No. 16 Diamond Dogs Open Regional Play Against Middle Tennessee
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STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The 16th-ranked Baseball Bulldogs (40-18-1) begin postseason competition Friday at Dudy Noble Field, Polk-DeMent Stadium, entertaining Middle Tennessee (33-25) in the 6 p.m. game of the 2003 NCAA Starkville Regional. No. 2 seed North Carolina (39-21) takes on No. 3 seed Missouri (35-20) at 2 p.m. in the opening game of the four-team, double-elimination tournament.
MSU is playing in its 20th NCAA regional baseball tournament and serving as regional tournament host for the 11th time.
Mississippi State has tabbed junior left-hander Paul Maholm (8-2, 2.67) for the start in Friday's tourney-opener. Maholm, a first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection, leads the MSU pitching staff in wins (eight), innings pitched (101.0) and strikeouts (95). The Holly Springs, Miss., product enters the weekend with a 26-10 career record with 267 strikeouts and a 3.54 career ERA.
The Bulldogs notched a pair of wins over instate rival Mississippi at the SEC Baseball Tournament last week in Hoover, Ala., nailing down the program's 16th 40-win campaign and 13th in 24 seasons under Ron Polk.
Middle Tennessee, playing in its third NCAA regional in the last four years and 11th overall, is expected to start sophomore left-hander Steve Kline (7-3, 4.45) in Friday's tournament opener. The Blue Raiders finished sixth in the Sun Belt Conference regular season but downed conference tourney host Louisiana-Lafayette twice en route to a perfect SBC championship-clinching 4-0 mark and the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
MT is making its second appearance at Dudy Noble Field. In 1988, his first season as Blue Raider baseball coach, Steve Peterson directed Middle Tennessee to a berth in the NCAA South Regional at Dudy Noble Field, where MT defeated top-seeded Texas A&M 3-1 in the opening round before bowing to Missouri 10-6 and host Mississippi State 12-4.
Second-team All-SEC shortstop Matthew Maniscalco (.340) enters the tournament as MSU's leading hitter. The Oxford, Ala., native, a starter at shortstop in all 242 career games at Mississippi State, leads the club with 88 hits and 20 stolen bases and stands second with 38 RBI. Junior first baseman Matthew Brinson (.326) of Brandon, Miss., remains the team's leading power hitter with 19 doubles, eight home runs and 46 RBI.
Junior third baseman Steve Gendron (.331), freshman second baseman Thomas Berkery (.271) and freshman pitcher Jamie Gant (5-1, 1.30) are all coming off of performances that garnered for them all-tournament team honors at last week's SEC Tournament.
Gendron (.331), from Tampa, Fla., reached base eight times in four games, collecting five hits and drawing three walks while Berkery (.271) went 7-for-14 at the plate, driving in five of MSU's 16 runs. The Sarasota, Fla., native delivered a game-winning, two-out home run in MSU's 12-inning tourney-opening 5-4 win over Mississippi.
Gant (5-1) earned both of Mississippi State tournament wins with a pair of solid relief efforts against instate rival Mississippi. The Winona, Miss., product struck out six, and allowed two walks and three hits in 6-1/3 innings of scoreless relief work.
The opening round losers in the Starkville Regional meet Saturday at 11 a.m. and the winners square off Saturday at 3 p.m. A second elimination game is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, with first pitch for Sunday's title game scheduled for 1:30 p.m.
Tickets for the tournament are on sale to the public at the ticket office in the Bryan Athletic Administration Building (662-325-2600). Tickets will also be sold at the Dudy Noble Field stadium ticket office on a game-by-game basis beginning approximately two hours prior to the scheduled first game each day.