After a hot start to one of the most highly-anticipated seasons in recent memory, the Mississippi State softball team struggled in the Leadoff Classic in Stillwater, Fla., this past weekend, losing four of five games and dropping its record to 8-5 on the 2012 season. While the Bulldogs were not able to carry the momentum from their 7-1 start to the Leadoff Classic, first-year head coach Vann Stuedeman said she was still pleased with the way her team played.
“Our team got a million times better last weekend,” Stuedeman said. “We gained confidence in some defensive plays we’ve been working on in practice, and our pitching could leave confidently knowing they had kept some very high-powered offenses to very few earned runs. It was a very productive weekend and one we will use to catapult us into the rest of the season.”
The Bulldogs did regain some momentum on Wednesday when they run-ruled Jackson State 11-2 in six innings.
Now back in Starkville, the Bulldogs will play 10 consecutive games at the MSU Softball Field. Among its upcoming opponents, State will host Columbia, Louisiana Tech, Eastern Illinois and Samford this weekend in the Bulldog Classic before opening conference play next week against Florida and Georgia. With the beginning of SEC play right around the corner, Stuedeman said she hopes to see improvement within the team before MSU faces the heart of its schedule.
“We absolutely need to improve on communicating and getting timely hits,” Stuedeman said. “Just being more efficient with our hitting and our base running, we’ve run ourselves out of a couple of big innings. We’ll continue to do what we do well and focus on those three areas over the weekend.”
While the Bulldogs hope to alter some things, one thing they hope does not change is the play of Brittany Bell, a redshirt-senior outfielder who currently leads MSU in hits, home runs, runs batted in and walks among many other statistical categories. Bell, whose 2011 season was cut short by a devastating knee injury, also leads the Southeastern Conference with a .681 on-base percentage, a .516 batting average and is second in the league with a 1.097 slugging percentage. Although most athletes progress slowly after returning from serious injuries, Bell said she expected to produce immediately after returning to the playing field.
“I actually expected to do well,” Bell said. “I’ve just changed my mind set, and I want to have great at-bats and do a good job at the plate.”
While the beginning of her season campaign has certainly been one of note, Bell said there are still parts of her game she hopes to improve on during the remainder of the season.
“I just want to stay consistent,” she said. “I just want to have the same mental approach every time, continue to have great at-bats and stay focused at the task at hand.”
Along with the play of Bell, MSU will also look to its pitching staff to remain consistent. As a whole, the MSU pitching staff has compiled a 1.73 ERA so far this season, third lowest in the SEC. Among State’s pitchers are juniors Kylie Vry and Stephanie Becker, who have started every game for the Bulldogs so far this season. The duo has combined for a 7-3 overall record and an impressive 1.39 earned run average.  While Vry is thought of as being the ace of the staff, it was Becker who earned the 13th no-hitter in the history of MSU softball against South Florida Bulls last weekend in the Leadoff Classic. Although the Bulldogs lost the game 1-0, Becker said she is optimistic about the way the team performed against the Bulls.
“I think there were quite a few positives,” Becker said. “(Ka’ili Smith) caught her first no-hitter, and our defense played a big role in the game.”
With SEC play less than a week away for the Bulldogs, Becker thinks there are no limits to what MSU can accomplish during the remainder of the season.
“I think the opportunities are endless,” Becker said. “We can go anywhere we think we can. As a team, we just have to get our offense and defense working together, and I think we’ll be really good for the rest of the season.”
Becker and the Bulldogs’ first opponent of this weekend’s Bulldog Classic will be Columbia, who MSU will play at 3:30 p.m. Friday before playing Louisiana Tech shortly thereafter at 5:30. State will then play Columbia again Saturday at 11 a.m. and will follow that game by playing Eastern Illinois at 1 p.m. The Bulldogs will cap off the weekend by playing Samford at 3 p.m. Sunday.