Dawg83

State takes the opener 5-2. Really good baseball game. I thought both starting pitchers were very good. Hoglund was excellent outside of 2-3 pitches and that was the margin of error tonight. MacLeod was less effective after his first time through the order but he battled and got you through five innings without giving up much damage. And then Johnson and Sims out of the pen were great. I do question Bianco a little bit for going with Diamond in a spot he hasn’t been in before in a tight game. Those two insurance runs for State really seemed like they slammed the door, especially with Sims on the mound. Not that Diamond isn’t a good pitcher, just was surprised OM didn’t use a more experienced bullpen arm in a spot where the game was very much still winnable. Great atmosphere for baseball, I’m sure the next two days will be intense as well. As I’ve mentioned previously, really think Bednar vs. Nikhazy has a chance to be a GREAT pitcher’s duel.

The closer we get, the more I really don’t know what to expect this weekend. Saw where OM is switching things up with their Sunday starter so that adds another layer of unknown. I think Friday and Saturday you’ve got two excellent starting pitching duels on tap and I can’t wait to see those play out. I know OM is chomping at the bit to beat State after how lopsided the series was in the Mangum era. At the same time, we’ve seen this before with OM coming to Starkville for Super Bulldog Weekend in what seemed like a pretty even matchup at the time (2014), and Ole Miss just came in and beat the brakes off State, and would’ve swept if not for an extra inning meltdown in the middle game. I’m not sure there’s one area where one team has a clear advantage. Some might say State in the bullpen but I think OM’s is probably better than it gets credit for and other than Sims, State has guys with a bit to prove still. You also might say OM clearly has the better offense but statistically speaking State has made a real jump recently. Now is some of that due to competition? Sure. But State is also better at the plate than what they were showing early in the year. I can’t really explain Hatcher’s struggles, but the rest of the lineup is one you feel pretty good about at the moment. Not great, this isn’t a 2016 or 2019 type hitting team for State, but plenty of offense to get the job done if the pitching matches potential. My gut says OM wins the Friday game and State wins the next two, but again, not a single thing would surprise me. Curious to hear what others may be expecting.

Welcome back, EB. Always enjoyed your input. I was able to find some reasonably price grandstand tickets to the Sunday game but I feel like I got really lucky. This is just my personal taste, and don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the new Dude, but on a weekend like this, if I couldn’t find chairbacks and I didn’t know somebody with an outfield rig to spend the day with, I don’t think general admission is worth it. The berms are great and I also love the view from the right field plaza, but both fill up quick. Otherwise you’re stuck looking for any random spot to stand and it can be a real challenge to find a spot where you can even see home plate on crowded weekends. What I tell people is that this iteration of The Dude is a stadium of haves and have nots. If you have access to a chairback, an outfield spot, or the loft, it’s the best stadium in college baseball. If you’re stuck finding a place to stand for three hours where MAYBE you can see what’s happening, it obviously loses some appeal.

Without going too far down a rabbit hole with this... the NCAA can spare me the faux outrage. This is 100% pandering to avoid the angry mob. The NCAA has proven over and over again that they don’t actually care about their student athletes. And the only people that get hurt by rulings like this are the people who have nothing to do with it. You have a problem with the MS legislature so you’re going to punish 18-21 year old college kids for it? Give me a break. Sports leagues trying to get in the middle of political affairs never, ever works out for them. Don’t understand how these organizations keep repeating the same failures over and over again.

Should be a heck of a series at The Dude next weekend. I’m not quite convinced Arkansas wins the West or the league overall at the end of the day, their pitching depth is a serious concern. It’s nice to out slug everybody but how sustainable is that long term? Kopps is terrific out of the bullpen, but they’re relying on him an awful lot right now and the rest of their staff is pretty average. Not a single starting pitcher that strikes fear into you. I still think either State or Ole Miss can very much still win the division even though both dropped home series to the Hogs.

I think at this point you can say that all of the contenders have at least one flaw that could be their undoing: Vandy: Pitching depth after Rocker and Leiter Arkansas: starting pitching Ole Miss: bullpen concerns State: hitting concerns Anyone of them could win it all, or get dumped in a home Regional because of their flaw. It’s why college baseball is such a crap shoot. Oh and by the way, your current leader in the SEC standings is Tennessee... how bout that? And Vandy travels to Knoxville next week for what is now a MASSIVE series.

I think you could say the same for Ole Miss. Whoever wins this series will be number one on Monday. State has taken care of business so far this weekend. As much talk as the bullpen gets, I think State’s weekend rotation is underrated among some of the others in the league. Will Bednar is a really, really good pitcher. I know MacLeod has had his ups and downs this year but when he’s on, he’s a very good. And Fristoe is doing a good job as a freshman and is likely your Friday night ace next year. Strong road series win, a sweep would be really impressive. Not to toot my own horn, but I said after the Arkansas sweep don’t be shocked if State goes 5-1 or 6-0 against UK and Auburn, and that’s exactly what has happened.

State had a 7th inning meltdown and almost blew what looked like was going to be a comfortable win, but they got a little bit of a fluky run late and then Sims slammed the door. I was fairly pleased with how they hit a good pitcher like Greenhill, too. I thought this would be the hardest game for State to win so I feel pretty good about being able to win one more tomorrow or Sunday.

Probably just a one off fluky game but I have been wondering all season if they’ve been over-using Rocker and Leiter and if it could burn those guys out down the stretch. Worth monitoring that now, especially after Rocker got hit as hard as he did. State-Auburn looks like it may be a washout tonight. Slightly better forecast in Oxford but I would imagine you’ll have several series affected by weather this weekend.

Best blowout loss ever.

Luke gets another year if they win that game. Matt Corral probably transfers. And Kiffin is likely at Arkansas now. No idea who OM would hire after 2020 though. State hires Joe Judge if they fire Moorhead a month earlier. It was 99% done anyway until the Giants surprisingly offered him. If the timing is sooner then he’d be at State right now. And it would still probably be the Garrett Shrader show at QB.

Oh man, really hope the Elko injury for OM isn’t as bad as it looked. He’s probably the best college hitter in the state this year.

I don’t love it, I imagine it won’t effect State and Ole Miss a ton if they continue to be Top 10 teams. The biggest concern is going to be if they have tight restrictions on capacity after both teams have had things pretty open for a month now. Who it will hurt is your small schools and borderline host teams who would normally be able to get hot in May and earn a host. Now they’ll be judged on a smaller body of work which isn’t exactly fair. You’ll end up having at least one or two undeserving hosts that falter late and are 2 or 3 seeds when the field is announced.

I'm really fascinated by Tennessee. We will find out how legit they are pretty quick, they host Florida and Vandy back to back the next two weeks. State at Auburn is a trap series if there ever was one. Auburn is a team with more talent than their record shows and there's a chance State might be looking ahead to Ole Miss next weekend. Auburn was way more competitive against Arkansas than State was. I don't feel great about this series for State, I kinda think Auburn takes 2 of 3. I would consider it a good accomplishment if State won the series on the road. I think I like Ole Miss to take 2 from Arkansas. Two very good teams, I just think OM has better starting pitching and the advantage of playing at home.

The issue is I don’t see the talent on this team that typical LSU teams have. And now they might have just lost their number two starter (and projected first round pick) to injury. I’m sure they’ll get going to some degree, but my question is what are LSU fans willing to accept? This will be roughly the fourth year in a row where they aren’t close to contending for the conference title.

LSU at 1-8 in conference play is something else... and they still haven’t played Arkansas or Ole Miss. Kinda feels like this is it for Mainieri, doesn’t it?

State gets the sweep, Kentucky made it interesting late and I question the bullpen decision in the 9th a little bit, but I guess it eventually worked. UK is probably a borderline regional team but any sweep is a good sweep. State is still not hitting or defending particularly well but I’m fine with where they are record-wise three weeks in.

Never seen as many balls get lost in the sun as there have been at The Dude today. State up 4-2 going to the 6th, not out of the woods yet. Florida takes the final game from OM and wins the series. As we’ve discussed, nothing wrong at all with a 1-2 weekend for OM. Obviously the next two weekends are massive against Arkansas and State. Auburn up 5-2 in the 6th on Arkansas, would be a pretty stunning series win. And maybe not great news for State that Auburn is getting hot right when State is headed to The Plains next week.

State really has a chance to stay in the mix by virtue of their schedule. If they can sweep today I see at least 2-3 more possible sweeps on the schedule. But NEEDING sweeps to stay in the mix is a tough position to be in so I'd say it's probably unlikely they win the West or the SEC. The only time they've actually done it in the last 30 years was in 2016 and they had to finish 11-1 in their last 12 just to win the league on the last day of the season (the infamous "Thanks, Rebels" games). If Ole Miss wins today and then can split the six games against Arkansas and State then I would probably pick them to win the West. The schedule down the stretch is not looking as imposing for OM as it once did, other than the obvious series against Vandy. Which by then who knows what Vandy will look like if Corbin keeps extending Rocker and Leiter like he's been doing.

Nice win by Ole Miss, I almost want to say tomorrow doesn’t matter because 7 wins through three weekends is already a heck of a start. But if you do win then you’re in super position to lock up a Top 8 seed. Important series win for State, had to have at least two and they’ve gotten it with the opportunity to sweep still. Wasn’t easy or particularly pretty again, but you take it. Bednar and Sims are just really good. Hitting and defense will cost this team some games (as it already has) but the pitching can make this team a contender in the end.

While I don't think this is a very good LSU team, I also think they've had a pretty brutal schedule to open league play with. State. Tennessee, and Vandy are all Top 10 teams, and Vandy is frankly in a class of their own right now. It feels like it will take something fluky for anyone to beat Rocker or Leiter. My guess is once LSU gets to the Auburn/Alabama/A&M type teams on their schedule they will win the lion's share of those games just because they're LSU and they tend to get it figured out in April and May. But they're definitely not a national seed type team and probably not a host. In spite of their record I think Auburn is dangerous, so I'm not shocked that they won a game against Arkansas. They have talent and Butch Thompson is a really good coach. Obviously they've dug a big hole for themselves, but I think they are better than teams like Missouri or Georgia who just appear to be flat out bad this year. With Arkansas I think they're very good but if there's a hole on that team it's in the starting pitching, which I think is just very meh. Wasn't really their problem last night but I could see it causing them problems in the postseason when everybody can pitch and their hitting will likely be more subdued in Omaha.

He's in a conference where he can get the ship turned around quickly. Just look at what Kiffin did at FAU. Not saying Hall is a Kiffin level coach at this stage, just that a good coach can really make good things happen in that league. If he sticks around for about 3-4 years I bet he wins a conference title at some point.

MacLeod looked great but otherwise State wasn’t overly impressive. Kentucky was underwhelming too, seems like their record may have been inflated by their schedule, though they could always look much different the rest of the weekend, one game does not a series make. But right now I feel pretty good about State’s chances to win the series and possibly sweep. Ole Miss can get swept this weekend and still be just fine. Very little to lose thanks to that 6-0 start so any win you get in Gainesville is gravy. My guess is the teams split the next two games but I could see OM rallying to win the series or Florida sweeping.

I like Marks and Johnson but Ealy is on another level from those two, I'd take him in a heartbeat.

Just wanted to carry over the discussion from the other board. State hosts Kentucky starting tonight, definitely a series you need to win if you don't want to fall behind the eight ball. I have no idea what to make of Ole Miss/Florida, but should be a really good series.