Mississippi State softball to open 2024 season on home turf

Mississippi State softball head coach Samantha Ricketts released the Bulldogs’ 2024 schedule on Tuesday, and MSU will open the season by hosting The Snowman — a tournament that honors former Bulldogs outfielder Alex Wilcox, who died from ovarian cancer in 2018 — from Feb. 9-11 at Nusz Park.

The opponents for The Snowman have not yet been announced, but MSU has hosted the event each year since 2019. For the fourth straight season, all Southeastern Conference teams will wear teal uniforms for a day on Apr. 13 as part of the “All for Alex” campaign. The Bulldogs will host defending SEC regular season and tournament champion Tennessee that day.

Following the opening weekend at home, MSU will travel south of the border to Mexico for the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge, where the Bulldogs will take on UC Davis, UC San Diego, Utah and Clemson. Up next is the prestigious Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic in Cathedral City, Calif., which will pit MSU against UCF, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Fresno State and Cal State Fullerton.

Six of the Bulldogs’ nine opponents in those two weekends made the 2023 NCAA Tournament, including the three-time defending national champion Sooners. Utah also advanced to the Women’s College World Series, and Clemson appeared in its second consecutive super regional.

MSU will host another tournament from Feb. 29 to Mar. 3 before the Bulldogs open SEC play at rival Ole Miss from Mar. 8-10. Their conference home opponents will be Texas A&M (Mar. 15-17), Florida (Mar. 28-30), Tennessee (Apr. 12-14) and Georgia (May 3-5). They will also face Arkansas (Mar. 22-24), South Carolina (Apr. 5-7) and Missouri (Apr. 26-28) on the road.

Midweek home opponents include Memphis (doubleheader on Mar. 12), Louisiana-Monroe (Mar. 13) and South Alabama (Apr. 10). MSU will travel to Alabama State (doubleheader on Mar. 20), Alabama-Birmingham (Apr. 3) and Samford (Apr. 23), and will also take on Southern Miss in Jackson on Apr. 17. The SEC Tournament will be hosted by Auburn from May 7-11.

Last year, the Bulldogs finished 28-25 overall but just 7-16 in conference play, and were the only SEC team not to make the NCAA Tournament. That followed a 2022 season in which MSU upset No. 2 national seed Florida State in NCAA Regionals to reach the program’s first-ever super regional, which the Bulldogs lost at home in two games to Arizona.

Ricketts is entering her fifth season as MSU head coach and is 125-80 overall and 25-45 in the SEC. The Bulldogs have five freshmen on the roster this year and added three impact transfers — outfielder Sierra Sacco from Louisiana Tech, catcher Jessie Blaine from Auburn and pitcher Lexi Sosa from UCLA.