Coming off a hard-fought series win at Texas A&M, the No. 4 Tennessee Lady Vols softball team will host an up-and-coming Mississippi State squad for a three-game weekend series starting on Friday.
Mississippi State has struggled thus far in SEC play but seems to be righting the ship coming into the series. Last weekend, the Bulldogs took two out of three games from SEC-leader Alabama, marking the first time the Crimson Tide have dropped a series all season.
“It’s never hard to pay attention to anybody in the SEC,” co-head coach Karen Weekly said at Wednesday’s media availability. “Even the teams that might not have .500 records at this point in the season are very good.”
Mississippi State has already matched their win total from last year with 33 victories and has continued to improve each year since head coach Vann Stuedeman took over the program.
Stuedeman is in his third season in Starkville and has drastically turned the program around. He has the Bulldogs on pace to reach their third consecutive post-season appearance.
“Mississippi State has more wins at this point in the season than at any time since Vann Stuedeman has been there,” Weekly said. “They are a very good team, and they are on their way to making Regionals for the third straight year. Taking two out of three from Alabama should give them a whole lot of confidence.”
Unlike most programs, the Bulldogs don’t possess an established ace, preferring to take a pitcher by committee approach. They split their starts between three different pitchers, and opposing hitters are never certain who they will be facing.
“Our coaches are really rigorous with our film,” sophomore Hailey Tobler said. “We’ve seen what the pitchers can do, but it’s not different than any other team we face. Just see the ball, hit the ball.”
Alison Owen has been the most consistent pitcher for the Bulldogs this year, posting a 16-8 record with an ERA of 2.00. She has struck out 193 batters in only 146.2 innings pitched.
Alexsis Silkwood and Jacey Punches round out the Mississippi State staff, posting records of 10-5 and 7-1, respectively. Throwing three pitchers can make the Bulldogs a difficult team to prepare for at the plate, Weekly said.
“It does make it difficult (to prepare),” she said. “It also makes it more difficult that we didn’t have them on our schedule last year. We’re looking at video from two years ago when we played them, but none of those pitchers were there.”
Mississippi State has struggled to hit the ball at times this year, with only one player batting over .300. Caroline Seitz has been the Bulldogs top hitter this year, leading the team in average. She is hitting .340 with 29 RBI and seven home runs.
Sam Lenahan is one of Mississippi’s most dangerous hitters, hitting a team-high eight homeruns to go along with 35 RBI on the year. She has struggled with consistency, though, hitting only .248 so far this season.
While the Bulldogs struggle to hit for average, they have several players who are capable of hitting the ball out of the park, which is a stark contrast to the small ball teams that have been on the Vols schedule recently.
“I don’t think it really matters to us,” Weekly said. “We face different kinds of offenses all the time.
“You like to keep the ball in the park for sure and let your defense have a chance to make plays.”
