MSU Softball Opens SEC Tournament Thursday With Second-Seeded Alabama
May 06, 2008 | Softball
STARKVILLE, Miss. ? The Mississippi State softball team opens postseason play Thursday, taking on second-seeded Alabama at 5 p.m. in the opening round of the SEC Tournament in Baton Rouge, La.
MSU, who enters the tournament as the seven seed, heads to Tiger Park looking to build on the 40-win season, the program's second ever, it secured with a 9-1 victory last Saturday at Arkansas. The Bulldogs stand at 40-19 and finished the year 13-14 in league play.
State's games in the tournament will be broadcast live on WMSV 91.1 and online at www.wmsv.msstate.edu. Tickets for the tournament are available online or through the LSU Athletic Ticket Office.
MState will be playing in the tournament for the 10th time in the program's 12-year history, and it will be facing Alabama, who is ranked third and fourth nationally this week, for the third time in the opening round. The Crimson Tide and Bulldogs have split their previous first-round meetings, with MSU claiming a 6-3 win in 1999 and UA taking a 5-0 victory in 2005.
The Bulldogs enter the tournament with a pair of hitters ? Courtney Bures and Chelsea Bramlett ? hitting over the .400 mark for the season.
The duo is the first regular starters to hit .400 or better since the 2000 season. Bures improved to .406 for her senior season following a .625 week at Arkansas in which she hit her team second-best fifth home run. The Haymarket, Va., native leads the team with 14 doubles and 42 RBI, and her 39 runs rank second only to Bramlett.
Bramlett also paces the team with a .449 average. The sophomore from Cordova, Tenn., has three doubles, three triples, two home runs and a team-best 43 stolen bases which place her three behind the single-season record she set during her freshman campaign.
Playing in her final SEC Tournament, Hayle Guess tops the team with six home runs while rating third with a .322 average. She also has five doubles, a team-best four triples and 36 RBI on the year.
Freshman Misty Flesher will look to pick-up a new win streak after having her previous one snapped at six last weekend against Arkansas. Flesher has put together a team-best 1.79 ERA en route to a 19-8 mark. The Lone Grove, Okla., native also tops the team with 108 strikeouts while giving up 46 runs, 40 earned, on 132 hits over 156 and one-third innings.
Junior Kelsey Nurnberg moved to 17-9 on the season as she picked up the victory in State's 9-1 win over the Lady'Backs. Nurnberg enters the weekend with a 2.09 ERA, giving up 74 runs, 51 earned, on 157 hits with 97 strikeouts over 171 innings.
