In sports, few things are impossible.
That said, some thing are so unlikely as to be dismissed as fantasy.
Friday evening, the Mississippi State baseball team fell to South Alabama in the opening round of the Hattiesburg NCAA Regional.
Oddsmakers calculated the odds of the Bulldogs emerging from that position to win the regional at 6.8 percent, which almost seemed generous at the time.
To achieve that, the Bulldogs would have to win four games in two days, two against host Southern Miss, which had already secured its best record in school history.
Yet in the early morning hours today, fantasy became fact.
Mississippi State beat USM twice during a day-long marathon marked by rain and lightning delays.
The storied MSU baseball program has now won 13 NCAA regional titles and will head to Baton Rouge this weekend to take on LSU in a best-of-three Super Regional with the winner headed to the College World Series.
No matter the outcome of that series, what the Bulldogs did in Hattiesburg will rank as one of the greatest achievements in program history, a program with nine College World Series appearances (including a national runner-up finish in 2013) and 36 NCAA regional appearances.
To properly understand the magnitude of what the Bulldogs accomplished in Hattiesburg, you must realize where the Bulldogs were at the start of the season.
MSU came into the season with a depleted roster, having lost a school-record 11 players to the Major League Draft last June. Of even greater significance, the Bulldogs lost seven returning pitchers to serious injuries, leading the team with a team so depleted that only 23 players were available to suit up this year. Baseball teams generally have 35 players.
Oh, and MSU’s coach, Andy Cannizaro, in his first head coaching job, joined the team after fall practice had ended. He was still getting to know his players as the season approached.
By the time MSU rolled into Hattiesburg, it had already overachieved. Forced to win four games in two days with a pitching staff so limited even position players were penciled in as pitching options, even imagining a scenario that the Bulldogs could run that gauntlet seemed laughable.
But MSU beat Illinois Chicago and South Alabama on Saturday, then after rain canceled Sunday’s play, beat USM in the late afternoon Monday to set up a winner-take-all game that started at 9:30 p.m.
State was down, 4-1, after the first inning and trailed, 6-5, going into the eighth inning.
Done Dogs?
Hardly.
Coming back from adversity has been the story of the Bulldogs’s season. Of MSU’s 40 wins, 60 percent (25) have come when the Bulldogs had to come from behind.
The Bulldogs fought back and left with an 8-6 victory.
So Monday’s final game followed an improbable script that has been the Bulldogs’ calling card all season. There are some things these Bulldogs don’t do, like quitting, for example.
For its efforts, State now faces an LSU team that is seeded fourth overall in the NCAA on the Tigers’ home field. Last month, LSU swept State in a three-game series in Starkville.
LSU has all of the advantages that can be measured.
In other words, the Bulldogs have ’em right where they want them.
The final chapter has not be written, of course.
But it’s already been a helluva story.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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