Mississippi State softball proves mettle in crucial SEC road series against Arkansas
On the road against a ranked foe, Samantha Ricketts and the Mississippi State Bulldogs THRIVED when facing the Arkansas Razorbacks. Here's what we can learn from the impressive series victory.
By Ethan Lee
Hey, would you look at that? Samantha Ricketts and the Mississippi State softball team just claimed another SEC series win. This time, the Mississippi State Bulldogs managed to take two of three on the road in Fayetteville, Arkansas from the No.18 Arkansas Razorbacks.
There’s a lot we can learn from this series.
Let’s start examining some of that. And let’s also go over what happened this weekend and then we can chat about what we can learn from all of this.
Mississippi State softball takes road series from Arkansas Razorbacks
In the series opener, Ricketts and her Mississippi State Bulldogs needed an impressive comeback to beat Arkansas. Thankfully, that happened. MSU put up six unanswered runs from the fifth inning through the seventh inning. Mississippi State went from trailing 3-0 as they entered the fifth inning to coming out on top and winning 6-3 over Arkansas. That’s pretty impressive, all things considered.
But, well, it’s pretty clear that Arkansas is pretty good. And it wasn’t really all that surprising that the Razorbacks were able to bounce back in game two. What was a little frustrating is that Mississippi State only managed to get a couple hits against Arkansas in Saturday’s matchup and that resulted in a 3-0 MSU loss to Arkansas, which meant MSU would need to win the rubber match to clinch the series.
Which happened. Despite the fact that Arkansas bounced back and that MSU’s bats evaporated in game two, Mississippi State’s ability to hit the ever living crap out of the ball returned on Sunday. Mississippi State blasted four home runs (including a grand slam) and the Bulldogs run-ruled Arkansas 15-7 in five innings.
Much of that happened in the fourth inning, during which Miss. State broke the game open by scoring NINE runs (all of which happened with two outs).
Three things we can learn from Mississippi State softball’s road series win over the Arkansas Razorbacks
Throughout the series, Mississippi State showcased how it could score in bunches, deliver clutch hits, and respond when (metaphorically) punched in the mouth.
The Bulldogs thrived throughout the weekend. Now, as Mississippi State softball looks ahead to an upcoming home series against the remarkable Florida Gators, here are three things we learned over the weekend.