Super Bulldog Weekend sees Diamond Dawgs in must-win territory against Auburn

In the SEC, every weekend is important.

Teams around the league go through the gauntlet of a conference slate that lasts 10 weekends out of the year and it never seems to get easier from week to week. As the Mississippi State Bulldogs have crossed over the halfway point of their own SEC schedule, this weekend feels as important as any this season.

State (23-14, 7-8 SEC) has had some good moments in the first part of the schedule but others that have been just as frustrating as any of the last three years. While the Bulldogs aren’t experiencing nearly the same amount of uncompetitive losses as they did with nine-win SEC seasons in 2022 and 2023, MSU has lost some painful outcomes.

First half more about missed chances for State

Against LSU, State dug itself a 9-1 hole against LSU on Saturday before making a furious comeback but losing by a run and that would keep them from sweeping the series. A grand slam was the difference on Friday night against top 5 Texas A&M in what would have been a series victory in College Station.

Two ninth-inning comebacks from the Florida Gators took a possible sweep from MSU and turned it into a series loss. Against Georgia, another sweep was on the table but catcher Johnny Long’s rowdy actions led to seven State ejections and UGA would win a 3-2 game in the ninth inning.

Last week the frustrations continued at Ole Miss. State had an 8-0 win on Friday night and led 7-3 going into the eighth inning before eventually falling to Ole Miss in 12 innings. That loss would carry over to Sunday when the Rebels destroyed State 14-2 in just seven innings and handed MSU its first loss in the series since 2015.

Head coach Chris Lemonis has seen his team lose in just about every way to this point. He’s ready to win a whole lot more of the close games than he’s losing.  

“It’s just finishing,” Lemonis said of the Bulldogs in SEC losses. “Saturday night, you can’t sleep because there is six or seven plays that if you make them you win. The Sunday game was a culmination of the day before and I pushed that one aside. It’s if we finish two games at Florida and finish the game (at Ole Miss), we’re probably top 10 in the country and that’s how close we are.”

Tiger pitching has been woeful

The Auburn Tigers will come to Starkville for Super Bulldog Weekend this week and their thoughts are similar in some ways to State’s.

Former State pitching coach Butch Thompson has done some great things on the Plains and led his team to two College World Series appearances during his time there. This team showed some good things early in the year with a 13-3 start, but they’ve gone 4-14 since and have started SEC play 2-13.

The schedule that the team has played has been as tough as it gets in the league. Of the first five series played, four of them have come against the top four teams in the entire country in Texas A&M, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennesse. The fifth was against No. 13 Vanderbilt.

“They were top 25 for most of the year and I thought we had the hardest schedule for the first half, they really have the hardest schedule of the first half,” Lemonis said of the Tigers. “They’ve had to play on the road at some tough places and they’ve had to play the hot teams. I think they have a pretty good ball club.”

“This ain’t horseshoes. You don’t get much for being close. The kids have to realize that you have to improve and get better. We’ve talked about 1% the past few days and we’ve got to get better.”

One of Auburn’s issues has been the runes the team is surrendering on the mound. Auburn has an ERA all the way up to 6.12 with teams hitting .282 against them and it’s 9.07 and an incredible .339 in conference play.

The Tigers will throw sophomore RHP Dylan Watts (0-0, 5.94 ERA) on Friday, senior Tanner Bauman (2-1, 5.21) on Saturday and LHP Carson Myers (2-3, 4.13) on Sunday. State’s top two starters have been steady most of SEC play with RHP Khal Stephen (5-2, 2.84) having thrown four-straight great starts with just three earned runs against him during that stretch.

Saturday starter Jurrangelo Cijntje (5-1, 3.80) was on a similar run but had his back tighten up on him at Ole Miss on Saturday and exited early, but he is available Saturday. Evan Siary has been the usual Sunday starter for the Bulldogs, but a decision on that day’s starter hasn’t been made yet.

State will look for more great SBW moments this season like what happened a year ago. Sophomore outfielder Dakota Jordan was the focus of State’s series win over Ole Miss as he walked off the Rebels on Saturday and helped them to a Sunday win as well. He’s ready for more redemption this weekend.

“I’m excited and I know the team is excited. Especially on Super Bulldog Weekend, it will be pretty lit out there,” Jordan said.  “I’m ready to go out there and do whatever it takes to win. If we have an opportunity to put a team away, we have to do it. Our team has had a lot of chances to put a team away and we haven’t. It’s a learning experience.”

The series begins on Friday night at 6 p.m. with Saturday’s game starting at 5 p.m. and Sunday’s finale at 1.