No. 21 Diamond Dogs Resume Homestand Wednesday Against Jackson State
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STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Riding a modest five-game winning streak, Mississippi State (6-1-1) resumes play in its current seven-game homestand with four games at Dudy Noble Field this week. The Bulldogs renew their baseball rivalry with SWAC power Jackson State (4-5) Wednesday at 4 p.m. before entertaining Loyola Marymount (5-11) March 8-10 in a three-game weekend series. Friday's series opener with the LMU Lions is set for 4 p.m.
Sophomore Jeff Lacher (0-0, 14.73) is MSU's projected lead pitcher in a split Bulldog mound crew against JSU, while Paul Maholm (1-1, 3.38), Tanner Brock (2-0, 0.69) and Joey Collums (1-0, 2.25) are set for Friday-Saturday-Sunday starts against Loyola Marymount.
An impressive 5-0 showing last week helped bolster the Bulldogs in three of the four major college baseball polls. State climbed from No. 23 to its highest current ranking, No. 21, in the NCBWA (college baseball writers) poll. The Diamond Dogs returned to the Baseball Weekly/ESPN coaches poll at No. 25 this week and climbed a slot to No. 26 in Collegiate Baseball's top 35.
State hit at a healthy .363 clip, averaging 10 runs and nearly 14 runs per game in posting wins at Louisiana Tech (14-7) and UL-Monroe (6-5) and in a weekend sweep of Jacksonville State (11-6, 14-2, 5-1).
The Diamond Dogs and the Jackson State Tigers square off on the diamond for the 54th time in Wednesday afternoon's game at Dudy Noble Field. Mississippi State holds a 46-7 all-time lead in the series that dates back to 1976, Ron Polk's first season at Mississippi State, and a 5-3 Bulldog win. The teams have met at least once in each of the past 26 seasons.
The Tigers claimed two of the first three meetings in the series, but State has reeled off 19 consecutive wins since 1992 and 28 in the last 29 meetings. Thirty-two of the 53 games have been staged in Starkville, where the homestanding Bulldogs have won 30 of 32 games.
MSU blanked JSU 10-0 last year and has shut out the Tigers in five of the last six meetings.