When freshman right fielder Brittany Bell dug into the batter’s box in Saturday’s series opener against Georgia, she had no idea what the weekend had in store for her.Bell hit her first career home run in the bottom of the second inning.
As she rounded the bases, she knew she had finally arrived.
Mississippi State sixth-year head coach Jay Miller knew as he recruited Bell, a native of Brandon, Fla., the talent she was to bring to the team.
He said she reminded him of a young Iyhia McMichael, MSU’s all-time leading scorer.
“I knew I could do it,” Bell said. “It just took me some time getting used to the whole college thing.”
After Bell’s homer, No. 24 MSU led No. 21 UGA by a score of 4-0.
Leading off the third inning, Bell took the second pitch she saw down the left field line and used her speed to stretch the hit into a double.
She would score on a Courtney Bures double a few batters later.
Bell said she changed only a few things about her game over the weekend, the most notable being the removal of her bulky facemask.
She said it was a distraction and a hindrance to her vision. She said she also changed her mentality.
“I developed some confidence,” Bell said. “I told myself that I could do it, instead of putting myself down. That helped out a lot.”
Bell couldn’t be tamed. She closed out her stint in the series opener with a single in the fourth inning, driving in Jessie Spain.
MSU defeated Georgia in the first game in five innings by a 10-0 mercy-rule score.
Bell’s 3-for-3 outing came as no surprise to Coach Miller. Instead, he knew it was just a matter of time before she blossomed.
“She’s just a freshman,” Miller said. “She’s got that kind of potential, and she’s going to be an excellent player for us. She could be an All-American kid.”
MSU didn’t fare as well in the second game and lost
by a 6-2 score.
The visiting Bulldogs held Mississippi State to only four hits in the game.
Georgia knocked around MSU pitchers Kelsey Nurnberg and Elizabeth Woolven for 13 hits on the contest.
Freshman pitcher Misty Flesher, who earned the win in game one, admitted that the team made some mistakes in the second game that needed to be changed before the third.
“This team’s never going to quit,” Flesher said. “It’s not over until it’s over. We slacked off the second game, but we made sure not to do that Sunday.”
MSU played this weekend without sophomore standout catcher Chelsea Bramlett.
Bramlett, who is currently batting .451, missed the entire weekend due to a concussion resulting from recently taking two foul balls to her helmet.
“Chelsea is a huge asset to our team,” Bell said, “but we learn from her absence.
“We have to take initiative now, but she’s still out there
supporting us.”
Bell took a lot of the weight upon her shoulders in Sunday’s rubber game, providing MSU’s first hit in the third and then singling again in the fourth.
MSU would come back after being down 4-0 to score seven unanswered runs on the contest to take the game and the
series from UGA.
“It was a big step for our ballclub,” Miller said.
“We didn’t hang our heads when our best player went down,” he said. “We battled back when we had a little adversity, and that’s the sign of a great team.”
With the win Sunday, MSU improved to 37-16 on the season, 11-11 in the SEC.
Georgia fell to 37-19, and 10-12 in the conference.
MSU’s upcoming schedule includes a game against the University of Southern Mississippi and two SEC series against Tennessee and Arkansas.
Even though the team is without its top offensive player indefinitely, Bell said the team knows now it can succeed even without Bramlett, if she were unable to return to action.
“The team played great,” Bell said. “Everyone hit the ball great and did their job.