It’s been a whirlwind of a season for the No. 16 Mississippi State baseball team. From fans calling for Chris Lemonis’ job after a poor start to Lemonis now being floated around in coach of the year conversations, the Bulldogs are in a good spot to host a regional, according to D1Baseball’s Kendall Rogers.
During an appearance on SportsTalk Mississippi, Rogers touted Mississippi State’s record of late – which includes winning seven of its last eight – while saying Starkville is destined to be a host site when the NCAA Division I baseball tournament begins later this month if the Bulldogs take care of business during the final 11 games of the regular season.
“I will be the person who gets the discussion started. I think Mississippi State hosts,” Rogers said.
As for his reasoning, the managing editor vouched that the Bulldogs (29-15, 12-9 SEC) have the ability to get their conference win total up to 18 with a midweek game against Ole Miss on Wednesday plus future series against Alabama, Missouri, and Arkansas. Although the Governor’s Cup against the Rebels doesn’t count on paper as an SEC game, Rogers said that’s not how the selection committee will view it.
“If you look at Mississippi State right now at 12-9 in the conference, they’re 28 in RPI, so they have some work to do there, right? But they get Ole Miss tonight,” Rogers said. “I think they can win two of three against Alabama. I think they’ll win two of three against Missouri. That gets us to [17] wins in conference. I tell you what, if they can win one at Arkansas and play decent enough in Hoover, I think this team is hosting.”
As for the other Mississippi teams looking to crack the postseason, Rogers said Ole Miss’ (23-20, 7-14 SEC) struggle of a year is bound to end in the SEC Tournament – if they can oust Missouri or LSU for the final spot – while he believes Southern Miss (28-17, 12-9 Sun Belt), coming off a midweek win over New Orleans, is currently a regional team but has some work left to do to convince the committee of that.
“Ole Miss frankly isn’t very good,” Rogers said, adding, “The problem with Southern Miss is I feel like they’ve just been so up and down. We’re three weeks away from the regular season, and I’m not entirely sure what this team is going to do in the postseason even if they make it.”
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