After suffering a 7-3 loss to the South Carolina Gamecocks on Friday night to fall to a program-worst 1-9 start to SEC play, many, understandably, had put the stamp on the 2025 Mississippi State baseball season. The Bulldogs were clearly going to suffer a home series loss to arguably the SEC's worst team (non-Missouri division), and their fates would be sealed.
In that moment, the only question on anyone's mind was when the athletic administration would officially pull the plug on head coach Chris Lemonis' tenure.
But State wasn't ready to call it quits. On Saturday, the put together a great day at the plate, winning 11-4 to even the series. And on Sunday's rubber-match, much-maligned starter Karson Ligon had a brilliant outing on the mound, as did reliever Stone Simmons, and MSU took the series with a 6-0 victory.
Now, Mississippi State finds itself 19-13 overall and 3-9 in the SEC. And while they are still well out of the postseason conversation, they've kept the door to a regional just barely open and have at least given themselves a chance at righting the ship.
South Carolina series didn't change Mississippi State's outlook, but it kept hopes of a turnaround alive
Let's not get ahead of ourselves and overreact to a pair of good games for Mississippi State because ultimately, taking the series over South Carolina didn't change anything for the Bulldogs, at least not yet. The Gamecocks are a bad team, State was at home, and despite their issues this season, the Bulldogs were the considerably better team.
This was a series MSU should have won, so it's hard to suddenly change our mindset about what is realistically in store for this ballclub after doing that. That's especially true considering that many felt the Diamond Dawgs needed a sweep to actually turn the tides. We may easily look back at this series a few weeks from now and realize it was completely meaningless.
Or, we could look back and see it as the start of a run. State goes to Tuscaloosa this weekend. The Tide are legitimately good, but they aren't necessarily in the SEC's elites. Then State gets Florida in Starkville, and the Gators are in the midst of an awful year. If MSU can find four wins between those two series and get to 7-11 in the league, then they've still got a path towards getting back to a regional. At 8-10 the odds increase significantly.
There'd still be an uphill climb remaining with a road series vs a Top 15 Auburn team and home series against Top 10 Ole Miss. But they also get an average Kentucky team in Starkville and close with Missouri. Managing enough wins down the stretch to make a regional isn't unthinkable.
Again, nothing changed for Mississippi State over the weekend by taking this series. But if they can somehow manage to make beating South Carolina a jumping-off point, then perhaps baseball season will remain something worth investing in the rest of the way.