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Can Mississippi State Baseball Use the Ole Miss Series as a Springboard for Success?

By Ethan Lee

OMAHA, NE - JUNE 24: Mississippi State Bulldogs players sit in the dugout before playing the UCLA Bruins during game one of the College World Series Finals on June 24, 2013 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. UCLA won 3-1. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
OMAHA, NE - JUNE 24: Mississippi State Bulldogs players sit in the dugout before playing the UCLA Bruins during game one of the College World Series Finals on June 24, 2013 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. UCLA won 3-1. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images) /
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Mississippi State Baseball Now Has Something Good to Build Upon For This Season

Mississippi State baseball beat Ole Miss. For the third consecutive season, the Bulldogs have taken a series from the Rebels. This time, Ole Miss was ranked as the 3rd best team in the nation. Now what?

Well, in theory, Mississippi State could use this momentum and turn it into a decent year. The Mississippi State baseball team just beat the 3rd ranked team in the nation. In game one, the Bulldogs won 13-3. Game two went the other way, 6-1 to the Rebels. And then Mississippi State proved to be resilient and fought back in game three, winning on a home run blast in extra innings. That’s great.

But can MSU still turn the season around at this point?

Mississippi State sits at 17-16 this season. The Bulldogs are 4-8 against SEC teams. They just won their first SEC series of the year. Let’s all be very honest here. There’s a very slim chance that Mississippi State, by the elevated standards that come with Bulldogs baseball, can have a great season. MSU, more than likely, won’t be able to make it to the College World Series.

Making it to a Super Regional is what this team is supposed to do.

Can Mississippi State even make it into the postseason at this point?

But the Bulldogs have shown the capability to beat the best teams in the nation. MSU is fully equipped to compete with, and win against, highly ranked teams. Mississippi State is talented, there’s no denying that.

Now, Mississippi State must take any sort of momentum that the Bulldogs have and use it to push forward. The Bulldogs have 6 more SEC series up ahead. There’s 22 games left in the regular season and then a few games in the SEC Tournament.

Right now, Mississippi state is sitting still at number 70 in the RPI.

It’ll take one heck of a last season push for the Mississippi State baseball team to get into postseason play. The absolute surest way for MSU to get into the NCAA Tournament is for the Bulldogs to win each of their remaining SEC series and then claim each midweek game.

That isn’t realistic, but the Bulldogs will have to do something to that effect to get into postseason consideration. Going 16-6 in the next 22 games likely won’t happen at all, but it would be nice if it did. And the Bulldogs don’t appear ready to concede defeat this year.

Next: Luke Alexander Beat No. 3 Ole Miss on a Walk-Off Home Run

Mississippi State has shown that it isn’t going to simply roll over and let this season get away from them. The Bulldogs have faced incredible adversity this year. If it can continue to prove to be resilient, then the Mississippi State baseball team might sneak into postseason play.

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