Photo by: Mississippi State Athletics
ESPN Announces TaxAct Clearwater Invitational Schedule
November 18, 2022 | Softball
STARKVILLE – ESPN Events announced the schedule for the 2023 TaxAct Clearwater Invitational on Thursday. Mississippi State softball will play five games in Clearwater, Florida, on Feb. 17-19.
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ESPN's annual weekend tournament has been renamed this season. This spring will mark the fourth season of the event and MSU's first as a participant. The 16-team field features 15 programs that reached the NCAA Tournament in 2022, including eight Super Regional participants.
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The Bulldogs will open the tournament with a doubleheader on Friday, Feb. 17. State's first game is set for 11:30 a.m. CT against Indiana, a program that MSU has never faced. MSU then returns to the field for a matchup that D1Softball.com has already labeled one of the top five to watch in the tournament.
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MSU will meet Arizona for the first time since it saw its historic 2022 season come to an end in the Starkville Super Regional at 2 p.m.
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State has just one game on its slate for Saturday, Feb. 18. The Bulldogs will meet Michigan for the first time in more than a decade at 4 p.m. The two teams last met in 2012 in Clearwater at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in a game that was played in the same facility. State narrowly dropped that meeting to a No. 12 Wolverines squad, 3-1.
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The weekend wraps up with another postseason rematch for State. The Bulldogs will meet South Florida, a team they eliminated in the Tallahassee Regional, at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19. MSU will then close the tournament with a 7 p.m. tilt against UCF. Those two programs have met just once at the 2019 Puerto Vallarta Challenge in Mexico.
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The tournament will once again return to the Eddie C. Moore Complex. MSU last played at the facility on Opening Weekend of the 2022 campaign, when head coach Samantha Ricketts earned her first career victory on the way to a 5-0 weekend to claim the NFCA Leadoff Classic trophy. Tickets for the TaxAct Clearwater Invitational will be available beginning Dec. 12. TV network designations will be announced at a later date.
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For more information on the Bulldog softball program, follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching "HailStateSB."
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ESPN's annual weekend tournament has been renamed this season. This spring will mark the fourth season of the event and MSU's first as a participant. The 16-team field features 15 programs that reached the NCAA Tournament in 2022, including eight Super Regional participants.
Â
The Bulldogs will open the tournament with a doubleheader on Friday, Feb. 17. State's first game is set for 11:30 a.m. CT against Indiana, a program that MSU has never faced. MSU then returns to the field for a matchup that D1Softball.com has already labeled one of the top five to watch in the tournament.
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MSU will meet Arizona for the first time since it saw its historic 2022 season come to an end in the Starkville Super Regional at 2 p.m.
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State has just one game on its slate for Saturday, Feb. 18. The Bulldogs will meet Michigan for the first time in more than a decade at 4 p.m. The two teams last met in 2012 in Clearwater at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in a game that was played in the same facility. State narrowly dropped that meeting to a No. 12 Wolverines squad, 3-1.
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The weekend wraps up with another postseason rematch for State. The Bulldogs will meet South Florida, a team they eliminated in the Tallahassee Regional, at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 19. MSU will then close the tournament with a 7 p.m. tilt against UCF. Those two programs have met just once at the 2019 Puerto Vallarta Challenge in Mexico.
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The tournament will once again return to the Eddie C. Moore Complex. MSU last played at the facility on Opening Weekend of the 2022 campaign, when head coach Samantha Ricketts earned her first career victory on the way to a 5-0 weekend to claim the NFCA Leadoff Classic trophy. Tickets for the TaxAct Clearwater Invitational will be available beginning Dec. 12. TV network designations will be announced at a later date.
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For more information on the Bulldog softball program, follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram by searching "HailStateSB."
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