Mississippi State’s season started with a debacle, seemed to quickly turn into a disaster, and at one point was dead in the water.

Two months later, however, the Bulldogs are feeling delightful.

Mississippi State, which had its head coach resign in scandal after just three games and was below .500 at the midway point of the season, landed in the NCAA Tournament as the No. 2 seed in the Tallahassee Regional.

The Bulldogs (31-25) will play Oklahoma (36-23) in a first-round game Friday and, no matter the outcome this weekend, it will be a positive finish to a season that has taken a number of twists and turns.

“We’re excited, as you can imagine,” MSU interim head coach Gary Henderson said at a press conference Monday, after the NCAA Tournament selections were announced. “From where we were at the beginning of February to where we are now, we’re pumped up, fired up and excited.”

Where the Bulldogs were in February, was a state of chaos. Head coach Andy Cannizaro resigned following a three-game, season-opening sweep at Southern Miss for what he called “bad decisions.” Those decisions were never fully explained, but the sudden shock forced the Bulldogs to regroup before embarking on a nine-game, 12-day road trip.

The Bulldogs held a team meeting on Feb. 21 that Henderson said he agonized over the night before.

“I knew this was going to be the most important 20 minutes of the season,” he said.

The group that emerged, Henderson said, was one filled with determination not to let the entire season slide away after such an early shock.

“It starts with a really good group of kids. Just as important is the quality of the people that are on your coaching staff. Everybody’s got to come together and develop trust on the fly. That’s unheard of, what we went through and what those kids went through as a staff,” Henderson said. “I’m very appreciative of our coaching staff here, and then obviously our kids and their parents. There’s no shortage of distractions there in the short term. But our kids did a great job. That’s where it starts, and then along the way you need to get some wins.”

Wins were slow in coming, however. Mississippi State was 14-15 overall, and 2-7 in the Southeastern Conference, after losing two out of three games in a road series at LSU March 29-31.
Once the calendar flipped to April, the Bulldogs got on a roll. They won series against NCAA national seeds Ole Miss, Arkansas and Florida — the latter two of them sweeps — and went 17-10 over the last 27 games.

All three of those key SEC series wins were at home.

“If I had an exact answer we probably would have addressed that and fixed it early on,” Henderson said when asked about the team’s success against some of the SEC’s heavyweights compared to its struggles against lesser foes. “I think some of that was midweek and some of that is depth, pitching-wise, and some of it is being at home in front of our fans. Dudy-Noble is a great place to play.”

Now the Bulldogs need to find a way to win away from Starkville. They were 7-2 in neutral-site games this season and 8-16 in true road games.

They’ll have to go through not only Oklahoma, but Samford (36-24) and Florida State (43-17) as well. Florida State, the regional host, is the No. 7 national seed. Samford won the Southern Conference championship and nine of its last 10 games.

It won’t be easy for the Bulldogs to advance to the super regional round for the second year in a row, but just getting the opportunity has put a charge into them.

“We’re all excited,” Mississippi State center fielder Jake Mangum said. “We’ve come a long way this year. From where we were on February 21 as a team to now, we’ve made huge strides. We’re excited and ready for the challenge.”

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Starkville Daily News sports writer Joel Coleman contributed to this report.

Tallahassee Regional
At Tallahassee, Fla.
June 1
Game 1 — Mississippi St. vs. Oklahoma, 11 a.m. (TV: ESPNU)
Game 2 — Samford at Florida St., 6 p.m. (TV: ESPNU)
June 2
Game 3 — Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 11 a.m.
Game 4 — Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 4 p.m.
June 3
Game 5 — Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 11 a.m.
Game 6 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 5 p.m.
June 4
x-Game 7 — Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, Noon