State Hosts No. 4 Gators In Super Bulldog Weekend Series
The series opens Friday at 6:30 p.m. CDT with 12 p.m. starts set for both Saturday and Sunday. The radio broadcast of all three games will be carried on the 18-station MSU Baseball Radio Network, with veteran State sportscaster Jim Ellis describing the action.
The MSU-UF baseball series is part of MSU’s annual spring homecoming festivities, Super Bulldog Weekend presented by Regions Bank. With warm and sunny weather in the forecast, season-largest crowds are anticipated for the weekend. An overflow gathering is expected for Saturday’s regionally-televised (Comcast Sports Southeast) mid-day MSU-UF contest held in advance of the 5 p.m. kickoff for the Maroon-White spring football game at nearby Davis Wade Stadium.
The Dudy Noble Field ticket office opens two hours prior to scheduled game time each day. Tickets are $10 for general admission and, if available, $15 for chairback seating in the grandstand.
Mississippi State, after notching its 15th error-free game in a 5-4 Tuesday night win over No. 14 Southern Miss in Pearl, Miss., enters the weekend series sporting the league’s top fielding percentage (.977). The win was the Bulldogs’ fifth in seven meetings with a ranked opponent this season. Florida, despite dropping a 4-3 midweek decision at home to Central Florida, features the SEC’s top team batting average (.311) and staff earned run average (2.33). Florida also sports the nation’s top RPI (ratings percentage index) and becomes the fourth ranked opponent faced by Mississippi State this season.
Junior right-hander Devin Jones (2-4, 3.82) will open on the hill Friday night for the Diamond Dogs. UF shuffled its weekend rotation slightly, moving sophomore righty Hudson Randall (5-0, 0.54) up to a Friday start.
Mississippi State’s 2010 Super Bulldog Weekend Saturday matchup with Tennessee drew 11,089 fans to Dudy Noble Field, the SEC’s top actual attendance of the season and the 24th attendance of 10,000 or better at the home of MSU baseball. In 1989 Mississippi State broke its own NCAA on-campus baseball attendance mark with 14,991 packed Dudy Noble Field for a Saturday twinbill against Florida.
This weekend’s series marks Florida’s first visit to Dudy Noble Field since the Bulldogs claimed two of three games in a 2006 series in Starkville.
Saturday’s 12 p.m. game will be televised by Comcast Sports Southeast, marking the first of 12 television appearances for the Diamond Dogs in 2011.
The Bulldogs trek to Birmingham, Ala., Wednesday (6 p.m.) to complete a rain-suspended March 9 game with UAB. Play will resume at Young Memorial Stadium with the Blazers holding a 4-3 lead and MSU batting in the top of the sixth inning.
State returns to action at Dudy Noble Field April 22-24, hosting defending NCAA champion South Carolina in a three-game Easter weekend series.