Bulldogs4

Absolutely no guarantee that we win today or tomorrow but it almost appears that A&M has thrown in the towel for the season. Missouri winning last weekend was the best thing that could have happened for State. We had to be focused on one game at a time. Need to win tonight first.

What ya talkin bout Willis? we scored three TD’s, three PAT’s and had two safeties… 8 HR’s was a record for a SEC conference game. I am sure a team has done it against a Non-Conference opponent.

Ditto on both teams coming up with big wins last night and USM with a big road win over Troy. Hosting chances for USM is still slim but not out of the question yet. All three need to keep up the momentum tonight.

Well you have to win the first game to win the second game. Ole Miss’ pitching was fine. Their failure to take advantage of scoring opportunities and a costly error are what cost them in game three. Game two was a great pitchers duel. Those happen occasionally.

If Coastal and USM win two this weekend and then end up playing for the Tournament Championship, they may both earn a host spot in the Regionals. USM has been taking care of business which is all you can do. You can’t help what your opponents do when they are not playing you. State’s game with North Alabama was canceled which is good news IMHO. Really would not have helped us to have played that game. We will definitely need to be at full strength for Missouri. They will be playing with a lot of confidence so we need to stymie it by not giving them freebies through base on balls and/or errors and taking advantage of our own opportunities.

Oh joy, Missouri will be coming off a sweep of A&M. Gonna be a cat/dog fight up there this weekend. Still need to find a way to win two, regardless.

And with all the series starting Thursday, State gets some advantage by finishing this series on Saturday whereas Missouri has to play tomorrow. I know we play UNA but that will be an inning per pitcher type game Tuesday. Absolutely critical to win two and as crazy as it sounds, if we sweep Missouri, we will finish.500 in the league. Again doubtful that happens but it would be amazing if we actually did so.

Huge win. But gosh we sure make it hard on ourselves. 11-6 in the conference since the 1-9 start. Suddenly Missouri looks to be a difficult series now. Kind of glad that they finally won a game and now two games. Should make our guys razor focused for the series.

Doing our best to keep Ole Miss in the game.

We are the world’s worst at throwing strikes when we have a lead.

What a game he pitched! 8 innings of shut out ball with zero walks and 15 strikeouts. And kept our season going. Realistically that second game was a must win for State. And if you are Maddox, you are saying “dang, any other night, I have a win.” A very pivotal third game is coming up. Most likely, tomorrow but they did say they would monitor the weather today for a possible window to play.

Both pitchers have pitched outstanding in this second game at least through 6 1/2 innings.

Bottom 4th/Top 5th game was lost by State and won by Ole Miss. Plus our defensive woes stuck its ugly head up that really gave Ole Miss the momentum.

Looks like we might be dodging rain showers this weekend. If the games get played, they could have huge implications on the postseason. Each team desperately needs to win two to move toward their aspirations. Ole Miss to host and State to simply stay alive. Really should be a great series and hopefully both teams play their best baseball in each game. Regarding the coaching search, Brian O’Connor would be an excellent choice (IMHO). He is only 54 so age is not a factor. His teams at VA have seemingly always pitched well, played good fundamental defense and most importantly won baseball games (including a NC in 2015). Just listening to the scuttlebutt, VA does not really care to invest in baseball. Obviously it is a long way to go but he and some of the other names I have heard, would all make good HC for the Diamond Dawgs!! But first things first…let’s play some baseball this weekend.

The famous “4th and 1 … Thanks Ed” game!!!

Huge win today. Need to win two against Ole Miss this weekend. Can’t afford a slip up at all. Atmosphere should be off the chart for this series. We will see what happens. Certainly like the way we are playing now. Hopefully we can continue the momentum.

Huge win 6-5 in 11 innings to win the doubleheader and the first two games of a series for the first time all year. A sweep would be great but it is always tough to do. Though I said earlier that State needed two sweeps to offset being swept twice earlier in the season. We will see what happens. Ole Miss needs to salvage a game tomorrow. USM has been on a roll lately.

Tough loss for Ole Miss at Okie. Need to win at least one this weekend. Harry Carey (in futility) said the following about the Cubs “Hope Springs Eternal “ For State, Hope is almost doomed but the door has a small crack (a very small crack). Must win two this weekend… No confidence that we will. KY is decent but they are not a world beater either. We will see… State women win the softball series over Ole Miss in another competitive game (3-0). Will go for the sweep today but that will be difficult as Ole Miss has a good team.

Heck of a game Ole Miss & State in softball and ends with a walk off two run HR by State! Unlike baseball, we have two good clubs in that sport.

I don’t think you have to clean up. As a State alum and fan, I have always been a Mike Bianco fan going back to his days when I watched him play at LSU (and we had some great games with them back in the late 1980’s). I am glad that Ole Miss and USM are successful in baseball. When all three of us are good, it is great for Mississippi. Baseball seems to transcend the bitterness that you find in football. Good baseball fans appreciate great baseball when it is played by your team and/or the other team. Going to Omaha every year is really not realistic but being a regional team every year and playing in SR’s regularly is very realistic. We have been to Omaha 12 times in 55 years so every 4-5 years we should be there on average. With the right hire, we can be back up there in a couple of years IMHO.

2022 was understandable with our pitching staff being decimated by injuries but 2023 was no excuse. And then this year I believe the talent is much better than the record shows. That is a coaching issue. In 2024 there was no excuse for us to not have hosted a regional. In time Lemonis’ legacy will be better as people forget about these 4 years and remember 2019 and 2021.

Anything is possible but right now that seems to be a very low percentage possibility.

Yeah, but OM won two of three, so it was a good weekend for them regardless of what happened today.

State sliding evermore towards oblivion today. 7-14 in the league with KY & OM on deck. Most likely will be 9-18 in two weeks and I will go ahead predict that Missouri scores at least 1 win against us to keep from being winless in the league.

Does Woody Marks count?