State Welcomes No. 3 Auburn To Open SEC Play
March 17, 2016 | Softball
STARKVILLE, Miss. – Set to face all five Southeastern Conference teams that made the 2015 Women's College World Series this season, the Mississippi State softball team (18-6) opens its gauntlet of a league schedule with No. 3 Auburn (24-3) this weekend at Nusz Park.
The three-game series will commence Friday at 6 p.m. CT and will close Sunday at 11:30 a.m. CT. Game two between the Bulldogs and Tigers is set for Saturday at 2 p.m. CT.
TICKETS
Admission is free for all regular season games at Nusz Park.
FOLLOW LIVE
All three games will air on SEC Network+, exclusively through WatchESPN.com and the Watch ESPN app. The voice of Bulldog softball, Anthony Craven, will have the call. Live stats will also be available for all three games and can be found at HailState.com.
Watch Friday's Game
Watch Saturday's Game
Watch Sunday's Game
LAST TIME OUT
State spent its final non-conference weekend in Long Beach, California for the Louisville Slugger Invitational where the Bulldogs opened with a comeback win over UC Santa Barbara before dropping its final three games to finish 1-3 in the event.
TEAM & PLAYER NOTES
· The MSU pitching staff is off to a tremendous start in 2016, by recording eight shutouts thus far after having recorded seven in all of 2015. The staff also has a 1.37 ERA which ranks second in the Southeastern Conference and fourth in all of Division I.
· State is in its 25th season of varsity softball. The Bulldogs also fielded squads from 1982-86. In the previous 19 season stretch, MSU has advanced to the NCAA Tournament 12 times, including seven of the last nine and four consecutive postseason events.
· Since the NFCA Coaches and ESPN.com polls were released in the preseason, the Bulldogs have received votes in every edition in the 2016 season including a brief stay at No. 23 in Week 2 of the ESPN.com poll.
· After posting 15 comeback victories in 2015, MSU already has seven in 2016 which brings its grand total to 57 under head coach Vann Stuedeman.
· State is 6-1 this season against teams that made the 2015 NCAA Tournament with 23 more such games remaining on the schedule. 15 of those games will be against teams that made the 2015 Women's College World Series, while six others will be against 2015 Super Regional Teams.
· On the year the pitching staff's 1.37 ERA ranks third in the SEC, while their earned runs allowed (32) ranks second and their opposing batting average (.189) third.
THE BULLDOGS VS. THE TIGERS
MSU leads the all-time series 30-27 with a 16-11 advantage in Starkville. State won 17 of the first 21 meetings between the two sides from 1997 until 2002, including a stretch of 15-of-16, but Auburn has evened out the series in recent years. The two sides did not meet during the 2015 season.
ON DECK FOR MSU
MSU will take a break from SEC play with two midweek games at Nusz Park against Southeastern Louisiana (Tuesday – 5:30 p.m. CT) and Central Arkansas (Wednesday – 6:30 p.m.). Both contests are rematches from games earlier this season in which the Bulldogs won.
GET SOCIAL WITH STATE
For more information on the MSU softball program, follow “HailStateSB” on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You can also find all-access coverage of the Bulldogs on SnapChat by searching for “HailStateSnap.”
