Bulldogs Earned Buc-ee’s And On Quest To Earn More
June 04, 2026 | Baseball, Joel Coleman
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State's baseball team pulled out of Starkville on Thursday morning.
Destination: Athens, Georgia – where MSU will battle Georgia in a super regional this weekend with a trip to Omaha and the College World Series at stake.
Well, sort of. Before the Diamond Dawgs enter the Peach State, they're slated to make a pit stop.
"About three hours down the road, we're going to stop at a Buc-ee's," State head coach Brian O'Connor said. "We're going to give [the team] 30 minutes of Buc-ee's. I told them no showers though. [I told them], 'You can't shower there, but get as many beaver nuggets as you wanna get, OK?'"
By the time you're reading this, it's likely the Bulldogs have already had their fill of beaver nuggets, brisket sandwiches, beef jerky and whatever else they could find inside the holy grail of gas stations. There's no word on if Noah Sullivan, Ace Reese or any of the boys came away with Buc-ee the beaver T-shirts. Might be best to leave those alone anyway. Bully might get jealous.
What's safe to say is MSU's players were looking forward to their half hour in convenience store heaven. It's a request the team actually made all the way back in March, but it was an unfulfilled ask at the time.
"They've been craving to go to Buc-ee's all year," O'Connor said. "They wanted to go to Buc-ee's on the way to Hattiesburg from Dallas when we bused, and I told them they didn't earn Buc-ee's. We didn't beat UCLA. We didn't finish that weekend off.
"But they earned Buc-ee's after this past weekend."
Earn it, State sure did. MSU cruised through its Starkville Regional, going a perfect 3-0 and outscoring the opposition by a total of 39-11. The Bulldogs never trailed and looked like a team on a mission to return to college baseball's biggest stage for the first time since the magical national championship season of 2021. That goal is now within reach with State playing in a super regional for the first time in five years.
Standing in State's way is a Georgia squad with ideas of its own. The Southeastern Conference's other set of Bulldogs have had a special season, rolling to the SEC regular season and tournament titles.
Along the way, Georgia went a perfect 4-0 against State, including an April sweep in Starkville. But that was then. This is now.
"Yeah, that series we had in Starkville was a great college baseball series," O'Connor said. "We just came out on the wrong end of three ball games. There are lessons to be learned from that.
"There's been many examples where teams have gotten swept during the year, and then they match up in a super regional or Omaha and it's a totally different story. We're hoping for that, right? That this series is going to be a little bit different from how we played the last series we played them."
Part of O'Connor's plan to flip the script against Georgia is exemplified by Thursday's Buc-ee's stop. State's hall of fame skipper wants his club playing loose all weekend.
"I made a conscious effort to make sure that they know that's how they have to be this time of year," O'Connor said. "Teams that want to get to Omaha so bad…They tense up. You can't play this game that way.
"You've got to trust all the work that you've put in and enjoy what you've earned, so that's what I've talked to them about. They earned the opportunity to play at home last weekend. They've earned the right to go to Georgia this weekend for a super regional. When you've earned something, you just have a tendency to enjoy it more. When you enjoy it more, I believe that you perform better."
Eight years ago, Mississippi State baseball built a road to Omaha with bananas. Just last week, Bulldog softball used broccoli to push its way into the Women's College World Series for the first time ever.
Now, the next great MSU quest is being buoyed by beaver nuggets.
