Video: Mississippi State Baseball Earns First National Seed in Program History

May 30, 2016

Photo Courtesy: Kelly Price, Mississippi State Athletics

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI/MSU Athletics) – In what has already been a season for the record books, the 2016 Diamond Dawgs kept making history on Monday.

For the first time in program history, Mississippi State baseball is a national seed, as the Bulldogs received the No. 6 national seed for the 2016 NCAA Baseball Tournament.

“This is a great honor for our club,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “However, it’s like I’ve said before. We won the SEC Championship and that’s a tremendous honor but you have two minutes to take that in and then you have to get ready for the SEC Tournament. We’ve been named a national seed, which is a great honor, but now we have to get ready to play well against very good field.”

Joining the fourth-ranked and top-seeded Bulldogs in the Starkville Regional will be the No. 2 seed and 24^th-ranked Cal State Fullerton Titans (35-21), the No. 3 seed Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (40-18) and No. 4 seed Southeast Missouri Redhawks (39-19). MSU and SEMO will face off to open the weekend on Friday, June 3 at 1:30pm CT. Fullerton and La. Tech will close out day one at 6:30 p.m.

Winners of day one will battle on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. following the loser’s bracket matchup at 1:30 p.m. Game six will take place on Sunday at 6:30 p.m., with an if-necessary game seven on Monday at 6:30 p.m. as well.

ESPN3 will broadcast all Starkville Regional games for the weekend. Fans can access the broadcasts through the WatchESPN app or ESPN3.com. John Gregory and Doug Sherman will have the call throughout the weekend.

“This is a great regional and if you combine all the RPI’s, it’s pretty competitive. At the same time, we’re really focused on what we need to do,” Cohen said. “It’s a good field and we’re excited about having these teams in Starkville, but there’s still a lot of work to do before Friday.”

The winner of the Starkville Regional will advance to meet the winner of the Lafayette Regional hosted by UL Lafayette.

State has faced all three teams in previous years, with the most recent matchup coming in 2014 against Southeast Missouri, a 3-2 MSU win in Starkville. State is 5-0 all time against the Redhawks and will meet SEMO for the first time in NCAA Tournament play. SEMO comes into the weekend after winning their third-straight Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title and first OVC Tournament Championship. This year’s NCAA Tournament appearance is only the third in program history for the Redhawks and first since 2002.

Cal State Fullerton makes its second trip to Starkville for an NCAA Regional and its first since 1988. This weekend marks the Titans’ 38^th NCAA Tournament appearance and 25^th-straight bid. MSU is 1-5 all time against Fullerton, with the last meeting coming in 2001, when Fullerton swept the Bulldogs in a Super Regional matchup. The Titans claimed the Big West Championship to clinch an NCAA Tournament bid, their second-straight league title.

The other set of Bulldogs in the Starkville Regional hail from Ruston, La., as Louisiana Tech makes its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1987. The Bulldogs reached the semifinals of the C-USA Tournament last weekend and finished the season winning 13 of their last 17 contests. MSU and La. Tech have met numerous times, with State holding a 36-14-1 advantage in the all-time series. The last meeting between the two came in 2006, an 11-1 MSU victory in Starkville. The two sets of Bulldogs have met one time before in NCAA play, with State taking a 6-5 victory in 1978 at the South Central Regional in Arlington, Texas.

Practice rounds and press conferences are set for Thursday in advance of Friday’s opening round.

Mississippi State is playing in its 35^th NCAA Tournament and hosting a regional for the 13^th time in school history.

The Bulldogs are among seven teams from the Southeastern Conference included in this year’s 64-team tournament field, all selected as regional hosts, an NCAA record. State is 11-12 against nine opponents playing in this year’s tournament.

Fans can purchase All-Tournament General Admission Books for $50 by going to www.hailstate.com/tickets. The Mississippi State ticket office will re-open Tuesday morning for phone orders. Information on single-game tickets will be released later this week.