Faircloth Shuts Out Ole Miss In Oxford

Thursday, April 30

Oxford, Miss.

6 p.m.

Mississippi State

37-15, 9-13

Ole Miss

30-23, 4-18

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Mississippi State	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	6	0
Ole Miss	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2

Faircloth Shuts Out Ole Miss In Oxford

April 30, 2026 | Softball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Brian Ogden, Director/Communications

OXFORD, Miss. – Alyssa Faircloth couldn't have asked for a better start to the series at Ole Miss. The junior led No. 18 Mississippi State to a 1-0 shutout victory on the road in the rivalry on Thursday night.

Faircloth allowed just two baserunners on an infield single down the first base line and a hit batter. She struck out 14 on the night but was extremely impressive early on. In her first four innings, she retired all 12 batters she faced on just 40 pitches while racking up seven punchouts.

"I mean, just a phenomenal game by Alyssa," head coach Samantha Ricketts said. "She just does what we know she can do, and she looked confident and poised and attacked. She wanted the ball. I just loved the composure out of her, the way she attacked the zone, mixed speeds, kept them off balance, and just really kept the momentum in our dugout the whole game."

Kiarra Sells provided plenty of support for Faircloth with a solo home run to left to lead off the second inning. That was all the Bulldog left-hander needed. Behind Sells, Xiane Romero posted her third consecutive multi-hit game and added a double. Nadia Barbary also picked up two singles.

Quotables

Samantha Ricketts on Xiane Romero's hot streak...
"Z's just a great athlete, and it's really good just to see her settling in, doing what we know she can do. She's got a lot of tools. She can hit her power, for average, and I just love the way she's sparking us and being able to do it at the top of the lineup now."

Alyssa Faircloth on what worked well tonight…
"Everything. I mean, I had full trust in everything that I was throwing today, and I had really good control over it, which I've been struggling with a little bit lately. I turned my brain off and just went out there and competed and trusted that my stuff was going to work."

Alyssa Faircloth on the early lead…
"It makes me feel like one mistake isn't on me, you know? I got a little bit of cushion, so I know I can just go and attack them. If a baserunner gets on, so what? We still are up a run, so it's not the end of the world."

Xiane Romero on what's been going right for her lately…
"Oh, not thinking. That's literally all I've been doing. I just keeping telling myself to keep it simple, and when you see it, just hit it."

Quick Hitters

Nadia Barbary – Recorded her 13th multi-hit game of the year … now four hits away from 200 for her career and would be 13th player in MSU history to reach that milestone.

Alyssa Faircloth – Now fourth in MSU single-season history with 217 strikeouts … fanned a career-high-tying 14 today for her eighth double-digit strikeout game of the year … retired the first 13 batters in a row on just 44 pitches … allowed just one hit and the only batted ball to leave the infield dirt was a foul out down the left field line … posted her ninth complete game and second shutout of the year.

Xiane Romero – Reached three times with a walk, single and double … hitting .545 (6-for-11) over the last four games with a double, a homer and three runs scored … posted her fourth multi-hit game of the year and third in a row … all four multi-hit games have come in the last five contests.

Kiarra Sells – Hit her team-leading 14th home run of the year.

Morgan Stiles – Extended her reached-base streak to seven games with a walk.

Dawg Defense – MSU turned in its sixth consecutive errorless game and 34th of the season.

Scoring Recap

Top 2
Kiarra Sells led off with a solo home run to left.
No. 18 Mississippi State 1, Ole Miss 0

Next Up

The series continues at 6 p.m. CT on Friday night. First pitch will air live on SEC Network+.

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