Mississippi State softball looks to keep momentum in Stillwater
May 17—STARKVILLE — The Mississippi State softball team is peaking at the right time.
The 2021 NCAA Softball championship bracket was announced on Sunday night and Mississippi State was named the No. 2 seed in the Stillwater regional this weekend.
Regional host Oklahoma State, the No. 5 national seed, will play Campbell on Friday at 1 p.m. Mississippi State will then play No. 3 seed Boston University at 3:30 p.m.
The Bulldogs (33-23, 8-15 in SEC) have won eight of their last 10 games, including each of their last seven regular-season SEC games. They won five-straight games against ranked opponents, and reached the SEC Tournament quarterfinals before losing to top-ranked Florida.
"First of all, we're really excited about the opportunity to get back into the postseason and facing off against a tough Boston team to get started," head coach Samantha Ricketts said. "I know they have a really tough pitcher and good hitting and speed at the top of their lineup. They're not a team we can take lightly and look ahead."
Boston University has one of the best records in all of college softball. The Terriers are sitting at 36-2 and eclipsed a 21-1 conference record en route to winning the Patriot League this past weekend.
The only losses that Boston suffered this year were a 2-0 loss to Providence in early March and a 7-4 loss to Army on April 9th. The Terriers have since won 18 straight games with seven games ending early due to mercy rule.
Mississippi State, however, is also playing its best softball of the season. The Bulldogs were sitting at 1-14 in SEC play entering the month of May, but something clicked when the month turned over.
MSU took the final two games of the series with South Carolina on May 1 and 2, then swept a double-header from No. 22 Tennessee before wrapping up the regular season with a three-game sweep of Georgia.
Mississippi State beat No. 23 Ole Miss in the first round of the SEC tournament to cap off its eight-game winning streak before losing to No. 3 Florida.
"We just have to continue to do what has worked for us, even when we were losing" Ricketts said. "To control what we can control and do the little things right. We talked about cleaning up our defense and pitching a lot better like we have. Then it's just understanding that it's pitch-by-pitch and inning-by-inning and not making any moment or game bigger than the next."
