Allen hoping Dudy Noble Field offers boost for Bulldogs
Jun. 11—STARKVILLE — With one final postseason run in his Mississippi State career, senior outfielder and SEC Player of the Year Tanner Allen is happy to be playing at Dudy Noble Field this weekend.
Mississippi State is looking to clinch its third-straight trip to Omaha and the College World Series. The No. 7 Bulldogs (43-15) are hosting a super regional series against No. 10 Notre Dame (33-11) this weekend.
The best-of-three series begins Saturday at 1 p.m. at Dudy Noble Field. Game two will be on Sunday at 5 p.m. and Game 3 is on Monday at 6 p.m., if necessary.
Allen has been part of both a visiting super regional in 2018 against Vanderbilt and home super regional in 2019 against Stanford, which MSU won both to clinch trips to Omaha. There was no tournament in 2020 after COVID shut down the season.
And after experiencing both sides, Allen is excited to play in front of his home crowd.
"When you make plays and are playing good, you get the crowd behind you and we have a lot of momentum and it just keeps rolling and rolling," Allen said of home-field advantage. "It's hard for the visiting team to get it back."
No limits
Dude Noble's home-field advantage will be much different than what Notre Dame has been used to playing against this year. Notre Dame has had limited capacity for much of its baseball season, and just moved to full capacity last weekend for its regional tournament.
But even at full capacity, Notre Dame's Frank Eck Stadium only hosts 1,825 people. That is much different than Dudy Noble Field, which hosted 27,056 people over Mississippi State's three games last weekend.
Allen emphasized how important it is for MSU to be at home this weekend, because Notre Dame's high-powered offense will hit into its fair share of runs. The Fighting Irish scored 50 runs in three games last weekend, but Allen is hoping the "Dude Effect" can keep the momentum on Mississippi State's side.
"I told our guys that I promise you one thing, Notre Dame when they come here, they have never played in front of an atmosphere like they are going to play in front of this upcoming weekend, so we're going to use it to our advantage," Allen said after winning the regional last weekend.
