Diamond Dogs Pick Up TV Dates, Announce Game Time Changes
STARKVILLE, Miss. - The number of Mississippi State baseball games earmarked for live telecast in 2009 has climbed to seven with the addition of six cable TV dates.
Comcast Sports Southeast (CSS) has picked up the Friday (Mar. 20) and Sunday (Mar. 22) games of the MSU-Georgia series in Athens, Ga., in addition to the MSU-Southern Miss game (Apr. 8) at Dudy Noble Field.
SportSouth has added all three games of the Mississippi State-Tennessee series (Apr. 10-12) in Knoxville, Tenn., to its college baseball card.
Game time for the Saturday MSU-UT game has been moved to 12 p.m. (CT) for the telecast.
State’s May 9 contest in Oxford, Miss., against instate SEC rival Ole Miss had already been announced as a selection for the SEC’s weekly game of the week series carried regionally by FOX Sports Net South.
The start time for MSU home games on the first two Saturday’s of the season have been shifted to facilitate the radio broadcasts of State basketball games. The opening game of the Saturday session of the BankFirst Baseball Challenge at Dudy Noble Field has been advanced to 12 Noon, while the MSU-Nicholls game Feb. 28 now has a 1 p.m. start time.
Additionally, two Bulldog road games have had changes in their game time. First pitch for the Saturday (Apr. 25) MSU-Vanderbilt game in Nashville, Tenn., has been moved to 1 p.m. (CT) while the Bulldogs’ final regular-season non-conference road game at Memphis (May 12) at AutoZone Park has been moved up to 3 p.m.
SEASON TICKET SALES CONTINUE TO CLIMB
Mississippi State’s 2009 baseball season ticket sales have risen to 5,310 through Thursday afternoon sales, the MSU Athletic Ticket Office said this week. It’s the seventh-most baseball season tickets sold in a season at State and within 55 tickets of the school’s No. 3 spot.
Mississippi State established a school-record for baseball season ticket sales with 5,596 season passes sold in 2002.
Tickets for the 12th annual "First Pitch/Meet the Team" baseball celebration set Feb. 19 at State’s Palmeiro Center are also available on campus through the MSU Athletic Ticket Office (662-325-2600) and online at
mstateathletics.com. Former Bulldog baseball standout John Cohen, who makes his MSU head coaching debut in next weekend’s BankFirst Baseball Challenge, is the featured speaker for the 6 p.m. event.
Mississippi State launches its 119th season of baseball and the Cohen coaching era at MSU next Friday (Feb. 20) when the Bulldogs meet the Northern Illinois Huskies in a 6 p.m. season-opener. State plays two games against both NIU and North Florida in the three-day, three-team weekend competition at Dudy Noble Field.