Mississippi State learns to expect the unexpected

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – There’s really no rhyme or reason of how things are happening in this up and down, unforgettable and unpredictable Mississippi State baseball season.

Just 24 hours after getting beat 20-10 in a wacky game against Oklahoma, MSU was tasked with knocking off national seed and Tallahassee Regional host Florida State. On top of that, the Seminoles were throwing their ace Drew Parrish and his undefeated record to boot.

While what happened next was something that shocked even legendary head coach Mike Martin, it wasn’t that farfetched for this Bulldog team, which has taught everyone in Starkville to expect the unexpected.

In the 11th game against top 10 competition, MSU worked around Parrish’s dominating effort. A rain delay certainly aided what had become a nearly impossible feat to get to Parrish, but Elijah MacNamee put himself in Bulldog lore when he changed a 2-0 deficit to a 3-2 victory with one swing of the bat.

“It’s been us all year,” MacNamee said. “It’s been the legacy for Mississippi State. Just because it’s the ninth inning doesn’t mean we treat it any differently. We kept saying in the dugout to just believe and keep trying until you hit a homer.”

Of the eight national seeds in the NCAA Tournament this year, MSU had to play half of them. The results of those games were winning three out of four games against No. 4 Ole Miss, all three games against No. 5 Arkansas and No. 1 Florida, and now a win over No. 7 Florida State.

That’s a stout 10-1 record for a Bulldog team that almost didn’t make the postseason this year and currently sit at

32-26 this year. It’s been one of the seasons that interim head coach Gary Henderson didn’t ask for, but he’s done what he could to get the best he could out of his team.

That includes the ebb and flow of just the last two days when MSU gave up 20 runs to Oklahoma and lost in the opening round of the tournament. The Bulldogs could have folded, but they went back to work.

“Plenty of ups and downs,” Henderson said. “When you play poorly you wear it as a coach, no question. We were going to stay positive and make the changes. If you’re positive and relentless, the message doesn’t change, and the kids buy in, you’ve got a chance.”

A chance is all MSU asked for and it’s going to continue to get it.

After knocking the Seminoles out of the regional, the Bulldogs now continues their journey with a noon first pitch against the loser of Samford and Oklahoma. MSU will have to win three games in the next two days to advance to a super regional, but this isn’t a new deal for most of this team.

The Bulldogs played back from losing game one of a regional last season in Hattiesburg and they won

four games in just two games to win it, including beating Southern Miss twice in a row. The path clears a bit with the home team now out of it, but it still makes for a challenge and Jake Mangum and his team are looking forward to it.

“It’s going to take a great start out of (Jacob Billingsley),” Mangum said. “It’s going to take a team

effort. It’s going to take good defense and solid at bats all the way through. It’s going to take one game at a time. Whoever we’ve got, we’ll treat it like any other game and get it done.”

Most of this team has been around the last two years and learned that weird does indeed happen in this program.

Former player and head coach John Cohen jumped to

the MSU Athletics Director post after the Southeastern Conference championship season in 2016 and first-year head coach Andy Cannizaro resigned after just three games earlier this year. Still, here are the Bulldogs and they’re ready to fight. While ranked teams have been their specialty, they’ll take all comers with their backs against the wall.

“We’re Bulldogs,” Mangum said. “We treat every game the same, but this team has been a lot of fun to watch in big games. It’s been a crazy one, but this team fights. I’m really proud of this team and this program. It’s an honor to put on this uniform. It really is. We’re not done yet.”