Mississippi
Mississippi State baseball heading to ACC country for regional play
After two down years and a lot of frustrations, Mississippi State baseball is back in the NCAA Baseball Tournament. The Bulldogs put together a 38-21 season that included a 17-13 SEC record and fifth-place finish in league play. It was a big step back towards what’s expected in Starkville.
In fact, it was a strong enough season that many expected State would host a regional. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs were not announced as one of the 16 regional hosts yesterday evening. It was a controversial decision that Bulldog fans had plenty of opinions on.
The Diamond Dawgs will have to hit the road for regional play, and today, we learned where they’re headed.
MSU is off to ACC country. The Bulldogs are the 2-seed in the Charlottesville regional, hosted by #12 national seed Virginia. They’ll face 3-seed St. John’s on Friday for their opening game of regional play. Virginia will play 4-seed Penn.
St. John’s is 37-16-1 this season. They were strong in Big East play going 14-7 and winning the league tournament. The Red Storm opened the year with a win over Florida and earned solid series wins over Xavier and Creighton.
Virginia has lived up to their usual reputation. The Cavaliers are 41-15, going 18-12 in the ACC. They have a dangerous offense and picked up an impressive series win over North Carolina. Penn is in their second-straight regional after winning the Ivy League tournament. Last year they started 2-0 in the Auburn regional before dropping 2-straight to USM.
The Charlottesville regional is paired up with the Fayetteville regional. If State can advance through regionals, they’d most likely face a familiar foe in Arkansas for Super Regional play.
While there’s no guarantee State will face UVA, if they do, these programs have some history. The Bulldogs have fun memories in Charlottesville. In 2013, MSU played at UVA for Super Regionals. The Dawgs won the series 2-0 to advance to Omaha for the first time since 2007. That State team would be the first to advance to the National Championship Series.
In the 2021 College World Series, the Bulldogs faced the Cavs in the winner’s bracket. Down 4-0 and being no-hit through seven innings, State exploded for six runs in the top of 8th, highlighted by Tanner Allen’s unforgettable go-ahead 3-run homer, and went on to win 6-5. That State team, of course, would go on to win the first national title in school history.
While we’d love to see State playing in Starkville, this team has the makings of a dangerous 2-seed. If they can find some consistency at the plate, there’s no reason they can’t go on a run.
HOOVER, AL — Mississippi State baseball had a chance to bust a myth in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals against Georgia.
MSU hasn’t had issues beating the bad and average teams but has struggled to get wins against the top teams.
A win for No. 8 seed MSU over No. 1 Georgia could’ve extinguished that, but Georgia (44-12) won 5-3 on May 21 at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium to eliminate MSU (40-17).
That leaves Mississippi State 9-14 in Quad 1 games, the type of matchups it will need to win to make a run to the College World Series. And four of those Quad 1 wins are against Ole Miss. Mississippi State is 31-3 in Quads 2-4.
“Their spirits are up,” Mississippi State coach Brian O’Connor said. “Obviously they’re disappointed about today. But they really, really believe in each other. And I feel like this team has the skill and want-to to play for a long time.”
Mississippi State had three weeks to prove it can consistently win against elite teams. Its last three series of the regular season were all Quad 1 — at Texas, home against Auburn and at Texas A&M.
Mississippi State lost all three of those series but didn’t get swept in any of them.
However, Mississippi State has been competitive in just about every game. It’s only been run-ruled once, May 9 against Auburn. Six of the 14 Quad 1 losses are by one run and three of them are by two runs.
“We’re playing well,” Mississippi State designated hitter Noah Sullivan said. “We’re all excited. We want to play at home, and hopefully that does happen. But I mean, this game, it is what it is. We didn’t do enough on both sides, and it just is what it is. We’ll move forward, get back to work and see what happens.”
Brian O’Connor believes Mississippi State will host regional
O’Connor said after the loss to Georgia that he believes Mississippi State will be one of the 16 NCAA Tournament teams to host a regional.
D1Baseball had Mississippi State as the No. 14 national seed before the loss to Georgia, and Baseball America projected Mississippi State as the No. 13 seed.
“I hope on Sunday the committee feels that we are worthy of that,” O’Connor said. “I know our fan base and the community of Starkville will do an incredible job hosting a regional welcoming the other teams. And I believe this team has earned the right to be able to do that.”
MSU hasn’t hosted a regional since 2021, the year it won the program’s only national championship.
The regional hosts will be announced May 24 before the full bracket reveal on May 25.
“We’re right there,” O’Connor said. “We just need to be a little bit better starting next weekend in those tight ball games.”
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for The Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@usatodayco.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
The SEC regular season champion Georgia Bulldogs (43-12, 23-7 SEC) begin the SEC Tournament against the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. Mississippi State is 40-16 (16-14 SEC) entering their matchup with Georgia. Mississippi State is coming off a 12-2 run-rule win in seven innings over Missouri.
The Bulldogs enters the SEC Tournament having won 11 of their last 12 games. Georgia leads the nation in home runs. Georgia catcher Daniel Jackson was recently named as the SEC player of the year.
“We’re planning on going with our regular routine,” Georgia baseball manager Wes Johnson said ahead of the SEC Tournament. “From a pitching standpoint on Thursday, we have a lot of guys who will be ready to throw. I’ll see who wins the first few games before we announce exactly what we’re planning to do, but we’re staying with it. We’ve got guys on bullpen schedules, as if we’re playing a Thursday, Friday, Saturday series.”
No. 1 seed Georgia and No. 8 seed Mississippi State met three times during the regular season with Georgia earning a road sweep at Mississippi State.
Watch Georgia vs Mississippi State live on Fubo (free trial)
Here’s how to watch the Georgia vs Mississippi State game today, including time, TV schedule, and streaming information:
What channel is Georgia vs Mississippi State on today?
TV Channel: SEC Network
Livestream: Fubo (free trial)
Georgia vs Mississippi State will broadcast nationally on SEC Network in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. Tom Hart and Dave Neal are alternating play-by-play duties throughout the SEC Tournament alongside analysts Todd Walker, Lance Cormier, Chris Burke and Kyle Peterson, who will be calling games from the booth at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. Streaming options for the game include FUBO, which offers a free trial to new subscribers.
Georgia vs Mississippi State time today
- Date: Thursday, May 21
- Start time: 4 p.m. ET
The Georgia vs Mississippi State game starts at 4 p.m. from Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in Hoover, Alabama.
Georgia vs Mississippi State prediction, College World Series odds
Odds courtesy of BetMGM as of Wednesday, May 20
We predict Georgia will defeat Mississippi State to advance in the SEC Tournament. Georgia swept Mississippi State during the regular season and has been elite against SEC opponents this season, so we can’t pick against UGA.
Georgia (plus-1000) and Mississippi State (plus-1000) both have top-five best odds to win the College World Series. Georgia and Mississippi State are only behind Texas (plus-900), Georgia Tech (plus-600) and UCLA (plus-550).
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Mississippi
Death investigation underway after Columbia Academy graduate taken off life support in Florida
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WDAM) – A death investigation has been opened after deputies in Florida responded to a life-threatening call involving a recent Columbia Academy graduate.
WDAM’s sister station, WJHG, reported that the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said Shannon Thomas Tanner, 19, was expected to be taken off of life support Wednesday after being declared brain dead.
According to the incident report obtained by WJHG, on Sunday, May 18, deputies arrived at a home in Panama City Beach and were told that Tanner had been drinking alcohol.
The report says an investigator asked someone at the home what happened, with the person telling the investigator that Tanner was “drinking too much.” EMS reportedly treated Tanner on scene.
BCSO is investigating the death of a 19-year-old from Mississippi
The cause of the medical emergency has not been confirmed, and the investigation is ongoing.
According to a GoFundMe set up to help with funeral expenses, Tanner was on his senior trip after graduating from Columbia Academy.
Columbia Academy made a Facebook post expressing its condolences for the family, saying the recent graduate was “the kind of person who can make anyone laugh, light up a room with his personality and dance moves, and make others feel valued simply by being himself.”
Return to WDAM 7 for updates on this developing story.
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