MacNamee’s MVP performance, clutch pitching lifts Mississippi State to Music City
Mississippi State won four elimination games in a row to keep its season alive for at least another weekend.
Three different coaches, but the same result. For the third consecutive season, Mississippi State is playing in the Super Regionals round.
It was not too long ago that Mississippi State’s season looked all but over. The Bulldogs were swept in the season opening series against Southern Miss to begin the 2018 campaign. Not long after that, Andy Cannizaro abruptly resigned due to costly off-the-field decisions. When the calendar flipped to April, the Diamond Dawgs were sitting at 14–15. Any postseason aspirations, much less another Super Regional appearance, looked bleak.
And yet, here we are.
Interim coach Gary Henderson led the Bulldogs to quite the turnaround, including sweeps over top-ranked Florida and third-ranked Arkansas, in addition to taking three-of-four games from eventual National Seed Ole Miss. The Dawgs earned the 2-seed in the Tallahassee Regional, hosted by no. 7 National Seed Florida State. Oklahoma and Samford rounded out the group of four in the Sunshine State.
State dropped the opening game of the region by a score that looked more like a football game had just been played: 20–10. The Sooners exploded in the 7th inning to put the game out of reach for the Maroon and White. How would the Bulldogs respond to dropping the first game of a double-elimination tournament?
Later that night, Samford upset Florida State, setting up a matchup between two of the premier programs in the sport without a national title. FSU’s ace, Drew Parrish, was dealing all day in a 2–0 game before a rain delay stopped the game at the top of the ninth. After throwing over 100 pitches, combined with the two-plus-hour weather delay, Parrish’s day was seemingly over; however, legendary coach Mike Martin decided to let his star close out the game.
That ultimately resulted in a season-ending loss for the ‘Noles and a momentum-shifting at-bat for the visiting Bulldogs.
After walking Jake Mangum and Hunter Stovall, Parrish saw Elijah MacNamee walk to the plate. With two outs already on the board, Parrish was just one strike away from putting the game to an end after forcing a 1–2 count. Then, this happened:
Boom. Elijah MacNamee’s three-run dinger lifted State over the Seminoles and then-some. The Bulldogs carried the momentum over to a 9–8 victory over Samford and then a 13–5 win in the first of two rematches against the Sooners — a game in which Cole Gordon was absolutely dealing.
Mississippi State closed out the deal on Monday afternoon with an impressive 8–1 win behind JP France’s extremely impressive outing to reach the Super Regionals round for the third straight season. The Bulldogs also became the first team in D1 history to win back-to-back Regionals after losing the opening game. That’s eight straight victories when facing elimination in the Regionals. Pretty impressive.
Mississippi State is now set to take on Vanderbilt this weekend in Nashville. The Commodores swept the Bulldogs in Starkville earlier this season, but that was well before this team turned things around and found their mojo. First pitch is set for approximately 7:00 p.m. CT on Friday evening.
A season in which Mississippi State baseball has faced adversity on and off the field has the Bulldogs two wins away from Omaha.
