Miss. State sheds national title curse

FAYETTEVILLE — Seems these Mississippi State Bulldogs entered Baum-Walker Stadium Friday night finally kicking the curse of winning the College World Series.

The Arkansas Razorbacks vs. Mississippi State 3-game SEC West series was scheduled to begin Friday night at Baum-Walker and continue at 6 p.m, Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

Not much good has been happening to Mississippi State, Ole Miss and LSU since the three SEC teams respectively won college baseball’s national championship in 2021, 2022 and 2023 at Omaha.

Coach Chris Lemonis’ Bulldogs, 50-18 national champions in 2021, didn’t qualify for regionals in 2022 and 2023 off consecutive 9-21 SEC seasons.

Ole Miss followed its 2022 national championship sliding to 6-24 in the 2023 SEC campaign and struggles 9-15 in the current SEC.

LSU, the 2023 national champion also struggles 9-15 in the current SEC though its 32-18 overall record lends for greater postseason potential than Ole Miss’ 25-23.

“Sometimes the national championship hangover,” Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said. “You can’t get over it. It’s just something that, it’s just the way it is.”

Mississippi State, 32-16, 1410 entering Friday night’s game against Arkansas ace Hagen Smith, has climbed back into contention ranked 14th nationally and lurking to contend with SEC West leaders Arkansas, 40-9, 17-7 before Friday, ranked fifth nationally and Texas A&M, 41-8, 16-8, ranked third nationally.

“Believe me, we know where they’re at,” Van Horn said. “We don’t feel like they’re hiding in the corner. We know right where they are. They’re right on our tail. A&M probably feels the same way.”

Van Horn feels the same about A&M, Arkansas’ final SEC opponent May 16-18 at College Station, Texas, as he does Mississippi State.

“I think all the coaches would say the two teams you don’t want to play are Mississippi State and Texas A&M and we play both of them,” Van Horn said.

Arkansas created fear in the SEC throughout this season but after Smith’s victory last weekend in Lexington, Ky., lost the next two to SEC East/overall leader Kentucky, 18-6.

“A few weeks ago, they probably said you didn’t want to play Arkansas,” Van Horn said. “Now they’re probably saying, ‘Yeah, Arkansas, they’re just getting by. They don’t score enough runs and once you get past Hagen you’re in good shape.’ Hey, it is what it is.”

Right-hander Brady Tygart, 4-2, 3.34 ERA, starts for Arkansas on Saturday. After thoughts of replacing lefty junior transfer via Texas Tech Mason Molina, 3-2, 3.84 with red-hot reliever Gage Wood as Sunday’s starter, Van Horn sticks with Molina, 3-2, 3.81. In early season command, Molina has struggled his last couple of outings.

“Hopefully he has a better outing than he had in the last couple,” Van Horn said. “He’s an older guy. He’s got a lot of weekend experience at this level. I expect him just to be a lot better.”

(AP/Nati Harnik) The Arkansas Razorbacks created fear in the SEC throughout this season. “A few weeks ago, they probably said you didn’t want to play Arkansas,” Coach Dave Van Horn said. “Now they’re probably saying, ‘Yeah, Arkansas, they’re just getting by.’ ”