Wednesday Bulldog Update - 4/17/13
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It’s a great time to be in the Maroon and White. Super Bulldog Weekend is here, one of the most exciting times of the year at Mississippi State. As you can imagine, this week’s column is heavy on SBW ’13 and the array of events taking place on campus this weekend. Before you come to town – and even after you get here – it is my hearty recommendation that you visit HailState.com/gameday for our Super Bulldog Weekend online hub. Every bit of scheduling, maps and events you could want is there for perusing and double-checking.
NEED EVERYONE FOR BASEBALL
We’re always excited about opportunities to showcase our teams and people to the country, and we have just such an opportunity on Thursday evening as Coach Cohen’s red-hot Diamond Dawgs host Auburn on ESPNU at 6:30 to kick-off Super Bulldog Weekend. Some teams have struggled to fill their stadiums for Thursday night games, but we want to remind the world that Dudy Noble is the best place in the country to watch baseball. We’ll also be passing out free T-shirts to the first 8,000 to arrive, so you’ll have something to wear to the Maroon-White Spring Game in Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday, plus we’ll have fireworks over the stadium immediately following the game.
While we’re talking baseball, I should express my excitement at how well not just the team is doing winning seven of their last eight, but how incredible Kendall Graveman has been on the mound and Hunter Renfroe has been, well, everywhere. Kendall has now pitched three-straight complete games and Hunter sure looks like an SEC Player of the Year candidate to me with more home runs on his own than many entire teams.
PARKING AND SHUTTLE PLANS
In anticipation of having so many of you on campus, we’ve set up shuttles for the weekend to help make parking and your enjoyment of Super Bulldog Weekend easier. As we’ve done before, we’ll have shuttles going to and from the Thad Cochran Research Park beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, and there will also be a downtown route beginning at 9 a.m. to get you to and from the Cotton District Arts Festival that morning.
While we have many events and teams in action, we’ll be honoring baseball reserve parking passes throughout the weekend. Several other streets and lots will be closed temporarily during festivities, which you can find a list of at our gameday site. An interactive shuttle route map with live updates can be found at transit.msstate.edu/map.
SPRING GAME EXCITEMENT
There is a lot of excitement surrounding Coach Mullen’s yearly Maroon-White Spring game in Davis Wade Stadium, and this serves as a late reminder that only the east side of the stadium will be open as we make steady progress on the expansion and renovation of the stadium. Gates 15-20 on the southeast corner by The Junction will be the open entrances, and The Junction itself opens at 4 p.m. on Friday evening. It’s weird to think this is the last season for guys from Our State like Tyler Russell, Gabe Jackson and LaDarius Perkins and we’d love to make their final spring game a special one they won’t forget. Capacity for the east side is 25,000 and it starts at 1. I look forward to seeing you there and I hope you’ll enjoy getting an up-close look at the future of Davis Wade Stadium as well as our Bulldogs.
RECEPTION FOR DR. JIMMY ABRAHAM
I’m not the first to say it and I certainly won’t be the last, but I’d like to congratulate Dr. Abraham on what I hope will be a relaxing and enjoyable retirement after 38 years of service to Mississippi State University. The Alumni Association is hosting a retirement reception for him on Friday from 4-6 p.m. in the Hunter Henry Center and I look forward to having a chance to honor him. We often talk about being True Maroon and Jimmy embodies that ideal better than anyone.
ROAD DAWGS TOUR ANNOUNCED
Late last week we announced the details of the Road Dawgs Tour across both the state and the southeast this summer. Coach Mullen, Coach Ray, Coach Schaefer and Dr. Abraham will headline the 13-stop tour, including 10 in Our State. We kick it off on May 6 in Atlanta and finish up on July 18 in Jackson for the annual Central Mississippi Extravaganza. You can find the full schedule here.
GOLF AND TENNIS TEAMS IN SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS, SOFTBALL AT ALABAMA
While most of the focus this weekend is on happenings in Starkville, I’d like to wish good luck to our men’s and women’s golf teams competing in the SEC Championships this weekend. Both of them have had outstanding regular seasons, including the best season performance in the men’s team’s history, winning four tournaments over the course of the year, earning them a Top 25 ranking for the first time ever going into the weekend.
Our women’s tennis team beat Missouri today in the opening round of the SEC Championship being hosted here on campus and we’re very excited for them. They will face Tennessee in the second round Thursday at 11 a.m. at the Pitts Tennis Centre. Coach Nilsson’s No.9-ranked men’s squad begins SECs in Oxford Thursday against No. 11 Kentucky.
We’re also sending some of that luck to Tuscaloosa where Coach Stuedeman’s softball team is playing Alabama, fresh off a big sweep of Ole Miss at home last weekend.
We appreciate what you do for Mississippi State Athletics and want to encourage you to get others involved. There are three things you can do to help the athletic department at Mississippi State reach its desired goals –
1. Buy Season Tickets
2. Financially Support the Bulldog Club
3. Get Others To Do The Same
Thanks for taking the time to read this Update.
Hail State!
Scott Stricklin