Mississippi State
Georgia
Stage Set For State, Georgia Showdown In Athens Super Regional
June 05, 2026 | Baseball
ATHENS, Ga. - Mississippi State's first season under Brian O'Connor has already delivered a regional championship. Now the 17th-ranked Diamond Dawgs are two wins from Omaha.
Mississippi State (43-17) opens the Athens Super Regional against No. 3 Georgia (49-12) on Saturday at Foley Field in a best-of-three NCAA Tournament series matching two Southeastern Conference powers with familiar lineups, familiar scouting reports and a College World Series berth on the line. Game 1 is scheduled for 10 a.m. CT on ESPN, with Game 2 set for 11 a.m. Sunday on ESPN. Monday's if-necessary game time and network will be announced later.
MSU enters the weekend with momentum after sweeping through the Starkville Regional, beating Lipscomb 10-1, No. 24 Cincinnati 10-5 and No. 25 Louisiana 19-5 to claim the program's 17th regional championship. State hit .384 with 11 doubles, a triple and 11 home runs during the regional and outscored opponents 39-11. On the mound, Mississippi State posted a 3.33 ERA with 36 strikeouts and 10 walks in 27 innings.
Freshman outfielder Jacob Parker was the catalyst, earning Starkville Regional Most Outstanding Player honors after hitting .700 with a double, three home runs, seven RBIs, 11 runs, four walks and two hit-by-pitches. He is hitting .340 with 16 homers and 58 RBIs in his first season and is one of five finalists for Baseball America's Freshman of the Year.
State's lineup has not been short on production around him. Noah Sullivan enters the weekend batting .346 with 12 home runs and 45 RBIs, Bryce Chance is hitting .340, Gehrig Frei is batting .338 with 75 hits and Ace Reese has supplied the power with a .328 average, 22 home runs and 72 RBIs. Reese, a first-team All-SEC pick, is one of three players in MSU history with consecutive 20-homer seasons along with Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro.
Mississippi State's offense has been one of the nation's most dangerous. MSU is batting .317 with a .415 on-base percentage, .558 slugging percentage, 133 doubles and a school-record 117 home runs. The previous MSU single-season home run record was 103, set last season.
Georgia's offense presents an imposing power challenge as well. Georgia is batting .326 with a .439 on-base percentage, .624 slugging percentage and 165 home runs. Georgia has also walked 324 times and stolen 69 bases in 75 attempts.
Sophomore left-hander Tomas Valincius is scheduled to start Game 1 for Mississippi State against Georgia right-hander Joey Volchko. Valincius enters 11-2 with a 2.99 ERA, 130 strikeouts and just 19 walks in 93 1/3 innings. Volchko is 10-2 with a 3.87 ERA, 98 strikeouts and 43 walks.
Valincius has been one of the SEC's top arms in his first season at State. The Ferriss Trophy winner leads the league in wins and ranks second in strikeouts, while also sitting among the SEC leaders in ERA, WHIP, strikeout-to-walk ratio and innings. His 86 strikeouts in league play were the most by any SEC pitcher.
MSU's rotation beyond Game 1 has not been announced, but Ryan McPherson and Duke Stone both delivered important regional starts. McPherson struck out seven without a walk in the Starkville Regional final after missing six straight SEC weekends earlier this season with a strained right forearm. Stone opened the regional by striking out 10 across six shutout innings against Lipscomb.
Mississippi State's staff has piled up 663 strikeouts this season, the third-most in school history. Three of MSU's top six strikeout seasons have come under pitching coach Justin Parker.
The challenge is familiar. Georgia swept Mississippi State in Starkville during the regular season, winning 10-9, 3-1 and 8-5 in 10 innings, then edged State 5-3 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals in Hoover. Georgia leads the all-time series 55-53.
Still, MSU arrives in Athens with postseason history behind it. Mississippi State is making its 11th Super Regional appearance and owns five Super Regional titles since 1999, the most recent coming in 2021 on the way to the program's first national championship. State is 11-12 all-time in the Super Regional round.
O'Connor is also no stranger to this stage. The first-year MSU coach is making his 10th Super Regional appearance in 19 NCAA Tournament trips. O'Connor, who led Virginia to the 2015 national title before coming to Starkville, is 43-17 in his first season at Mississippi State.
The reward is the biggest stage in the sport. Mississippi State has reached the College World Series 12 times and is one of four programs to appear in Omaha in six straight decades. Two more wins would send State back for the first time since 2021.
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