Mississippi State's first week of SEC Baseball in nearly two calendar years was a successful one, as the Bulldogs traveled down to Baton Rouge and took two games from the Tigers and claim an important series victory.
The week began with a midweek victory over Samford. The Bulldogs opted for the white 85s, one of the two standard home midweek uniforms this season, in the 10-2 victory; the white 85s improved to 3-0 on the season with the win.
On Friday Night in Baton Rouge, State wore its classic maroon 85 jerseys, but unexpectedly paired them with the (usually home) white pants rather than the road gray pants. My guess is that this was probably a practical decision (think: laundry, maybe even covid protocols) and that it was easier to wear a different pair of pants each night rather than wear the gray pants on both Friday and Saturday.
It wasn't a huge deal; the maroon 85 jerseys look fantastic regardless of which color pants they're paired with, and the white pants didn't cause any real contrast issues with LSU's all-white look. Still, going forward, I hope this doesn't become a permanent thing, for two reasons: a) I really love the maroon over gray look and want to see it more often (in both baseball and football) and b) in principal, the road team in baseball should always be wearing darker color pants.
With the 6-1 series-opening victory, the maroon 85 jerseys improved to 4-1 on the season and 3-1 when paired with white pants. The white pants are now 6-1 on the season, having been worn with both the white and maroon 85 jerseys.
On Saturday, the gray script "State" jerseys made their 2021 debut. These uniforms were first worn in last season's 9-0 Saturday victory at Long Beach State. However, with the 2020 season being cut short, they were never able to be worn again. As a result, Saturday Night in Baton Rouge was only the second time this look had ever been worn.
I'm a huge fan of this road gray look; the maroon-white-maroon stripes on the sleeves and pants look fantastic, while the "State" script fits perfectly with this uniform and looks great with the white outline. Along with this year's new cream uniforms, they provide a great home for that script logo.. With Saturday's 3-0 series-clinching victory, the gray script jerseys improved to 1-0 on the season and 2-0 all-time; the gray pants improved to 2-0 in 2021.
As always on Sundays, State wore its infamous all-black look as it attempted the sweep. In a rare Sunday Blacks loss, that sweep attempt failed, as LSU salvaged a game with an 8-3 victory. There was some controversy Sunday afternoon, as one of the LSU announcers quipped that State's all-black uniform “looks like a beer league softball team.” My opinion on the aesthetics of the all-black look is well documented; long story short, I do not think that Mr. Palmer's assessment was inaccurate in any way. That being said, he was definitely being a smartass, and I appreciate State fans' in-game twitter defense.
This was actually the first time that State had worn all-black against LSU; the Bulldogs have now worn all-black against every single SEC West team. South Carolina and Missouri are now the only two SEC teams against whom State has not worn all-black. The Bulldogs are an impressive 12-3 against conference opponents when wearing all-black; the three losses came against Auburn, Texas A&M, and LSU. State has since twice beat Auburn in all-black, but have yet to pick up a victory over A&M or LSU in the look.
After Sunday's loss, the Bulldogs are now 25-5 (.833) in all-black all-time, 24-5 (.828) since 2018, 16-2 (.880) in the current version that was introduced in 2019, and 4-1 (.800) this season. Sunday's loss snapped a 5-game winning streak in the look that stretched back to last season. Even with the loss this weekend, it's still incredible just how successful this look has been over the years- which is why you don't see me making the same remarks as those LSU announcers, even if I don't necessarily disagree with them.
Finally, an interesting stat I noticed after Sunday's loss: the maroon and black hats now have the same winning percentage (.800) this season, meaning that the Bulldogs have been equally as successful when wearing black as when not wearing black in 2021.
The week began with a midweek victory over Samford. The Bulldogs opted for the white 85s, one of the two standard home midweek uniforms this season, in the 10-2 victory; the white 85s improved to 3-0 on the season with the win.
On Friday Night in Baton Rouge, State wore its classic maroon 85 jerseys, but unexpectedly paired them with the (usually home) white pants rather than the road gray pants. My guess is that this was probably a practical decision (think: laundry, maybe even covid protocols) and that it was easier to wear a different pair of pants each night rather than wear the gray pants on both Friday and Saturday.
It wasn't a huge deal; the maroon 85 jerseys look fantastic regardless of which color pants they're paired with, and the white pants didn't cause any real contrast issues with LSU's all-white look. Still, going forward, I hope this doesn't become a permanent thing, for two reasons: a) I really love the maroon over gray look and want to see it more often (in both baseball and football) and b) in principal, the road team in baseball should always be wearing darker color pants.
With the 6-1 series-opening victory, the maroon 85 jerseys improved to 4-1 on the season and 3-1 when paired with white pants. The white pants are now 6-1 on the season, having been worn with both the white and maroon 85 jerseys.
On Saturday, the gray script "State" jerseys made their 2021 debut. These uniforms were first worn in last season's 9-0 Saturday victory at Long Beach State. However, with the 2020 season being cut short, they were never able to be worn again. As a result, Saturday Night in Baton Rouge was only the second time this look had ever been worn.
I'm a huge fan of this road gray look; the maroon-white-maroon stripes on the sleeves and pants look fantastic, while the "State" script fits perfectly with this uniform and looks great with the white outline. Along with this year's new cream uniforms, they provide a great home for that script logo.. With Saturday's 3-0 series-clinching victory, the gray script jerseys improved to 1-0 on the season and 2-0 all-time; the gray pants improved to 2-0 in 2021.
As always on Sundays, State wore its infamous all-black look as it attempted the sweep. In a rare Sunday Blacks loss, that sweep attempt failed, as LSU salvaged a game with an 8-3 victory. There was some controversy Sunday afternoon, as one of the LSU announcers quipped that State's all-black uniform “looks like a beer league softball team.” My opinion on the aesthetics of the all-black look is well documented; long story short, I do not think that Mr. Palmer's assessment was inaccurate in any way. That being said, he was definitely being a smartass, and I appreciate State fans' in-game twitter defense.
This was actually the first time that State had worn all-black against LSU; the Bulldogs have now worn all-black against every single SEC West team. South Carolina and Missouri are now the only two SEC teams against whom State has not worn all-black. The Bulldogs are an impressive 12-3 against conference opponents when wearing all-black; the three losses came against Auburn, Texas A&M, and LSU. State has since twice beat Auburn in all-black, but have yet to pick up a victory over A&M or LSU in the look.
After Sunday's loss, the Bulldogs are now 25-5 (.833) in all-black all-time, 24-5 (.828) since 2018, 16-2 (.880) in the current version that was introduced in 2019, and 4-1 (.800) this season. Sunday's loss snapped a 5-game winning streak in the look that stretched back to last season. Even with the loss this weekend, it's still incredible just how successful this look has been over the years- which is why you don't see me making the same remarks as those LSU announcers, even if I don't necessarily disagree with them.
Finally, an interesting stat I noticed after Sunday's loss: the maroon and black hats now have the same winning percentage (.800) this season, meaning that the Bulldogs have been equally as successful when wearing black as when not wearing black in 2021.
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