Missouri State brings rich history, powerful bats to Starkville for three-game series

It’s early in the season and nights like Tuesday night happen, but those need to be few and far between for Mississippi State.

The No. 18 Bulldogs had a dominant opening weekend overshadowed by a miserable night at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg as Southern Miss shutout State 3-0. MSU had an otherwise strong pitching performance skewed by the fact its offense had four hits in the game and the 3-4-5 hitters all struck out in the final frame.

Coach Chris Lemonis was visibly frustrated about it following the game. The coach has spoken all offseason about the importance of winning the team’s non-conference ball games and that’s strike one on the year.

 Losing to a team like USM won’t hurt State long term, however, as the Golden Eagles are expected to have a strong season. Allowing this to linger into other non-conference games is what the coach is hoping to avoid. It starts with his offense.

“We’re better than that. We’re not adjusting well in the box. From Sunday to (Tuesday), guys are throwing sinkers and usually when you get sinkers you move up in the box and have a plan,” Lemonis said of his offense. “We’re having a hard time getting guys to make some adjustments and we saw that on Sunday too. We’re going to have to get better and get ready for Friday.”

The issues at the plate translated to the field for State as well with the Diamond Dawgs having four errors in the game. All of those issues came in the first few innings of the game and three of the errors would directly lead to runs with two of the three scored thanks to those defensive miscues.

Second baseman Sawyer Reeves had a couple of mistakes early that would lead to State making a chance in the middle infield. True freshman Lukas Buckner got a chance to come in and he immediately gave State something with a 2-for-2 showing and the first hit of the game for MSU in the sixth frame.

Buckner has been a player that Lemonis has been praising since his arrival from Knoxville, Tenn., last fall and he’s been pushing for reps. His night in Hattiesburg could see him in the lineup at some point this weekend.

“A lot of competition right now. He’s been doing it all year, he’s just been the young guy,” Lemonis said of Buckner. “He’s pushing it right now. He’s just a ball player. There’s no fear, he just wants to play and he looked great tonight.”

Missouri State team has history of success

Everyone will have to be sharp this weekend as State welcomes in a traditional standout among Mid Majors. Missouri State comes to Starkville for a three-game set at Dudy Noble Field that begins on Friday afternoon.

The Bears have 10 Missouri Valley Conference championships to go along with 11 conference tournament titles over their storied history. Additionally, the other MSU has experience playing and winning big games in the SEC.

This program has won three Regionals in school history and even made a College World Series appearance in 2003. In 2015, Missouri State played the Arkansas Razorbacks in a Super Regional series, and they won the Fayetteville Regional just two seasons ago. They also played in the Oxford Regional at Ole Miss in 2018.

While it’s certainly a different team than those, the Bears haven’t lost their identity. New head coach Joey Hawkins was on that 2015 team as the team’s starting shortstop and team captain. For the last three seasons, he’s been the hitting coach and Missouri State is expected to have another strong lineup this year with 10 doubles and two home runs through the 2-1 start this year.

It’s a team that Lemonis is not taking lightly and he hopes his team won’t either.

“A real offensive lineup. Older hitters, big hitters and lots of homers,” Lemonis said of the Bears. “That’s the strength of their ball club and they’re really well-coached. The next couple of weeks for us is the best part of our non-conference and we’ve got to be ready to play.”

The Bulldogs and Bears throw out first pitch on Friday at 2 p.m. with game two on Saturday at 2 p.m. and game three Sunday at 1 p.m. All games can be seen on SEC Network +.