No. 18 State Closes Regular Season At Ole Miss

STARKVILLE – Rivalry weekend has come to the softball diamond as No. 18/16 Mississippi State prepares to end the regular season with a three-game series at Ole Miss. All SEC teams will play their final weekend series from Thursday-Saturday to allow for travel to next week's SEC Tournament.

The Bulldogs have had success against in-state foes in recent years under head coach Samantha Ricketts. MSU is 31-6 against Mississippi teams with five of those losses being to the Rebels over the past seven seasons.

State is coming off a series win against LSU for just the second time in program history. Meanwhile, Ole Miss won its last series against Auburn. The Bulldogs remain firmly in the debate over one of the 16 regional host spots in the NCAA Tournament, and a win in the series would help their case.

MSU is the only team in the league that played all eight SEC series against Quad 1 teams in the latest RPI. In fact, State has just one loss outside of Quad 1 all season.

Game Coverage

Thursday, April 30

6 p.m. – Ole Miss | Watch on SEC Network+ | Live Stats | Listen on HailState.com

Friday, May 1

2 p.m. – Ole Miss | Watch on SEC Network+ | Live Stats | Listen on HailState.com

Saturday, May 2

2 p.m. – Ole Miss | Watch on SEC Network | Live Stats | Listen on HailState.com

Leading Off

Goold As Gold: Peja Goold received the 17th and final Golden Ticket for the AUSL Draft on Saturday. In three years at Mississippi State, Taryne Mowatt-McKinney has graduated three pitchers to the professional ranks, one in each season.

Defensive Dawgs: State boasts a .984 fielding percentage, which ranks fifth in the nation. The school record is .977 set in 2009 with just 34 total errors. MSU has only 21 this season and has gone errorless in 33 of 51 games, including five straight. State's longest errorless streak this year is eight games.

Down On Strikes: Alyssa Faircloth enters the weekend with 210 strikeouts, which is fifth in MSU single-season history. She is six shy of fourth place. Faircloth has gotten a quarter of her batters looking, and her 52 strikeouts looking are just five shy of the MSU single-season record.

Barbary's Bat: Nadia Barbary ranks seventh in school history with 45 career doubles and fifth in MSU's SEC play records with 23 for her career. Barbary ranks seventh in program history with 31 career home runs and is top-10 in both RBIs and total bases as well.

Finding Any Way On: Kiarra Sells has been walked or hit by a pitch 20 times in the last 20 games. She is among the top five in MSU career history in slugging, on-base percentage and OPS.

Rocky Road: MSU is the only SEC team that saw all eight of its conference series played against Quad 1 teams. The Bulldogs boast the No. 10 strength of schedule and the No. 12 non-conference RPI in the country.

Our State: The Bulldogs are 31-6 against teams from the state of Mississippi under Samantha Ricketts, while outscoring in-state foes, 266-84. State has won three consecutive series with rival Ole Miss.

Hot Hands: Xiane Romero and Paige Ernstes had big weekends for the Bulldogs against LSU. The pair broke out to go a combined 8-for-17 (.476) with three homers and eight of State's 12 RBIs.

Watching The Win Column: A sweep this weekend would give MSU 39 wins in the regular season alone, matching its highest total in a year under Samantha Ricketts. MSU has just two 40-win seasons on record in 2000 and 2008.

About Ole Miss (30-22, 4-17 SEC)

Series History

Notables

The Rebels are coming off a series win at Auburn that saw freshman Madi Geroge earn a trio of national Freshman Awards and SEC Freshman of the Week honors after going 7-for-11 on the weekend with three home runs, a double and three walks while driving in 10 RBIs. Prior to that, Ole Miss had lost seven straight SEC games. The Rebels rank 11th nationally with 27 double plays turned. Shortstop Cassie Reasner leads the league in assists per game, and Kennedy Bunker leads the SEC in runners caught stealing (11). Mackenzie Pickens has been hit by a pitch an SEC-leading 13 times.

On Deck

The 2026 SEC Tournament is slated to be hosted by Kentucky in Lexington. If the season ended today, the Bulldogs (36-15, 8-13 SEC) would currently be the 10-seed and would open play on Tuesday against the 15-seed and host Wildcats.

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No. 18 State Closes Regular Season At Ole Miss

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Players Mentioned

Nadia Barbary

Paige Ernstes

Alyssa Faircloth

Peja Goold

Xiane Romero

Kiarra Sells

Mississippi State University Athletics

No. 18 State Closes Regular Season At Ole Miss

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Next Event

Players Mentioned

Nadia Barbary

Paige Ernstes

Alyssa Faircloth

Peja Goold

Xiane Romero

Kiarra Sells

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