In a weird weather-hindered weekend for the Mississippi State Baseball team, the Bulldogs welcomed the Texas Longhorns to Dudy Noble for the first time as members of the Southeastern Conference to open the Southeastern Conference slate. Needing to take the series over Texas, the Bulldogs would face challenges as the Longhorns came to town for the three-game set.

From the weather delays forcing a 7-inning doubleheader on Sunday to the off-balance of the series, the Bulldogs would fall to Texas by the Longhorns coming into Starkville and taking all three games from the Bulldogs, creating a bit of weird series that proved too much for Mississippi State to overcome.

There are many glaring issues from this past weekend, including the lack of situational hitting, stranding runners on base, and leaving pitchers in too long. These issues eventually allowed the Longhorns to score four combined runs in the doubleheader on Sunday to complete the sweep. Despite scoring two runs in the bottom of the 9th on Friday night, the Bulldogs had dug too deep, losing by a run to start the series.

Given the mediocre non-conference record, how will the Bulldogs make the 2025 season successful? That answer falls somewhere: the guys playing for the maroon and white and the coaching staff putting the right guys in the right situations to make plays to lead the Bulldogs to victory. If there’s a coach that can turn this thing around, it’s the 2021 National Championship-winning coach; Coach Lemonis has been here before and needs the Bulldogs faithful to continue to believe in this program as they look to turn the ship around and position Mississippi State for a solid seed in Hoover and to host a Regional at Dudy Noble for the first time winning the National Championship in 2021. Mississippi State has all the pieces to do it; it comes down to quick things out and implementing what works into the lineup to give the Bulldogs the best chance at winning games within the Southeastern Conference. There has never been an off weekend for SEC play, but these next two series will likely define the 2025 season as the Bulldogs hit the road for back-to-back road trips at Oklahoma and LSU.

Mississippi State will return home on Tuesday for a mid-week game against Jackson State. Noah Sullivan will be on the bump for the Bulldogs on Tuesday as the utility player gets his second-midweek start of the season.

Photo Credits- Mississippi State Baseball on X