Mississippi State (13-4) will play host to #11 Texas (14-1) this weekend in the opening series of Southeastern Conference play for both teams. The Bulldogs are currently riding a six-game winning streak after taking a pair down in Biloxi against Old Dominion and Nicholls State. The Longhorns have won fourteen straight since dropping the season opener to Louisville at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
This weekend’s series will be the first ever SEC games for Texas and the first time the Longhorns have visited Starkville during the 1922 series. Mississippi State holds the all-time series lead with a 7-6 record. The two teams last met on the diamond in the 2021 College World Series with the Diamond Dawgs taking a 4-3 decision to advance to the College World Series final.
Friday’s game between Mississippi State and Texas will now be played at 4 PM CT due to inclement weather entering the area this evening. We will learn more about Saturday’s start time in the hours ahead. We expect that start time to be changed as well, but no decision has been made yet.
Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle is in his first season in Austin. During the offseason, Schlossnagle made the move from Texas A&M to Texas. It was a power move by the Longhorn administration and one that has paid some early dividends. Here are some of the things Schlossnagle shared about Mississippi State, the weekend and the SEC.
On the weekend: We are looking forward to the experience. Hopefully, we can get some good weather in Starkville and avoid a double header. It’s exciting. It’s an exciting time for college baseball to be a part of the SEC and for our fans and donor base to see what SEC baseball is all about. It’s exciting. It’s like a Super Regional every weekend. It’s a roller coaster and we’ll get through it and see what it looks like in the end.
On what he has seen from Mississippi State: They’re very, very good on the mound and they’ve stolen a lot of bases (28). It’s an Omaha caliber team, which you can say about almost every team in the SEC.
On the depth of the SEC: I think you have to go back to last year where I think there was only five of maybe six teams that had a winning record (in SEC play) and then you had five teams there were 13-17. Those five teams made the NCAA tournament and Florida played all the way to the Final Four.
DH Adrian Rodriguez on State: I know in that ball park they have a good fan base there. I think that we just need to go there and play our game that we know. We should be fine like that.
