No. 12 State Sweeps Saturday Action At Jaguar Classic

Saturday, March 7

Mobile, Ala.

10 a.m.

Mississippi State

22-2

New Mexico

10-12

New Mexico

Mississippi State

No. 12 State Sweeps Saturday Action At Jaguar Classic

March 07, 2026 | Softball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2 Game 1 Box Score (PDF)Game 2 Box Score (PDF)

By: Brian Ogden, Director/Communications

MOBILE, Ala. – Peja Goold came one out away from a perfect game on Saturday in No. 12 Mississippi State's 9-1 victory over Samford. The Bulldogs also defeated New Mexico, 4-0, earlier in the day.

Goold struck out the first seven Samford (9-15) hitters she faced. She allowed just three balls in play through six innings with all three resulting in ground outs to third base. With two outs in the sixth, she surrendered a solo home run before inducing a ground ball to second to end the game.

"Another great game from Peja," head coach Samantha Ricketts said. "She was attacking. She was mixing, just really keeping them off balance and just getting us back up to bat quickly. That's all you can ask for, and I just love the composure and the poise that she continues to pitch with."

Nadia Barbary provided a grand slam in a five-run fourth inning for the Bulldogs (23-2), and State's final three hitters provided the other three RBIs in the game. Tatum Silva hit a sacrifice fly in the second. Abby Grace Richardson singled home a run in the fourth, and Gabby Schaeffer homered in the fifth.

Against New Mexico (10-12), Morgan Bernardini opened the scoring with a two-run double in the first, and Kiarra Sells hit a two-run home run in the fifth.

Leila Ammon threw 4.0 innings, striking out five, before handing the ball over to Alyssa Faircloth, who struck out six of the 10 batters she faced on her way to her second save of the year.

Quotables

Samantha Ricketts on the controversial bunt play in the fourth inning against Samford…
"Now with the safety bag, on any sort of play at first, the batter runner has to touch the orange bag, and in that case, she hit the white bag, which essentially means she did not touch the base. It's the same as her skipping over the bag. We've watched it on film. We practiced it. We knew that she was a hitter who liked to do that. Gabby [Schaeffer] did an awesome job of being heads up and still asking for the ball from Nadia [Barbary]. She went back and tagged her, so it's just like she never reached the bag. It's a really good, heads-up job and a great job of scouting on that from [associate head coach] Tyler Bratton and great job between Nadia and Gabby being ready for that play."

Samantha Ricketts on Nadia Barbary's grand slam…
"She just continues to be the veteran presence for us in the middle of the lineup. She doesn't get too big. She was able to slow herself down after a call before, which she wasn't happy about, and just knew that if she got something to the outfield, she'd be able to get a couple more runs, and she did exactly that."

Nadia Barbary on her grand slam…
"Tensions were high and I needed to calm myself down, so I called the timeout and talked to T-Bratt a little bit. He had my back, and I needed to have his and the teams so I just did what I could do to help the team win."

Peja Goold on her near no-hitter…
"Sadly, I was aware of it, which might be the problem is that I did know about it. They were just competition that I've seen in the past, so it was fun seeing them again and getting to play against them. Yeah, I don't really know. There's something I've got to figure out with that last batter. I don't know what it is yet, but I'll get it eventually when it's meant to happen."

Peja Goold on her strikeout total today…
"The pitch calling is insane because [pitching coach Taryne Mowatt-McKinney] has done a great job. Even after some of my strikeouts, I'll literally turn to AG [Richardson] and be like, 'Great call, Coach T,' because she does a great job of messing with the batters' minds. That's the best way to do it. So, yeah, a lot of strikeouts. It was fun. I know my team had my back, especially Nadia. That could have been a hit. and she took it away."

Quick Hitters

Leila Ammon – Earned her sixth win of the year with 4.0 scoreless innings against New Mexico … struck out five.

Nadia Barbary – Hit a grand slam against Samford … was her third career grand slam, which tied the MSU program record … has a hit in three consecutive games and has reached safely in six straight.

Morgan Bernardini – Drove in a pair of runners against New Mexico for her sixth multi-RBI game, which is second on the team … singled, walked and scored against Samford … has a hit in three straight games.

Alyssa Faircloth – Picked up her second save of the year against New Mexico … struck out six of the 10 batters she faced in 3.0 hitless innings.

Peja Goold – Came one out away from a perfect game … struck out the first seven batters she faced against Samford … only five balls were put into play, and three were ground outs to third … finished the day with a season-high 11 strikeouts.

Kiarra Sells – Extended her hitting streak to a career-long 12 games with a two-run homer against New Mexico … had at least one an extra-base hit in 11 games of the streak … batted .606 (20-for-33) during the streak … leads the team with seven multi-RBI games.

Tatum Silva – Collected two hits in her two at-bats against Samford … also provided a sacrifice fly.

Scoring Recap vs. New Mexico

Bottom 1
With one out, Nadia Barbary and Kiarra Sells walked. The runners advanced to second and third on a wild pitch before Morgan Bernardini drove them both in with a double into the right-center gap.
New Mexico 0, No. 12 Mississippi State 2

Bottom 5
With two outs, Barbary singled to center field. Gabby Schaeffer pinch ran and stole second base before Sells hit a two-run homer to center field.
New Mexico 0, No. 12 Mississippi State 4

Scoring Recap vs. Samford

Top 2
Morgan Bernardini singled to right field and advanced to third on Des Rivera's double into left-center field. With one out, Xiane Romero reached on a fielding error by the third baseman that allowed Bernardini to score and Rivera to move to third while Romero raced to second. Rivera scored and Romero advanced on a wild pitch. Tatum Silva drove in Romero with a sacrifice fly.
No. 12 Mississippi State 3, Samford 0

Top 4
Abigail Stevens doubled down the left field line. Romero doubled to shallow right field when the outfielder's diving effort came up short. Stevens moved to third on the play. Silva hit a liner off the pitcher for a single, but the two runners could not advance. Abby Grace Richardson singled through the right side to score Stevens before Nadia Barbary hit a grand slam.
No. 12 Mississippi State 8, Samford 0

Top 5
With two outs, Gabby Schaeffer hit a solo home run.
No. 12 Mississippi State 9, Samford 0

Bottom 5
With two outs, Addison Smith hit a solo home run.
No. 12 Mississippi State 9, Samford 1

Next Up

The Jaguar Classic concludes on Sunday when the Bulldogs face host South Alabama at 12:30 p.m. CT. That game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

For more information on the Bulldog softball program, follow on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and Instagram by searching "HailStateSB."