With the winner advancing to the Tallahassee Regional Championship game, the Mississippi State Bulldogs would face the 9th-seeded Florida State Seminoles. A win for the Bulldogs, and they would be one win away from reaching the Super Regional.

Both Mississippi State and Florida State would pitch their aces on Saturday evening. For the Bulldogs, it was Pico Kohn, and for Florida State, it was Jamie Arnold. Kohn was the first to go after giving up three straight walks that ended with a grand slam that extended the Florida State lead to 7-1 heading to the bottom of the 4th inning. Kohn finished his day after 3.2 innings pitched with six hits, seven runs, four walks, and seven strikeouts. Despite the seven strikeouts, the box score tells a story of loading the bases with all walks and giving up a grand slam that created an uphill climb for the Mississippi State bats to overcome. Charlie Foster would come in to pitch 2.1 innings for Mississippi State with no hits and no runs while striking out four Seminole batters. Jamie Arnold pitched a legendary game on Saturday night, the type of game that will last a lifetime; Arnold finished his night after seven complete innings, giving up five hits and three runs while striking out 13 Mississippi State batters. As a pitching unit, Mississippi State walked 14 Florida State batters.

Florida State and Mississippi State would go through a scoreless first inning before the bats of Florida State came alive in the top half of the second inning with a two-run home run from Drew Faurot to make it 2-0 Seminoles. Noah Sullivan would come up with a solo shot to left field to bring Mississippi State within a run in the bottom of the 2nd inning. A grand slam from Myles Bailey would be the momentum killer for Mississippi State, as Florida State extended the lead to 7-1 in the top half of the 4th inning. Mississippi State would earn two runs back in the bottom of the 4th to cut the Florida State lead to 7-3. Drew Faurot would add an insurance run for the Seminoles with a solo shot to center field in the top of the 9th to extend the Florida State lead to 8-3. Florida State would add two more runs in the top half of the 9th inning with two outs to extend the lead over Mississippi State to 10-3.

Credit to Florida State tonight; they capitalized on the mistakes made by the Mississippi State pitching, and the Seminoles are now one win away from reaching the Super Regionals. As it has been all season long, Mississippi State has nobody to blame but themselves for the loss tonight. The Bulldogs kept shooting themselves in the foot, and one too many mistakes left them without the win. You can’t walk 14 batters and expect to win a game.

With the loss to Florida State on Saturday night, the Bulldogs will now face Northeastern in a rematch on Sunday afternoon, facing elimination. Mississippi State beat the Huskies of Northeastern 11-2 on Friday.

Photo Credit: Florida State Baseball on X