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Mississippi State Softball: Vann Stuedeman Continues to Build in Starkville

By Ethan Lee

CONSUELO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - AUGUST 20: A Close up of tattered baseballs and softballs the players use to practice with on August 20, 2003 in Consuelo, Dominican Republic. Consuelo, which has ten programs for youths to learn and play baseball, is about 50 miles east of Santo Domingo. Of the ten programs, two provide housing for the players. One of which is Latin Baseball Academy, which was set up ten months ago by Luis Silvestre, a taxi driver in the Bronx, New York. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
CONSUELO, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - AUGUST 20: A Close up of tattered baseballs and softballs the players use to practice with on August 20, 2003 in Consuelo, Dominican Republic. Consuelo, which has ten programs for youths to learn and play baseball, is about 50 miles east of Santo Domingo. Of the ten programs, two provide housing for the players. One of which is Latin Baseball Academy, which was set up ten months ago by Luis Silvestre, a taxi driver in the Bronx, New York. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /
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Mississippi State Head Coach Vann Stuedeman Has Second Most Wins in MSU History

The Mississippi State softball program hasn’t been around for very long. The Bulldogs started playing softball back in 1982, but the program stopped fielding teams in 1986. However, in 1997, softball returned to Starkville and the Bulldogs have been playing the sport since.

And so, because of the nature of the program’s relative youth and having to compete in the same conference as national powers such as LSU, Florida, Auburn, and Alabama (among others), there’s only so much to hang your hat on. That said, the Bulldogs do have a few bright spots worth discussing.

Their current head coach is certainly one of those.

After last night’s win over Boston College, Mississippi State’s head coach Vann Stuedeman is now the second winningest coach in the history of Bulldog softball. She’s got 220 wins to her name, surpassing Kathy Arendson, who coached from 1997 to 2002.

As it stands right now, they’re currently in a period that could be considered the most successful in school history. Of Mississippi State’s 808 wins all time, Vann Stuedeman has 27.2% of them. Since 2011, Studeman coached the Bulldogs to 220 wins and 146 losses. The school’s overall winning percentage is at just under 56%. Vann Stuedeman is winning just over 60% of her games.

https://twitter.com/HailStateSB/status/971533781575327744

Of the school’s 13 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, five of them have come in the last six years under her guidance. From 2012 to 2015, Stuedeman led the Bulldogs to four consecutive appearances in postseason play. Assuming the Bulldogs can continue to build upon their 17-3 start, they’ll look to make it back to postseason play once again.

The Bulldogs are built to continue to succeed. Vann Stuedeman has surrounded herself with solid assistant coaches in NCAA softball legend Samantha Ricketts and former MSU baseball player Tyler Bratton. On top of that, Stuedeman has kept her own players around after they’ve graduated too.

Jessica Cooley, Kayla Winkfield, Amanda Ivy, Caroline Seitz, and Alexis Silkwood all played for Stuedeman, and so far they’ve all returned to the program in some capacity to develop it further. Vann Stuedeman is still building the softball program. It’ll be interesting to see how far she can take it.

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