Bulldogs4 Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 The early indication is that it might not be too bad. At least hopefully that is the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 21 Author Share Posted March 21 Bizarre game for State’s bullpen. Gave out eight free passes, but only one hit and one run in 5 innings. But not going to argue with a win in a night where your starter got hurt and the offense was pretty quiet after a couple of early homers. USM dropped its opener to Troy. Ole Miss and Kentucky set for a rubber game on Saturday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 21 Author Share Posted March 21 (edited) Friday night: South Carolina loses 22-4 at home Saturday morning: Paul Mainieri fired. Did anyone at any point think that hire was a good idea? Seemed dumb from the start and actually ended up going far worse than even I expected. His SEC record was 6-28. This is a program who was the elite of the elite 15 years ago, mind you. and even recently they hosted and made it to a Super Regional a couple of times in the last decade. Edited March 21 by Dawg83 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulldogs4 Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 Yes, that hire was probably the worst in SEC baseball history. He was done when he retired at LSU. A head scratcher at the very least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 22 Author Share Posted March 22 State has taken the first two games against Vandy. Valincius was incredible tonight, good relief pitching on the back end by Sweeney too. Going for the sweep tomorrow. Ole Miss with a huge series win today. That’s a good Kentucky team they beat. We are on track for a big State-OM series in Oxford next weekend. USM evened the series against Troy, rubber game tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David44 Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 (edited) MS was impressive tonight. If they get 7 innings of 2 hit pitching from the starting pitcher, with that batting order, they can beat any team in the country. USM bounces back and finally gets some key hits with runners on base. Troy pitching was good, but USM had some really good at bats. Kros Sivley was the MVP, came in the 2nd inning and held Troy down for 5 innings. Maybe this game gets the offense out of the funk it had been in. Edited March 22 by David44 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulldogs4 Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Good day for all three teams. And the crowds USM just shy of 5500 Ole Miss almost 10 grand and State with almost 15 grand Just over 30K in total!! Pretty awesome across the board!!! Valincius in 5th - 7th innings (8K’s and one ground out). Can’t imagine topping that anytime soon. Big games tomorrow for State & USM. Need to win to keep the momentum going. And definitely a good win for Ole Miss today to win the series!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 22 Author Share Posted March 22 Run rule win and a sweep for State today. First they’ve swept Vandy since before Corbin came to Nashville. I think Vandy is a young team with some injury issues right now, but pretty emphatic weekend for State. Now everyone holds their breath waiting for updates on McPherson. USM won a close game against Troy to take their series. State-USM rematch on Tuesday in Starkville. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulldogs4 Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 Tremendous weekend for State. Vandy is definitely battling some issues but to emphatically win all three games says a lot about this team. Tuesday night game with USM will be interesting to say the least. Be another game where we see a lot of pitchers for both teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pancho Posted March 22 Share Posted March 22 next week USM has App State at the Pete. Ole MIss has State at Swayze..........HUUUUGGEEEEEE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Coach Posted March 23 Share Posted March 23 18 hours ago, Dawg83 said: Now everyone holds their breath waiting for updates on McPherson. I'm hoping it's just stiffness as O'Brian said Friday night and he maybe just misses a start Friday night, but usually when you are kind of shaking your arm as McPherson was it's an elbow injury. Again hopefully stiffness and not TJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 23 Author Share Posted March 23 (edited) 4 hours ago, Former Coach said: I'm hoping it's just stiffness as O'Brian said Friday night and he maybe just misses a start Friday night, but usually when you are kind of shaking your arm as McPherson was it's an elbow injury. Again hopefully stiffness and not TJ So he apparently had TJ surgery once before in 2023. Not impossible to tear your UCL a second time but pretty dang hard to do. My uniformed guess is maybe a forearm strain? Now even just that could keep him out a month or more. But maybe not a season ender. Edited March 23 by Dawg83 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulldogs4 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 State is pouring it on tonight. 12-0 in the fifth inning over USM. I can honestly say I did not expect this. I thought we would have a competitive game with midweek pitchers throwing well. State’s arms have looked good but Southern’s guys have had a struggle so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 Weird deal, a lot of the arms Southern threw tonight were some of the same guys that had a lot of success against State in Hattiesburg. Granted, State was without Teel and Milewski in that game, but even so. More impressed with the pitching than the offense, TBH. The bullpen has had a strong last seven days after a lot of folks were very concerned with them coming out of the Arkansas series. They’ll definitely be needed to keep it going as long as McPherson is out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 And Ole Miss drops a midweek game to 6-16 Memphis. Don’t really know what to do with that going into the State series. Perhaps an omen, perhaps totally meaningless. Sounds like State got good news on McPherson for the most part. Probably not pitching this weekend but sounds like they’ll get him back at some point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulldogs4 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 17 minutes ago, Dawg83 said: And Ole Miss drops a midweek game to 6-16 Memphis. Don’t really know what to do with that going into the State series. Perhaps an omen, perhaps totally meaningless. Sounds like State got good news on McPherson for the most part. Probably not pitching this weekend but sounds like they’ll get him back at some point. Ole Miss had the classic looking ahead game. Memphis is generally pretty weak so I am sure they went into that game overconfident. And it bit them in the butt. Don’t think it really affects the upcoming weekend but at the same time for Regional purposes/seeding and hosting purposes it definitely hurts Ole Miss somewhat. State OTOH did not have to worry about underestimating the opponent tonight. We played very well against a really good team. And the news on McPherson is definitely encouraging. Hopefully he will not be out too long. Our younger pitchers seem to be growing up some (which is to be expected) as the season progresses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 Will be interesting to see the starting pitching approach for State this weekend. I won’t be shocked if they leave Valincius and Stone on Saturday and Sunday and use Friday as their TBA/wing it game. The Georgia series next week starts on Thursday and everyone will have to move up a day by then at the latest, so maybe you keep the days the same for one more week with that in mind. The talk is OM is getting Townsend back this weekend, certainly a boost for them. I may be proven wrong rather quickly, but I believe State is the better team and think they win the series. The big caveat would be if they walk a bunch of guys and allow OM to beat them with 2 and 3 run homers. You can’t walk people against OM and you have to keep the ball in the ballpark. If State can do that effectively, I just trust this offense to eventually manufacture runs, even against a good OM pitching staff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulldogs4 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 I think your thought about BB’s is the most important. Solo HR’s will generally not beat you. But 2,3 or 4 HR’s will beat you. That is the key. And I agree with you that we will piece together Friday night and then throw Valincius and Stone Saturday and Sunday. All that to say it is rivalry series and emotion will come into play with these games. Though I am not sure if all the players (on either side) fully understand that. Since there are many more out of state players and transfers this season (especially for State). I do think the State guys got a taste of that in Hattiesburg in the first USM game and hopefully learned a valuable lesson. Playing in Oxford will be on another level though from Hattiesburg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 I think if my math is right State has won 8 of the last 9 series against OM, but the OM series win was the most recent one in Oxford two years ago, Bianco’s track record against State has been interesting. He kinda dominated State his first decade or so at OM, and the script flipped completely in the other direction circa 2016. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Former Coach Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 On 3/23/2026 at 2:57 PM, Dawg83 said: My uniformed guess is maybe a forearm strain? Now even just that could keep him out a month or more. But maybe not a season ender. Great diagnosis, glad that's all it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David44 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 State came out locked in an focused at the plate. Some very good at bats early, hard hit singles and taking walks when they got ahead in counts. Once they got the 4 run lead, started looking to go yard more. (and did go yard). USM had a chance in the 1st to get to Billingsley, and promptly hit into a DP. This one will leave a mark on USM in the polls. Some voters will see 12-0 in 7 and put more weight on that, than a mid-week loss generally carries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulldogs4 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Maybe so but not too much. USM still has an excellent team. Just ran into a buzz saw last night. Plus State was probably looking for some payback after the first game. Especially when we felt like we gifted the game to Southern. Though losing the game at USM was probably the best thing that could have happened to State. Learned a tough lesson about the difficulties of playing on the road (especially in a rivalry game). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 I just don’t feel like polls matter in baseball. USM is still 3 in the RPI. The schedule will probably make it hard to stay that high, as outside of a rematch with Ole Miss and a couple of Sun Belt series, they don’t play many good teams the rest of the way…. But win a lot of the remaining games and USM will be fine. I do think they’ll probably have to win the Sun Belt to get a Top 8 seed, and I only now realized that Coastal already has a 3 game lead on them. But I still feel like USM will really have to mess it up to not host. That is probably not going to be the last time State run rules a good team this year. There will be days where the bats are just cold, but when that offense is clicking, it can turn into an avalanche pretty quick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg83 Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 Foster starting tomorrow night for State. High ceiling but it’s time to actually do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulldogs4 Posted March 27 Share Posted March 27 22 hours ago, Dawg83 said: Foster starting tomorrow night for State. High ceiling but it’s time to actually do it. Yes. He has struggled mightily thus far. Biggest key tonight IMO is to throw strikes. BB’s will kill you against a team like Ole Miss who is HR heavy. That will be the key. If he can give us 4-5 innings of good pitching (holding them to four or less runs) we will have a chance to win. But if they score 6-7 runs early, it will be very difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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