Bulldogs Host Rebels In Crucial Final SEC Series
May 25, 2016 | Baseball
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Postseason hopes rest in the balance for Mississippi State's Baseball Bulldogs who Thursday night open a three-game SEC baseball series against instate SEC rival Mississippi at Dudy Noble Field.
All six SEC weekend series on the final weekend of league play have been scheduled as Thursday-Friday-Saturday affairs. MSU (34-19, 11-15 SEC) takes on 18th-ranked UM (34-19, 15-12 SEC) at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday with Saturday's regular season finale for both teams set for 2 p.m.
MSU begins the weekend tied for ninth in the SEC's overall standings with Tennessee (31-21, 11-15 SEC). The Vols and the Bulldogs are a half-game behind eight-place LSU (33-20, 12-15 SEC), which travels to Florida for its final league series of the campaign. State holds the tie-breaker with Tennessee thanks to a 2-0 series win at Dudy Noble Field on opening weekend. To earn a berth in the eight-team field of next week's 2006 SEC Baseball Tournament in Hoover, Ala., the Bulldogs must win one more game this weekend than LSU and match Tennessee's weekend win total in the Vols' home series against SEC West-leading Alabama.
Senior left-hander Brooks Dunn (8-5, 4.35) will make his 14th start of the season for the Bulldogs and work opposite Mississippi freshman right-hander Will Kline (3-2, 2.95). Both pitchers have been involved in big wins as starting pitchers in the rivalry. Dunn drew the start and picked up the win in State's 2005 SEC Tournament championship-clinching 4-1 win over Mississippi in Hoover, Ala. Kline turned in a career performance with seven shutout innings of pitching in UM's 1-0 Mayor's Trophy Game win April 11 at Smith-Wills Stadium.
MSU and Mississippi enter the weekend ranked 1-2 in the SEC and 2-3 in the NCAA in double plays. The Bulldogs have turned 64 double plays, five off the school-record 69 double plays turned by MSU's 1997 edition. New Mexico leads the nation with 66 double plays.
Bulldog senior shortstop Thomas Berkery sports the SEC's top batting average with a .383 mark. The Sarasota, Fla., product, one of three finalists for the 2006 Cellular South Ferriss Trophy as Mississippi's top collegiate player, brings an 11-game hitting streak into the weekend series. Berkery set a school record with a 30-game hitting streak earlier this season, the fifth-longest such streak in Southeastern Conference history.
Mississippi, 18th in the latest Baseball America rankings, is the seventh ranked opponent faced by Mississippi State in 2006. The Bulldogs, unranked for the first time this season, are 7-10 against ranked foes.
