Mississippi State players continuing postseason standard
Jun. 15—STARKVILLE — There's a standard for postseason play within the Mississippi State baseball program, and the young players on the MSU roster are following right in suit with that standard.
No. 7 national seed Mississippi State punched its ticket to a third-straight College World Series berth on Monday night. The Bulldogs, now 45-16, beat No. 10 seed Notre Dame in a three-game series to advance.
No other team in the country has made the trip to Omaha in the last three years the event has been held.
Mississippi State has now been to Omaha 12 times in school history, tied for 11th for the most in NCAA history. There's a standard of making it there, and the young MSU players know fans will be disappointed if a season doesn't end in Omaha.
"It's the standard here," closing pitcher Landon Sims said. "As soon as you put pen to paper that you're coming to play baseball at Mississippi State, you know to get to Omaha is the standard."
Sims, a COVID freshman, is one of the biggest reasons Mississippi State is making its 12th Omaha trip. He has been MSU's best and most consistent pitcher this year with a 4-0 record, a 1.50 ERA and 11 saves.
He earned his 11th save in Saturday's 9-8 win over Notre Dame, then entered the game on Monday with a six-run lead in the sixth inning and pitched a career-long four innings to secure the win.
This is Sims' first trip to Omaha since the 2020 season was canceled last year. As a commit two years ago, Sims had the chance to go watch MSU play with his family but declined the offer from his parents.
"I told them, 'Let's save some money because I have a really good feeling that we may be taking a trip or two to Omaha while I'm here,'" Sims said to his parents.
Logan Tanner is another COVID freshman who had a huge impact in sending MSU to Omaha.
Tanner, the starting catcher, hit the game-winning home run in Saturday's game and hit a three-run home run in the second inning on Monday to put Mississippi State up, 7-1, in the deciding Game 3.
He finished the weekend only 3 for 12 at the plate but hit the two biggest home runs of the weekend and also hit a double that eventually led to a run on Monday.
Tanner grew up a Mississippi State fan and always wanted to play baseball at MSU, so he chose school over the MLB Draft out of high school in 2019.
And after his two home runs left the park this weekend, Tanner was finally able to dogpile on Dudy Noble Field like he always dreamed of.
"It's an incredible feeling," Tanner said of the dogpile. "The first couple of seconds are fun but after that it gets a little crowded, a little uncomfortable to say the least. It was really fun and I was glad I got to do it with my boys."
