No. 11 State Hosts UAB On SEC Network Wednesday

Wednesday, March 18

Starkville

7 p.m.

Mississippi State

UAB

Tickets From $5

No. 11 State Hosts UAB On SEC Network Wednesday

March 17, 2026 | Softball

Game Notes

By: Brian Ogden, Director/Communications

STARKVILLE – No. 11/12 Mississippi State will wrap up the current homestand with its penultimate midweek matchup, hosting UAB on Wednesday night. The game is set to be televised nationally on SEC Network at 7 p.m. CT.

The Bulldogs (27-4, 1-2 SEC) and Blazers (12-16, 0-6 AAC) have already met once this month with State taking a 6-1 victory in Birmingham. Since that game, UAB has played seven straight games against teams that MSU had already played, going 1-6 in that stretch while the Bulldogs were 4-0 against the same teams.

MSU is coming off its first SEC series of the year where pitching was the headline. State's staff went head-to-head with No. 1 Tennessee, taking a scoreless ballgame into the ninth inning on Friday night and shutting out the Lady Vols on Saturday to hand them their only loss of the season.

The Bulldog pitching staff boasts three arms that rank among the top 10 nationally in WHIP and fielding independent pitching along with two in the top five of ERA.

Leading Off

Toppling Tennessee: For the second year in a row, Mississippi State defeated the nation's top-ranked team at home last weekend, handing No. 1 Tennessee its only loss in walk-off fashion in Game 2 after taking the Lady Vols to extra innings in the first game of the series.

Record Rankings: State checks in at No. 11 in this week's NFCA Coaches' Poll, which is its highest ranking in any poll in program history. Prior to this year, the Bulldogs had climbed as high as No. 15 in 2008. MSU has its highest ranking ever in three of the four polls this week.

Top-Tier Pitching: This weekend's series saw two of the top pitching staffs in the nation go head-to-head with 18 of the 23 innings played being scoreless and an average of just 6.0 combined hits per game. The first two games were both scoreless through at least the sixth inning.

State's Staff Stats: Mississippi State leads the nation in strikeouts (282), strikeouts looking (59) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (6.41). State has a 32-strikeout lead over second-place Belmont and is second in strikeouts per seven innings (9.77). Three Bulldog arms are among the top 10 nationally in fielding independent pitching and WHIP.

Down On Strikes: Alyssa Faircloth ranks fourth in total strikeouts (123) and has struck out 45.7 percent of the hitters she's faced, which is second nationally. Faircloth and Peja Goold have both reached 100 strikeouts this year and are among the top five in MSU history in fewest innings needed to reach that mark.

Big Fish: Redshirt freshman Taylor Troutman provided the walk-off home run against No. 1 Tennessee last weekend. She also homered against the Lady Vols in the bottom of the ninth on Friday night. Troutman is hitting .500 as a pinch hitter with three extra-base hits and a walk.

Details On Des: Des Rivera leads the team with four sacrifice flies, which is tied for fourth in school history and one shy of the single-season record. She is one of seven players nationally without a strikeout this year.

Dawg Defense: MSU leads the nation with a .989 fielding percentage and just nine errors through 31 games. Both the percentage and error total would be school records. All outfielders combined have made just one error.

About UAB (12-16, 0-6 AAC)

Series History

Overall: 24-6 | Home: 13-3 | Away: 9-3 | Neutral: 2-0
Current Streak: Won 10 | Last Meeting: March 4, 2026, in Birmingham, Ala. (MSU 6, UAB 1)

Notables

UAB has opened conference play with six losses since playing MSU earlier this month. All seven games that UAB has played since the teams last met have been against common opponents that MSU boasts a 4-0 record against. Between their two AAC series, however, the Blazers defeated Georgia Tech, 9-8. UAB catcher Abbi Perkins ranks seventh nationally with nine runners caught stealing this year and has reached base in all but one game of her Blazer career. Shortstop Hannah Dorsett set the program record for assists in a game earlier this year with 11, which is the most by a Division I player since 2020.

On Deck

Mississippi State will travel to No. 15/13 Georgia this weekend to face the SEC's other Bulldogs in a three-game set. Friday night's first pitch is set for 5 p.m. CT on SEC Network. The final two games of the series will air on SEC Network+ with both Saturday and Sunday's games starting at 1 p.m.

Follow the Bulldogs

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