Bulldogs End Regular Season In Baton Rouge
May 01, 2014 | Softball
STARKVILLE, Miss. – With Southeastern Conference Tournament seeding on the line, Mississippi State travels to LSU to wrap up the regular season with a three-game weekend series. First pitch Friday is set for 6 p.m. CT while the Saturday contest will begin at 7 p.m. and the Sunday finale at 1 p.m.
MSU heads into the set with a 37-16 record, the best 53-game record in program history. The 37 victories are tied for the third most in a year in program history. Within the league, Mississippi State is currently in ninth place while LSU resides in seventh. The top 10 teams qualify for the SEC Tournament next weekend.
Mississippi State received votes in this week's USA Today/National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) and USA Softball/ESPN.com polls. The Bulldogs gained 21 votes in the NFCA rankings to check in No. 27 and 10 to stand at No. 27 in the ESPN.com ledger. It is the sixth week this season Mississippi State has picked up votes in the NFCA and ESPN.com polls.
LSU owns a 51-6 advantage in the all-time series with the Bulldogs. Mississippi State snapped a 21-game losing streak to the Tigers last year with a 2-1 victory on March 9. The Bulldogs are 1-24 at Baton Rouge with the lone win an 8-7 victory in 11 innings on March 19, 2002.
Last year in Starkville, MSU opened the SEC portion of the season with LSU and won game two. In the opener, Alison Owen and Rachele Fico staged a pitching battle for the ages. In 14 innings of work, Fico fanned 22 and Owen 10 as the Tigers claimed a 1-0 victory with a run in the top of the 14th on an A.J. Andrews home run. In game two, MSU won 2-1. LSU took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth with an Andrews RBI single, but the Bulldogs scored twice in the bottom of the sixth with a Logan Foulks solo home run and Shelby Fisher single that plated Kayla Winkfield. The Tigers came back in the finale to win 9-2 as Bianka Bell drove in three runs and Allison Falcon and Sandra Simmons each plated two. Fico held MSU to two runs, one earned, on six hits while Owen was tagged with the loss.
After this weekend's three-game set if the Bulldogs qualify, they will head to Columbia, S.C., for the SEC Tournament, which begins on Wednesday.
