Mississippi State Baseball Will Face Three Tough Foes In Tallahassee Regional
By Ethan Lee
The Mississippi State baseball team will need to play solid baseball in the upcoming 2018 Tallahassee Regional this weekend
The Mississippi State baseball team has been up and down all year. The Bulldogs are a solid team and have plenty of experience beating some of the best teams in the country. After all, the Bulldogs went 9-1 against the No. 1, No. 4, and No. 5 National Seeds this season. Sweeping Florida and Arkansas along with taking three of four from Ole Miss should prove to everyone that the Bulldogs can beat just about anyone.
Unfortunately, there’s still plenty of evidence that the Mississippi State Bulldogs can also lose to just about anyone. And, this weekend, MSU will absolutely need to make sure that they play at the top of their game.
Otherwise, the Bulldogs could be coming home sooner than they’d like.
Early on in this season, the Mississippi State baseball team fell to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi down in Corpus Christi, Texas. On that same lengthy road trip out west, the Bulldogs also lost to McNeese State on their home turf. When the Bulldogs came home and got to play their first series in the New Dudy Noble Field, MSU fell to Utah Valley.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi finished their season at 30-26 but holds an RPI ranking of 157th. McNeese State is even worse at 25-33 and an RPI of 191. Utah Valley finished their season at 15-37. Their RPI is all the way down at 247.
Mississippi State has shown that it must take its opponents serious. The Bulldogs shouldn’t approach this opportunity with the belief that they can waltz through their opponents. Hopefully, at this point in the season, Mississippi State is ready to take whoever they face with a healthy level of respect.
So, who are they facing?
In the Tallahassee Regional, the Florida State Seminoles are hosting. FSU has earned plenty of respect this year and is a national seed. Their 43-17 record this year speaks to itself about just how good the Seminoles are. At home, in their own ballpark, they are even better. FSU is 30-7 when playing in Tallahassee.
The Oklahoma Sooners come in to this as the No. 3 seed and will be Mississippi State’s first opponent in the Tallahassee Regional. Given that this is a double elimination format, the Bulldogs can’t afford to open the regional with a loss. Oklahoma is 36-23 through 2018.
The final team to make the 2018 Tallahassee Regional is a team that some MSU fans may remember from the last time the Bulldogs played in a regional in Tallahassee. The Samford Bulldogs are also in town this weekend as the No. 4 seed. And, as MSU fans remember, this is not a team that the Mississippi State Bulldogs should overlook.
How will the Mississippi State baseball team do?
It’s hard to tell. The Bulldogs have been all over the place throughout 2018. This is a team that could seriously make a run to Omaha and play in the College World Series this year. It’s also a team that could lose two games quickly in Tallahassee.
The Bulldogs should take this opportunity and run with it. They’re being given a chance to go and play amongst the nation’s best. As we’ve seen so far this season, when the Mississippi State Bulldogs play highly regarded teams, they tend to do pretty well for themselves.
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Mississippi State should end up challenging the Florida State Seminoles for the Tallahassee Regional Championship. The Bulldogs are more than capable of doing that. And, if MSU can get there, don’t count them out from winning it.