Battle-tested MSU hosts South Carolina at Nusz Park

There is no better way to prepare for the beginning of conference play than to compete against the No. 1 team in the country.

The Mississippi State softball team has done that.

After two games against the top-ranked and defending national champion Oklahoma Sooners last weekend, the Bulldogs believe that has put them in a good position to take on the quality teams of the Southeastern Conference.

MSU will host the South Carolina Gamecocks for a three-game series today, Saturday and Sunday at Nusz Park.

It hasn't been just having Oklahoma on the schedule. The Bulldogs have also faced teams like Iowa, Arizona, Michigan and Central Florida in the pre-conference slate.

“With last weekend playing Oklahoma and those good teams put us up to the challenge and set us up well for the SEC coming up,” MSU captain Chloe Malau'ulu said.

“I'm excited to see what everyone is going to do and it's going to be a great time.”

Malau'ulu has the best power numbers offensively for MSU with six home runs and 25 runs battled in. She has a .315 batting average. Paige Cook leads the team in hitting with a .358 average.

The Bulldog pitching staff is paced by freshman Josey Marron with her 7-1 record and 1.57 earned run average. The staff leads the nation in strikeouts with 237.

It has been an outstanding season so far for the visiting Gamecocks with a 23-4 overall record. They lost two out of three games to LSU in the first SEC series with a 9-1 opening loss, a hard-earned 4-2 victory and a 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Tigers in the final. The only other losses for South Carolina have been to Stetson 4-3 and Charlotte 9-1.

Brooke Blankenship leads the Gamecocks with a .435 batting average.

“They are a quality team and have been playing really well lately,” MSU head coach

Samantha Ricketts said of South Carolina. “They are off to a great start and had a good opening series with LSU last weekend. I think we are going to see another high-powered offense rolling in so our pitching staff is going to have another challenge in front of them, but they throw a lot of arms too and, like us, have a deep bullpen so we are going to need to be prepared for a lot.”

The Bulldogs are off to another good record at 19-8 record coming off an NCAA

Super Regional appearance in 2022.

With the start of a grueling SEC schedule, Ricketts has been around long enough to know what that means.

“Anytime we get into conference play, we need to be on point in all three areas,” Ricketts aid. “You've got to pitch, you've got to hit with timely hitting and play defense.”

State and South Carolina will hit the field at 6 p.m. tonight with Saturday's game set for 2 p.m. and Sunday's final at noon.