Diamond Dogs Begin Road Series Thursday At Hawai'i
HONOLULU, Hawaii - Mississippi State opens its 20-game March schedule and a season-first road run Thursday in Honolulu, Hawaii when the Bulldogs (7-1) take on the Hawaii Rainbows (3-5) to open a four-game series at Les Murakami Stadium on the UH-Manoa campus. Thursday’s series-opener is set for 10:35 p.m. (CST).
Junior lefty Tyler Whitney (0-0, 0.00) of Lakeland, Tenn., will open on the hill for State and work opposite UH senior right-hander Jayson Kramer (1-1, 3.65).
First-year Bulldog skipper John Cohen, who was a junior on the last Mississippi State team baseball team to play in Hawaii in 1989, sent the 30-player State squad through practices Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon in advance of the four-game series.
The Diamond Dogs joined nearly 150 MSU fans and Coach Jay Miller’s Mississippi State softball team on a Wednesday morning tour of historic Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. State’s softball team is also in Hawaii this week competing in the Pepsi Malahini Aloha Tournament at the Hawaii softball complex adjacent to Les Murakami Stadium.
State, which made its seasonal debut in the national rankings this week, enters the Hawaii series riding a five-game winning streak. The Bulldogs are ranked 26th in the college baseball ratings compiled by Collegiate Baseball newspaper.
The series at Hawaii is the fourth for Mississippi State baseball. The Diamond Dogs played in Hawaii in 1979, 1985 and 1989, with the Rainbows owning a 6-5 all-time series lead.
Mississippi State hosts first-time opponent Valparaiso in the day/night doubleheader March 11 and then opens its 10-weekend, 30-game conference schedule this weekend (March 13-15) at Dudy Noble Field against SEC East for South Carolina.