Softball Invades Baton Rouge For SEC West Showdown
March 15, 2012 | Softball
Baton Rouge, La. - Having won its most consecutive true road games since 2001, the 17-9 Mississippi State softball team (3-4 SEC) will take on LSU (16-8, 1-1 SEC) at Tiger Park this weekend for a three-game SEC West showdown. First pitch is Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
Free audio streaming of all three games this weekend will be available through HailStateTV at www.hailstate.com/hstvlive. A video stream of Saturday's game will be available to current HSTV subscribers (made possible by stream share from LSU). Friday and Sunday's games will not be available on video.
"The SEC is an extremely competitive softball conference," head coach Vann Stuedeman said. "That is what makes playing softball in the SEC great - you have to bring it every single day. LSU will no doubt bring its best to the ballfield. The Bulldogs must be ready to bite."
If the Bulldogs are to have success against LSU hurlers Rachele Fico (7-4, 0.56 ERA) and Brittany Mack (7-4, 2.70 ERA), three runs looks to be the magic number. Part of the reason State is off to its best start since 2008 is the fact that it is 17-3 when scoring three-plus runs. However, MSU is a winless 0-6 when it does not put a triplet on the scoreboard.
Starkville's team is fresh off a doubleheader sweep at South Carolina Tuesday, where MSU won by scores of 10-6 and 9-0 (5) in its SEC road opener. State has now won 18 of the last 21 against the Gamecocks, with the run-rule win being the sixth of the season, the most in a single season by State since 2008.
The 9-0 blanking of South Carolina in game two was the first SEC road shutout by the Maroon and White since State blanked USC, 1-0, on April 12, 2008. Offensively, the Bulldogs exploded for three home runs in game two after going homerless in their first six league contests.
Stuedeman has lowered last year's school-record high 4.90 ERA in 56 total games to a much more manageable 2.14 clip After throwing just 12 complete games a year ago in 56 total contests, this year's squad has already thrown 13 through its first 26 games. They're led in the circle by the junior southpaw duo of Stephanie Becker and Kylie Vry. Becker has won a team-high nine games (9-3 and leads the SEC with 32 strikeouts inside league play. Vry is coming off a complete-game two-hit shutout in Columbia, and on the year owns a 5-3 record with a team-low 1.49 ERA.
At the plate, the Maroon and White rank near the top in several SEC categories, including hits (2nd, 210), on-base percentage (3rd, .426), triples (T-1st, 8), and hit by pitches (1st, 27). Redshirt senior Brittany Bell has been a big part of that success, tying for fifth in the country in on-base percentage (.613) and ranking 18th in slugging percentage (.892). The designated player leads the SEC in both categories to go along with pacing the conference in batting average (.462) and hit by pitches (11).
Following the conclusion of MSU's seven-day, five-game road trip, the Bulldogs will return home to the MSU Softball Stadium for a Twitter Tuesday contest against non-conference foe UAB on March 20 at 6:30 p.m. CT. Live audio and video streaming of the game will be available online to HailStateTV subscribers (www.HailState.com/hstvlive). For more information regarding MSU's road trip, follow the team on Twitter at @MStateSB and like the team at Facebook.com/MStateSB.
