Last regular season loss shouldn’t send everyone into panic mode

A10-8 loss to South Carolina on Saturday won't be enough to shake the confidence of the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Everyone else should chill a little bit too.

Of course the Bulldogs wanted to beat the Game- cocks and win the Southeast- ern Conference Western Division outright, but that didn't happen and it's already on to the next one for MSU.

The hiccup against South Carolina was just a small interruption

for what Marshall Gilbert and the Bulldogs really want to accomplish.

“We have goals after that,” Gilbert said. “This was just one of those goals. Win the SEC was one of them, then win the (SEC) tournament, win the regional, win the super and win the national championship.”

Texas A&M'S success at home against Arkansas gave MSU a chance to have the SEC West title all to itself. The Aggies took two out of three games from the Razorbacks and ended up sharing the top with the Bulldogs at 20-10.

MSU has the fourth seed for next week's SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., and play the final game on Wednesday against an opponent to be determined.

The SEC Tournament will be the next quest to conquer for the Bulldogs and don't think for one second that's it's not important to them.

MSU head coach Chris Lemonis wants his team to play well in Hoover and have momentum going into the NCAA Tournament.

One loss to the Gamecocks should not send all who support the Bulldogs into a panic. There is still a great amount of baseball left to be played. If the MSU players think about what happened Saturday too much, they might be in trouble come Wednesday and beyond.

Sure the Bulldogs are disappointed they didn't win a conference crown. Since that didn't happen, they must refocus for whatever becomes the next challenge.

For first baseman Tanner Allen, he won't be happy unless MSU is the last team left standing in Omaha, Neb., in a couple of months.

“We still have a chip on our shoulder,” Allen said. “We're not the No. 1 team in the country yet. Until we are, we are still grinding.”

Danny P. Smith is the sports editor and columnist for The Starkville Daily News. The opinions in this column are his and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SDN or its staff.