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State softball hits top 25 after huge week on the diamond

3rupauk8_400x400by: Robbie Faulk02/20/24RobbieFaulkOn3

Fresh off one of the best non-conference runs in school history last week, Mississippi State softball is making national waves.

Samantha Ricketts’ team knocked off an incredible four-straight top 25 teams to jump out to a 8-0 start to the season. That run warranted the Bulldogs to make their season debut inside of every major softball poll this week peaking at No. 18 by Softball America. State was also ranked No. 20 by USA Softball, No. 21 by D1 Softball and No. 25 by the NFCA Coaches Poll.

State (8-1) started the season with a four-game sweep in the Alex Wilcox Memorial at home with run-rule shutout wins over UAB and IUPI (twice) before winning 6-2 over the Blazers to close it out. A double-header statement was made last week on Tuesday when State knocked off No. 23 Louisiana 9-1 in 6 innings and then 2-1.

State went to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, over the weekend to play in the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge and had two top 15 matchups greet them. It started with a 6-3 win over No. 8 Clemson before the Bulldogs would take down No. 13 Utah 10-2 in just six innings for the team’s fifth run-rule of the first eight games.

The final game was a downer for State as they left too many runners on base and dropped a 2-1 game to UC Davis, but the Bulldogs had a successful week to get them inside of the top 25.

Wesley lands SEC Pitcher of the Week honor

On top of the good news of the team being ranked, State had the SEC Co-Pitcher of the Week in Aspen Wesley. The fifth-year senior from Neshoba Central has gotten off to an incredible start in her final year and threw consecutive complete games last week against ranked teams Louisiana and Clemson.

In those two games, Wesley had 13.0 innings pitched, scattered 11 hits, just one earned run, two walks and 12 strikeouts. Wesley is 3-0 on the young season with a 0.41 ERA with 17.0 IP, 12 H, 1 ER, 2 BB and 17 K.

State’s pitching staff under new pitching coach Taryne Mowatt-McKinney has a 0.64 ERA in the first nine games with just four walks and 57 strikeouts.

The Bulldogs are back in action on Thursday at the Mary Nutter Classic in Cathedral City, Calif., starting with Central Florida at 1 p.m. and Notre Dame at 4 p.m. State will play a dynasty in No. 1 Oklahoma on Friday at 7:30 p.m. and will close the event against Cal State Fullerton on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. and Fresno State at 9:30 p.m.

All times are Central Standard and the games can be seen on FLoSoftball.

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