Mississippi
Baseball: Powell blasts three homers to bail out Mississippi State against North Alabama
STARKVILLE — Chris Lemonis isn’t sure what’s gotten into Joe Powell lately, but Mississippi State’s head coach sure hopes his senior catcher keeps doing whatever he’s been doing.
“Maybe he met a cute girl. She’s lucky,” Lemonis said. “I don’t know. I hope he keeps talking to her.”
Powell was out of baseball last season after three years at Cincinnati, and splitting opportunities with Johnny Long behind the plate, had not given the Bulldogs much in the power department. But after connecting on his first home run of the year Sunday at Arkansas, Powell hit three homers off three different pitchers Tuesday night, almost single-handedly saving MSU from a disastrous loss as the Bulldogs defeated North Alabama 8-4.
On a night where Nate Dohm, who opened the season as MSU’s Friday starting pitcher, returned to the mound for the first time in more than a month after battling an arm injury, his backstop stole the show with a solo shot in the third inning, a go-ahead three-run blast in the sixth and a two-run homer in the eighth. Powell also singled in the fourth for a perfect 4-for-4 night.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Powell said. “I made an adjustment in my swing and (I’ve) been seeing the ball well and swinging at good pitches.”
Dohm threw just two innings, as was the plan all along, retiring all six batters he faced with a pair of strikeouts on only 22 pitches. His fastball was sitting comfortably in the low-to-mid 90s, and Lemonis’ goal is to have him back at close to full strength for the postseason.
“It’s really good to have him back,” Powell said. “He’s looked really good. He’s had some ups and downs, but he’s a tough kid and it’s going to be big having him back down the stretch.”
The Bulldogs (34-18) took the lead in the first inning when Bryce Chance led off with an infield hit, moved up on a wild pitch and a passed ball and scored on David Mershon’s single. Powell’s first homer, a 436-foot blast to the back of the lounge in left-center, gave MSU a 2-0 lead, but the Lions (17-33-1) hung tough. They broke up the shutout in the fourth on Cal Cook’s solo home run off Colby Holcombe, then tied the game on Andrew Knight’s double in the sixth.
With runners at the corners and one out in the Bulldogs’ half of the sixth, Michael O’Brien’s grounder to the right side hit Ethan Pulliam on the foot as he was running toward second base for the second out, forcing Amani Larry back to third. That could have snuffed out the rally, but Powell turned on the first pitch he saw from Carson Howard and launched it to the second level of the lounge in left for a three-run shot, giving MSU the lead for good.
“I told him a couple weeks ago, I feel like he had finally gotten comfortable,” Lemonis said. “You come here, it’s a lot different from where he came from. He came from a good school, but this is the pinnacle. So (he’s) getting comfortable, relaxed, knowing his role. He’s a hard-working kid. He just shows up every day to hit, work, and you’re seeing that he’s playing pretty free right now.”
North Alabama drew closer in the eighth with two runs against Cam Schuelke, but Powell capped his career night with a 421-foot shot off the batters’ eye in straightaway center field in the bottom of the inning. The Bulldogs’ pitchers allowed eight hits but issued just one walk and recorded 11 strikeouts.
MSU concludes the regular season with a three-game series at home against Missouri starting Thursday evening. The Bulldogs will likely drop a spot or two in the RPI rankings just by playing the Lions, who entered the day at No. 280 out of 305 Division I teams, but Lemonis said he was not worried about whether the game would affect their chances of being selected as a top-16 seed and NCAA regional host.
“They’re going to reward us if we’re one of the best 16 teams to host,” Lemonis said. “We have to prove it on the field. I just felt like it was more important to play than to cancel our game. I know our group’s done enough. We have to play good baseball this weekend, but us playing tonight is not the reason we will host or not host.”
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STARKVILLE, Miss. (WLBT) – Mississippi State got a dominant performance from Tomas Valincius and a 13-hit offensive performance to defeat Cincinnati 10-5 on Saturday night at Dudy Noble Field, moving on the the Starkville Regional Championship.
The Bulldogs broke open a tight game with a three-run fifth inning before adding four more runs in the sixth and two in the seventh.
Reese gets it started
Ace Reese started the scoring with a solo home run to center field in the first inning, giving the Bulldogs an early 1-0 lead. Cincinnati answered in the second when Christian Mitchelle doubled to shallow left, scoring Enzo Infelise to tie the game at 1-1.
Bulldogs score three in the fifth
Mississippi State scored three runs in the fifth inning, beginning with an RBI infield single from Bryce Chance to shortstop that scored Jacob Parker. Gehrig Frei followed with an infield single to second, plating Reed Stallman and Kevin Milewski to push the lead to 4-1.
Four more in the sixth
Mississippi State added four more runs in the sixth. Stallman delivered an RBI double to left to score Parker before Valincius crossed the plate on a wild pitch from Cincinnati’s Alex Gonzalez. Two batters later, Milewski launched a two-run homer to right field, stretching the Bulldogs’ lead to 8-1.
Stallman extends lead in the seventh
The Bulldogs extended the lead in the seventh when Stallman ripped a double to right, scoring Noah Sullivan and Parker for a 10-1 advantage.
Cincinnati added two runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth, making the final 10-5.
Valincius dominates on the mound
Valincius worked 7 1/3 innings, allowing just three runs on five hits while striking out 10 and walking two. He threw 112 pitches and recorded his 10th strikeout before exiting in the eighth inning. Maddox Webb took over after that and walked two batter. Ben Davis closed the game for State, pitching 1 1/3 innings, allowing two runs on three hits while striking out two.
Offensive leaders
Mississippi State finished with 13 hits.
Stallman led the way offensively, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two doubles. Chance collected three hits and drove in a run, while Frei finished with two hits and two RBIs. Reese added his first-inning homer, and Milewski’s two-run blast highlighted the sixth-inning surge. Parker scored three runs.
Up next
The Diamond Dawgs now head to the Starkville Regional Championship, where they will face the winner of the Cincinnati and Louisiana elimination game. State will only need one more win to advance to a Super Regional.
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HATTIESBURG, Miss. (WDAM) – The Mississippi Miss Hospitality Program announced Saturday that contestants competing for the title in 2026 will be eligible for the organization’s largest scholarship offerings in its 77-year history.
Contestants will be eligible for more than $105,000 in scholarships and prizes, including $32,500 in direct cash scholarships.
The winner of the competition will receive a $10,000 cash scholarship, tuition scholarships, travel opportunities and a total prize package valued at $27,000. The first alternate will receive a cash scholarship of $6,000, the second will receive $3,500, the third will receive $2,500 and the fourth will receive $2,000.
During Saturday’s announcement, the Advisory Board of the Mississippi Miss Hospitality Program also revealed that the winning cash scholarship will be named for Bonnie Warren.
Warren has spent decades supporting tourism, hospitality and economic development efforts across Mississippi. She also helped move the Miss Hospitality Program from Starkville to Hattiesburg in 1998 and has remained one of its strongest advocates.
The theme for this year’s Miss Hospitality will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary.
The competition will take place July 17-18 in Hattiesburg. Tickets will go on sale in two weeks.
The Miss Hospitality Program was founded in 1949.
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Copyright 2026 WDAM. All rights reserved.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Taryne Mowatt-McKinney called Mississippi State softball’s first Women’s College World Series appearance back in the fall.
Coach Samantha Ricketts said the Bulldogs’ pitching coach walked into her office in October to deliver her bold prediction.
“She said, ‘If our pitching continues to progress the way it is, we’re going to the World Series,’” Ricketts said. “We may have looked at her like she may have been a little crazy.”
But Mowatt-McKinney wasn’t crazy, and the Bulldogs delivered, making it to the WCWS for the first time in program history.
That experience was short-lived as the Bulldogs (43-21) lost 4-0 to No. 2 seed Texas (48-12) in an elimination game at Devon Park on May 29, ending their season.
The Bulldogs went 0-2 in the WCWS and did not score a run.
“Could not be more proud of this group for what they’ve done for Mississippi State softball and for each other, the way they’ve represented this team, this program, our community,” Ricketts said. “… They believed that Mississippi State could be here on this stage when nobody else did.”
Ricketts noted the team never wavered in its belief even when things got difficult. Mississippi State went 9-15 in SEC play, finishing 10th in the conference. The Bulldogs only won two of their SEC series and fell out of hosting contention for regionals in late April.
As a road team, MSU made it out of the Eugene Regional to super regionals. The Bulldogs upset No. 3 seed Oklahoma on its home field to be the only unseeded team at this year’s WCWS.
“Really we talked all year long that our roster was built for May,” Ricketts said. “With how difficult our SEC schedule was, the lessons we learned along the way, we knew that postseason it’s 0-0 for anyone. If we could continue to trust in the work that we had done, we could really do something special here.”
The trip to the WCWS was especially meaningful for seniors Nadia Barbary, Morgan Bernardini and Kiarra Sells. All three began their careers in Starkville. They took the program from not even making the NCAA Tournament their freshman year to the WCWS in their final season.
“It meant the world to us,” Sells said. “Even getting here was such a big deal to all of us. Honestly, we’re grateful to have been on this stage, to have worked our butts off to be here, to be a Mississippi State Bulldog. It was such a blessing.”
The team’s accomplishments also resonated with players who started their careers at other schools. Pitcher Peja Goold, a transfer from Chattanooga, reflected positively on what she’d gained from this final year.
Goold finished with a 2.50 ERA, 182 strikeouts and eight shutouts. She was picked in the second round of the AUSL draft by the Oklahoma Sparks.
“I’m just so grateful that Mississippi State gave me the chance to be here and the opportunity to play on this stage,” she said. “… I chose Mississippi State, look where it brought me. That’s such a blessing and I’m so thankful that God placed me here and led me to them.”
During the team’s two WCWS games, not much went in the Bulldogs favor. They were shut out both times and run-ruled by Texas Tech in their first game. Still, the Bulldogs are walking out of Oklahoma City full of gratitude and pride for what they achieved in 2026.
“We did the unthinkable, making history throughout our whole season,” Bernardini said. “Yes, this sucks right now, but it’s like what a better way to end it at the end?”
Tia Reid covers Jackson State sports for the Clarion Ledger. Email her at treid@usatodayco.com and follow her on X @tiareid65.
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