SEC in strikeouts per nine innings (13.0) and have fanned 10-plus batters in five of seven games this season. Twenty Bulldog pitchers have combined for 91 strikeouts in seven games, including 41 on the opening weekend of the season and 43 last weekend against Tulane. The 43 strikeouts in a three-game series are tied for the most since at least 2005 (2019; vs. Youngstown State).
- Mississippi State and Southern Miss will meet for the 126th in program history on Wednesday inside Trustmark Park, with MSU holding an 83-42 edge in the series.
MORE ON PAGE 3
Series Notes
- Mississippi State and Southern Miss will meet for the 126th in program history on Wednesday inside Trustmark Park in Pearl.
- Overall, State owns an 83-42 edge in the series, including two straight wins over the Golden Eagles.
- MSU and USM last met in 2019 in Starkville for a weekend series, with State earning the series win thanks to a walk-off win delivered by Tanner Allen in the Sunday rubber game.
- Ten of the last 20 meetings have come on a neutral site, including one match up at the NCAA Atlanta Regional. The other nine neutral site games have been played in Pearl, Mississippi.
- Since Trustmark Park opened in 2005, Mississippi State and Southern Miss have met nine times in the venue, with State owning a 5-4 edge in the Trustmark College Series.