LAFAYETTE, La.
The Mississippi State softball team found itself at the crossroads Saturday afternoon of another difficult NCAA tournament regional assignment.
Playing in the Lafayette Regional, MSU lost to Baylor 8-4 on Friday night to open the four-team, double-elimination event. In the softball world, losing the first game of a regional makes advancing to the super regional next to impossible.
MSU played well Friday night. The Bulldogs had seven hits and stranded 10 baserunners. On most nights, four runs would win the opening game of a regional tournament. Nationwide, four runs would have won 25 other first-round regional tournament games.
On this night, though, four runs wasn’t enough. The Bulldogs played errorless ball and pitched ace Alexis Silkwood. Certainly, the recipe was good for the Bulldogs.
Instead, Silkwood left a couple of pitches too high and Baylor’s aggressive baserunning put a potential dagger in MSU’s regional tournament hopes.
Thus, MSU woke up Saturday where it normally is. Vann Stuedeman has taken to the team to four regional appearances in her four seasons as head coach. Overall, the program has 12 appearances. Considering Ole Miss has never played in a regional, MSU’s 12 appearances is a pretty solid number.
However, each of Stuedeman’s four teams have arrived at the same place. Each lost the opening game of a regional tournament. Each entered elimination Saturday knowing it would have to win four games in roughly 24 hours to win a regional tournament.
To win four games in four days, you have to have lot of pitching. To take the next step, MSU needs lots and lots of pitching.
Jay Miller guided the MSU program to six regional appearances in nine seasons. Miller won more than 1,000 games in 26 seasons as a Division I head coach. He twice took Missouri to the Women’s College World Series. Miller is a big name in coaching circles. It was assumed he would land that big-time player who could help the Bulldogs get to the Women’s College World Series.
In college softball, one big-time player can lead a team to the WCWS.
However, that player never arrived in Starkville and Miller was let go after back-to-back losing seasons. Stuedeman’s first task was to breathe life back into the program. Her first task was to rebuild her players’ confidence.
Annually, the Southeastern Conference gets nine, 10, or 11 teams in the postseason. With the prolonged struggle of Ole Miss not withstanding, making a regional in the SEC isn’t a hard prospect. Good scheduling and winning a handful of critical conference games can get you there.
The hard part is making a regional on a consistent basis. The Bulldogs have been able to do that. Even in rebuilding years, which is what this was set up to be, the Bulldogs still won 35 games and didn’t have to sweat a selection. A high Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) figure had them easily in the field.
The next part for MSU is finding a way to advance to a super regional. Stuedeman has made her mark as one of the game’s premier pitching minds. It stands to reason that her pedigree should be able to help her land a top pitching prospect who can be a program-changer.
Stuedeman has been known not to overuse one pitcher. Instead, she likes to take a baseball approach, where some pitchers start, some pitchers work as middle relievers, and some pitchers close. That style isn’t for everyone, but it has proven successful in her time as an assistant coach at Alabama and as coach at MSU.
This season, Silkwood leads the leads the SEC with 25 victories and 221 2/3 innings pitched. She also is second in strikeouts with 203, but Stuedeman needs one or two more Silkwoods.
After the game, Baylor coach Glenn Moore said his team was built for success because it had four pitchers. When talking about her team Friday, Louisiana-Lafayette shortstop D.J. Sanders, a former standout at New Hope High School, said her team had five pitchers who could throw at a moment’s notice.
Stuedeman has to build similar pitching depth. Silkwood has struggled in the final third of the season. She never has had this type of workload in high school or travel ball. As a freshman at MSU, she won 14 games and threw 153 1/3 innings.
Senior Alison Owen threw 176 1/3 innings a year ago. That is the kind of balance needed and, quite honestly, MSU would need a third answer if it were to win four games in 24 hours.
MSU has the right coach. The school also has started building a new softball stadium. The venue is slated to be ready for the 2016 regular season. The Bulldogs also are in line to play host to the SEC tournament.
The SEC Network is bringing all schools in the conference more exposure. On the opening day of regional play, SEC schools went 9-2 in their first-round games. Now is the time for MSU to slide away from the two in that column and to become part of the nine.
It will take breaks. It will take luck. It will take pitching. It will take a determination never seen before. Stuedeman waited patiently for the stadium. As she has re-built the program, she has remained determined to get this program to the next level.
Third baseman Caroline Seitz took the postgame press conference and talked about her team’s determination and its will to win. She called winning two games “easy” and said life in the nation’s best conference has prepared MSU for this moment. Seitz had just done her part with a double, a two-run home run, and two nice plays at third base.
Winning two games on back-to-back days isn’t an easy proposition, but MSU has the pieces. The program is in a good place. It just needs a few more arms to move into a great place.
Scott Walters is a sports writer for The Dispatch. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @dispatchscott.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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