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2018 Mississippi State Baseball: Three Oklahoma Players To Watch

By Ethan Lee

Omaha, NE - JUNE 26: The Florida Gators take batting practice prior to game one of the College World Series Championship Series against the LSU Tigers on June 26, 2017 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
Omaha, NE - JUNE 26: The Florida Gators take batting practice prior to game one of the College World Series Championship Series against the LSU Tigers on June 26, 2017 at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images) /
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Mississippi State baseball will have to watch out for these Sooners

The Mississippi State baseball team will be taking on the Oklahoma Sooners first thing when the Bulldogs get to Tallahassee. Mississippi State’s first opponent in the Tallahassee Regional is OU. The Bulldogs want to get off to a hot start in Tallahassee and to do that, they must beat the Sooners.

MSU and OU will play each other tomorrow at 11:00 am central time in one of the first games of the entire NCAA Tournament. Given that last time Mississippi State was in a regional in Tallahassee, things started poorly, there’s an emphasis here on the Bulldogs taking down Oklahoma.

To beat the Oklahoma Sooners, the Bulldogs will likely need to shut down these three Oklahoma players.

All stats via SoonerSports.com

Steele Walker

Steele Walker is an amazing hitter and leads the Sooners in a couple categories. Despite not playing in five games this season, Walker leads Oklahoma in hits, home runs, RBIs, batting average, and slugging percentage.

This year, Walker has 76 hits. Along with those 76 hits, Walker has 13 home runs, 53 RBIs, a batting average of .352, and a slugging percentage of .606 percent. The pitchers on the Mississippi State baseball team can’t afford to slip up against Steele Walker. They’ll have to be careful here.

Brylie Ware

Right behind Steele Walker in several categories comes Brylie Ware. Ware, like Walker, is an incredibly productive player at the plate. However, Ware isn’t anywhere near the power hitter that Steele Walker is this year.

Ware holds a solid batting average of .326 and a pretty good slugging percentage of .438. But, when it comes to home runs, Ware only has one dinger during the 2018 baseball season. Still, MSU can’t overlook Ware. In 224 at bats, Ware has 73 hits and 40 RBIs.

Jake Irvin

Oklahoma has a very good trio of pitchers this year. Arguably the best of those three this season is Jake Irvin. Irvin has more starts this season than any other pitcher on the Oklahoma Sooners’ roster with 15 this year.

Unsurprisingly, Irvin also leads his team in total innings pitched this year with 91.2, notably more than any other player on their roster. In those 15 starts and 98.2 innings, Irvin has posted a 2.85 ERA this year. Along with that ERA comes a 6-2 record and 109 strikeouts.

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The Mississippi State baseball team must make sure that they don’t overlook these three players in tomorrow’s Tallahassee Regional opener. If the MSU Bulldogs want to actually make a run in this regional, they’ll have to quiet these Sooners.

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