Gators deal Bulldogs tough blow
This time last season, Mississippi State was trying to lock up a national seed in the NCAA Baseball Regionals and insure that the road to Omaha ran through Starkville.
This year, the team is just trying to make the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Hoover, Ala., in three weeks.
That's where the Diamond Dawgs find themselves seven weeks into the SEC schedule sitting just two games above .500 at 25-23 overall and at 9-15 in conference play. The next SEC loss will mean MSU will be below .500 in the league for the first time since 2015.
It's a sobering thought just a year after the Bulldogs were dog piling on the mound at the College World Series.
“Everything that's happened to us, I don't think anyone is ready for,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said. “In that locker room right now, it's tough for those guys. Some guys have to step up in a different job. When you lose somebody, it pushes everybody up…puts everybody in a different job. There's been some adjustment to that, but probably not as much adjustment as we should.”
This past weekend was just about the final nail in the coffin for State's postseason chances. After being swept by the Florida Gators, the Bulldogs' RPI fell into the triple digits and it would likely take a sweep of Texas A&M and Tennessee to get State into the tournament and even then it might not be secure with the high RPI.
It's a tough pill to swallow for Lemonis and his players for sure after such a high ending last year and the offseason that the team enjoyed. When nothing seems to go right, it's tough for the coach to find the words to say to his team.
“It's about doing the right thing and coming every day ready to compete,” Lemonis said. “It gets harder when you have three games at home like this. That's really the challenge. Everything's not going to go our way. How you handle it is important.”
The team vows to keep fighting, however.
There are only eight games left on the schedule starting with a trip to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium to take on Samford in Alabama tonight at 6 p.m.
MSU remains on the road to meet No. 10 Texas A&M this weekend in College Station and then the Bulldogs will close out with a home game against North Alabama next Tuesday and a series against No. 1 Tennessee next weekend.
For Lemonis, it's one game at a time at this point.
“After losing three here, it hurts,” Lemonis said. “We need to play good Tuesday. We need to get a good feel in us. Right now, we need to play good baseball for a day, then you try to repeat it, and then you try to repeat it again.
“I didn't think we were real good at all this weekend. We were close in some games. We just don't do enough good in any phase to really push ourselves away. That's why everything feels so tight because we never separate.”