No. 16 Bulldogs Begin SEC Tournament Against Mizzou
May 19, 2026 | Baseball
HOOVER, Ala. - Mississippi State spent the regular season building the kind of résumé that makes May matter. Now the 16th-ranked Diamond Dawgs get their first chance to add to it in Hoover.
No. 8 seed MSU opens SEC Tournament play Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. against Missouri at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and televised on SEC Network. The 16th-seeded Tigers eliminated No. 9 seed Ole Miss with a 10-8 victory on the opening day of the tournament.
The Bulldogs (39-16) have handled well Mizzou recently. MSU leads the all-time series 16-7 and swept the Tigers to close out the regular season last year in Columbia. The Diamond Dawgs erupted offensively for 25-7, 13-3 and 12-1 victories with the final two games ending after seven innings.
This year's meeting comes in a different setting and with a different Mississippi State team — one that has built its identity around a powerful lineup, a strikeout-heavy pitching staff and the quick imprint Brian O'Connor has made in his first season in Starkville.
The Bulldogs will hand the ball to sophomore left-hander Tomas Valincius, who has been one of the SEC's most reliable arms for most of the spring. Valincius is 9-2 with a 3.04 ERA, 112 strikeouts and only 17 walks in 80 innings. He will oppose Missouri left-hander Brady Kehlenbrink, who enters 3-9 with a 6.69 ERA, 92 strikeouts and 21 walks.
Valincius has given MSU a top-of-the-rotation presence since arriving from Virginia with O'Connor. He opened SEC play with seven shutout innings at Arkansas, followed with a career-high 14 strikeouts against Vanderbilt and struck out 13 without issuing a walk in a win over Auburn on May 7. The first team All-SEC perfomer's body of work has been one of the more important reasons State reached Hoover in position to strengthen its postseason standing rather than scramble for it.
Mississippi State offense has been one of the best in the country. The Diamond Dawgs are hitting .314 as a team with a .545 slugging percentage, a .411 on-base percentage, 120 doubles and 102 home runs. That home run total is one shy of the single-season school record set last year. State also ranks among the national leaders in batting average, hits, runs, slugging percentage and home runs.
Missouri (24-40) counters with a .262 team batting average, .408 slugging percentage and 51 home runs. The Tigers have struggled on the mound, carrying a 5.75 ERA into the contest, while MSU owns a 4.34 ERA and has struck out 610 hitters in 473 innings.
The Bulldogs' lineup remains the biggest separator. Ace Reese has again been the centerpiece, entering Hoover with a .332 average, 20 home runs, 67 RBIs and an SEC-leading 21 doubles. Reese became only the third player in school history to produce consecutive 20-home run seasons, joining Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro.
Noah Sullivan gives State another first-team All-SEC presence in the middle of the order. Sullivan is hitting .347 with 11 home runs and 43 RBIs, and he closed the regular season as one of MSU's hottest bats, going 8-for-14 last week with three homers and six RBIs. Bryce Chance has been just as steady, leading Bulldog regulars with a .350 average while adding 18 doubles, 33 RBIs and a team-best 12 stolen bases.
MSU also has gotten a major lift from freshman Jacob Parker, who is batting .326 with 13 home runs and 50 RBIs. Parker, a Freshman All-SEC selection, has slugged .681 and hit seven of his home runs in conference play. Gehrig Frei has added a .330 average, nine homers and 39 RBIs, while Reed Stallman has provided 12 home runs and 46 RBIs.
It will be just the second time the two teams have met in the SEC Tournament. The Bulldogs won the previous matchup 2-1 in 17 innings in 2013.
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