The Mississippi State softball team earned its second straight sweep over rival Ole Miss this past weekend. After the weekend, the Bulldogs improved to 6-9 in the SEC and 27-14 overall.
The Bulldogs won the three games by a margin of 19-6, and the only game that was close was the second game, which the Bulldogs won 6-5.
Senior pitcher Stephanie Becker delivered a stellar performance on the rubber for the Bulldogs. Throughout the weekend, she started the second and third games of the series and accomplished career milestones in both.
In the second game of the series, she became the all-time leader in career strikeouts at MSU, breaking the record with her first strikeout and ultimately bringing her total to 409 for her career with three in the game.
In the series finale, Becker threw a no-hitter to help lead the Bulldogs to an 8-0 win. She threw 77 pitches in the game, had four strikeouts and only allowed one base runner, which came off of a walk in the third inning. This was the second no-hitter of Becker’s career and the 26th career no hitter under head coach Vann Stuedeman.
Despite a no-hitter being one of the biggest individual accolades a pitcher can have on her resume, Becker said her teammates and coaching staff should get the credit.
“We tried to make some improvements from last game and learn from our mistakes, and Vann called a great game and we made a few corrections and that helped a lot,” Becker said. “Obviously, you can’t have a no-hitter without defense, and our fielding was awesome.”
Becker’s performance in the series opener was not as good as she struggled and allowed three earned runs in three innings before being pulled. Stuedeman gave credit to her for being able to bounce back after a rough performance.
“She came out from pitch one (Friday) and was just missing everything we called,” Stuedeman said. “(Saturday), that was gutsy. She was sharp as a tack and barely missed anything we called. In this league everybody can hit it, so you got to have a lot of guts.”
Pitching will draw the headlines from last weekend’s games, but offensively the Bulldogs had the bats going as well. The Bulldogs averaged more than six runs in the three contests and combined for 24 hits.
Senior outfielder Jessica Cooley said the team’s performance was a great all-around team effort.
“Everybody did an excellent job today. Everybody did their role, and it was a lot of fun,” Cooley said. “Our pitchers have just been doing such an excellent job for us. We wanted to just do our part, get some runs up and have their back.”
In the Bulldogs’ latest sweep of the Rebels, Becker said victories against their rivals always feel good.
“It was great. It’s a really old tradition and rivalry, and they are a good team,” Becker said. “We try not to focus on the team we’re playing, but it’s always great to beat Ole Miss.”
On Tuesday, the Bulldogs will travel to Birmingham, Ala., to take on Samford for one game before heading to Tuscaloosa this weekend for a three game series against Alabama.