State's work to make super regional rewarded with this season's success
There's been a push uphill for Mississippi State softball for years.
The Bulldogs have been working to get to the top many times with that final effort to get there not quite enough. Most years one can find MSU in a regional, but the team came into 2022 without ever hosting an NCAA Regional or Super Regional and it had never advanced to a super regional round.
Last Sunday, though, head coach Samantha Ricketts vision for her Bulldogs to make history was finally put into the light with two magical wins at No. 2 Florida State. It has been years in the making and much hard work but success is coming.
“This team is a testament to the teams that have all been there before,” Ricketts said. “We talk a lot about learning from the past and we knew that the next step was to win a game on a regional Sunday. I think it was taking those experiences, learning from it and understanding that we weren't satisfied just setting that history for the program.
“It's been the message since weekend one when we faced No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 3 UCLA and it didn't go well for us, but that was the point – we wanted to challenge ourselves. We wanted to test the team and see where we were.”
Ricketts has been a part of the MSU program for eight years. She followed up an incredible playing career, and at the highest level, by hitting the coaching ranks. She spent some time getting seasoned with Oklahoma and Wichita State before coming to Starkville and being a Bulldog assistant for five seasons.
After elevating to head coach, Ricketts has had a goal to make history in Starkville. The last three years she's been building towards it. Before the COVID-19 shutdown, Rickett's team in 2020 had the best start in school history at 25-3. Last season, it was the finish to the regular season that was so special as MSU went from 0-13 in the Southeastern Conference to winning eight of the last 10 to get in the tournament.
This year, MSU upped its win total in SEC play to 10, but the Bulldogs were far more competitive than the record indicated. Seniors like pitcher Annie Willis are a big part of that. The Troy transfer is in her third season and had a 2.44 ERA this season against some of the nation's best lineups striking out 136 batters in 126.1 innings.
Accomplishing these history making moments is something that she believed her team could do when she came to MSU.
“It's something that from the first day I stepped on campus we talked about,” Willia said. “We set a goal and we wanted to make it happen. I kept saying that it's unreal, but it's just so awesome to be a part of.”
While Willis has been the steadiest of pitchers in the circle this season, the Bulldogs have a whole staff that has been pulling the same rope. Last week, MSU got a great appearance from Willis out of the bullpen to shut down Florida State and clinch the regional title, but the Bulldogs don't get to that game if Aspen Wesley doesn't throw a two-hit shutout against the Seminoles in game one.
Wesley has a 2.93 ERA this season and has been somewhat of an opener for State this year. Kenley Hawk has also been strong and leads the team with 11 wins in her 34 games pitched with a 3.05 ERA. Together, those three have allowed the Bulldogs to have stamina and keep teams off balanced.
“The pitching staff has been exceptional down the stretch,” Ricketts said. “The biggest thing that those three do is they buy into the idea of a staff and doing it together. They are each other's biggest cheerleaders. They buy into it and buy into the game plan that they're doing with coach Josh (Johnson) and they've really done a great job of focusing in and not putting too much pressure on themselves because they know they're not doing it by themselves.”
It's been a season and a run to remember for MSU, but the team is not trying to be satisfied now. Ahead of this weekend's matchup with Arizona beginning today, the Bulldogs are two wins away from accomplishing something that no team in school history has accomplished – booking a trip to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City.
It's a vision that Ricketts was a part of six years ago when Nusz Park was built and it's continuing to build with the announcement of a