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2017-2019 Regional Experiences

So last weekend would’ve been regional weekend for College Baseball. As I have been for most of this spring without new games, I wanted to document all of the great experiences I’ve had over the years. I had been doing so with individual tweets, but there's so much to talk about with Regionals that it made more sense to go with a blog type post.

Prior to my time as a student, I had never actually been to a regional round game. Starkville had only hosted regionals twice recently (13 and 16), and we were on family vacations during both of them. In 2013, I remember keeping up with the first Central Arkansas game whilst at the Grand Canyon and the South Alabama game whilst driving around the Grand Canyon and into southern Utah (and losing service around the 7th inning, had to wait a couple hours to finally get the final). In 2016, I remember watching the final outs of the regional championship on my phone in a hotel bed as everyone else was asleep.

2017 HATTIESBURG REGIONAL- State was pretty clearly in the solid 2 seed range, and Southern Miss was hosting for only the second time ever. Back in Taylorsville for the summer, it worked out extremely well for me that State got sent down to Hattiesburg.

So me and a couple friends attended all 5 games in Hattiesburg in 2017. Spent a lot of time in the Thad Cochran Center (very nice) and Reed Green Coliseum (not nice) during rain delays. Great times.

Leading up to that regional, one of the things I most remember was the vitriol of USM fans. I go for them in most sports, but holy crap do they get on their high horse about baseball. (this made winning the regional that much sweeter!!) Had a dude refuse to sell me a ticket to my face because I was wearing a State shirt. Getting tickets was really hard in their tiny stadium, but we managed to find our way into all 5 games.

Anyway, onto the games. We lost game 1 to South Alabama on Friday, and the Saturday games were rained out. Still managed to have a fun day in Hattiesburg on that Saturday though; that was a sign of good things to come.

In two games on Sunday, we scraped by UIC (love the Flames) and then knocked out South Alabama to finally get to play USM. Note that at this point we were almost out of pitching and had no expectations of winning the regional. Just to illustrate the lack of confidence, after the Sunday Night South Alabama game, a player’s mother told us “Well this season’s about over, isn’t it.” In whatever the opposite of irony is, that player later transferred and ended up at USM.

On Monday night, State and USM played a doubleheader that extended into early Tuesday morning. Against all odds, again with basically no pitching left, State won twice and knocked USM out of their own regional. Those games in Hattiesburg were an incredible way to cap my freshman year of  college. Winning is so much fun when you have basically nothing to lose, and ruining USM’s season was the icing on the cake.

Important to add, those events did not hinder USM’s cockiness one bit. They did sweep us in Hattiesburg to start the next season- of course our coach got fired the day afterwards for, well we all know why. And we made it to Omaha that season while USM lost in a regional- again. And in 2019, they beat us again in the opening game. But we won the next two to win the series and made it to Omaha- again, whilst they of course did not. But don’t tell their fans that they’re not the premiere program in the state.

Three years ago today- In the opening round of the Hattiesburg Regional, 2-seed MSU lost to 3-seed South Alabama 6-3.

MSU went on to win the next four games and won the Regional. pic.twitter.com/LkIoUiXXxP

— The Flying M ™️ (@MSUhistory) June 2, 2020

3 years ago today- MSU won 2 games in the losers’ bracket of the Hattiesburg Regional.

In game 1, MSU beat Illinois-Chicago 5-4.
Konnor Pilkington allowed 4 hits over 7+ innings

In game 2, MSU beat South Alabama 7-3.
Denver McQuary & Peyton Plumlee pitched. Cole Gordon hit a HR pic.twitter.com/9khUYrsVKu

— The Flying M ™️ (@MSUhistory) June 4, 2020

2 years ago today- State beat USM twice, winning the Hattiesburg Regional after battling out of the losers’ bracket.

In game 1, Jacob Billingsley threw a complete game & Josh Lovelady hit a 3-run HR. MSU won 8-1

In game 2, Cody Brown (MVP) & Brent Rooker hit HRs and MSU won 8-6 pic.twitter.com/baeht93KCA

— The Flying M ™️ (@MSUhistory) June 5, 2019

2018 TALLAHASSEE REGIONAL- In 2018, State was again a two seed and traveled to Tallahassee. I didn’t make the trek this time, so was back watching on TV. And what I watched was pretty unbelievable.

MacNamee’s walk-off against Florida State is, in my opinion, the greatest single-moment in Mississippi State Baseball history. If not for Morgan William, it would be #1 in all sports.
​
And I called it. Somewhat sarcastically, but hey nonetheless.
Picture
So many things would’ve been different if this hadn’t happened. We probably have a different HC right now. Jake Mangum would’ve probably never gone to Omaha. And you can never watch the video too many times. Either video, for that matter. Iconic calls on both the TV and Radio versions. I’ve easily watched them over a hundred times each over the past two years.

The funny thing about the Tallahassee Regional is that once the walk-off happened, it felt like we had the regional in the bag, even though there were three games left. Unlike Hattiesburg where we were on edge every minute, Tallahassee felt like cruise control after that.
​

THE #RALLYDAWGS HAVE DONE IT AGAIN!#HailState□ pic.twitter.com/aOMBGv1b3g

— Mississippi State Baseball (@HailStateBB) June 2, 2018

Because there’s no such thing as watching this “too many times”#HailState□ pic.twitter.com/mdXQW8hBnM

— Mississippi State Baseball (@HailStateBB) June 2, 2018

2019 STARKVILLE REGIONAL- In 2019, State was a Top-8 National Seed and hosted both a regional and a super. It was the first time I had ever been to a regional in Starkville, and man was it a fun time.
The regional started with a Friday afternoon win against the 4 seed Southern. Started off pretty slow but was nice to actually win game 1 of a regional for the first time in 3 years. That night, we hung around the dude for the 2/3 game, and ended up sitting with some Central Michigan parents/fans. Was a fun night- the Chippewas were super lively as they upset Miami that night.

The next day, we got to the ballpark early and set up chairs in the berm for the night game. Watched as Miami eliminated Southern and later actually went to Davis Wade to watch some of the ongoing Top Dawg Camp. That night, we were in the berms as Ethan Small and Tanner Allen took care of the Chippewas to advance to the Regional Championship.


On Sunday, we again got to the park early and set up chairs for the night game and hung around the stadium while watching the elimination game. At one point, we went down by the Central Michigan bullpen, where one of their pitchers shared his uncensored thoughts about Miami. That night, we were set up in the berm for the championship game against Miami. This was the game where we realized why we usually don’t sit on the berms, as an old lady yelled at me and one of my friends to sit down- when Jake Mangum was motioning for everyone to get up. I think I got the last laugh there though.

Picture
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For the 9th inning as Cole Gordon shut the game down, we went and stood on the rails behind third base. Speed walking through the stadium prior to that inning, knowing that we were about to win our fourth straight regional, was a great feeling.

One year ago today- In the first round of the Starkville Regional, MSU beat Southern University 11-6.

State scored 3 in the seventh and 2 in the eighth to break a tie game.

Rowdey Jordan: 4-5, HR, 3RBI pic.twitter.com/2I2fltTk0X

— The Flying M ™️ (@MSUhistory) June 1, 2020

One year ago today- In the second round of the Starkville Regional, MSU beat Central Michigan 7-2 at DNF.

Ethan Small struck out 10 in 6 innings and Tanner Allen went 4-5 with a homer. pic.twitter.com/mh8Ge8LcGD

— The Flying M ™️ (@MSUhistory) June 2, 2020

One year ago today- #6 national seed MSU beat Miami 5-2, sweeping through the Starkville Regional.

Rowdey Jordan was named Regional MVP after hitting .538 over the weekend.

Jake Mangum went 3-4 and became the first MSU player to post multiple 100-hit seasons. pic.twitter.com/ggpNtARVnU

— The Flying M ™️ (@MSUhistory) June 3, 2020

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