The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers made every effort to put a damper on the impressive start to Mississippi State’s softball season. Last weekend, WKU handed the Bulldogs their first losses of the season by scores of 2-1 and 4-2.Junior pitcher Kelsey Nurnberg (7-1) also tasted her first loss of the season at the hands of the Hilltoppers, though hers came on Sunday. She said the loss hasn’t dampened team spirits.
“We take one game at a time,” Nurnberg said. “The first loss put a fire under our belly, and we wanted to get them back. We wanted revenge. Sadly, we didn’t get that, so we’re fired up even more.”
Despite the two losses last weekend, the Bulldogs (13-2) have received a No. 18 national ranking this week, which is down only three spots from last week.
The Bulldogs will make their second trip to Georgia in as many weekends to take part in the 21-team National Fastpitch Coaches Association Leadoff Classic. MSU sixth-year head coach Jay Miller said that the classic, held in Columbus, Ga., is one of the premier tournaments in the country.
“There is some tough competition there,” Miller said. “We have a tough schedule. It will challenge us and prepare us for conference play. It will also give us a chance to improve our RPI.”
Mississippi State’s NFCA Classic pool play schedule features several of the nation’s top-tier teams. The Dawgs will open the weekend today against No. 11 Michigan (11-2). MSU will then face Syracuse (0-8) and UC-Santa Barbara (7-7) in a pair of games Saturday.The Bulldogs will close out the classic with a Sunday meeting against Massachusetts (4-6).
Looking back to last weekend’s tournament in Mercer, Miller said he was proud of the way his team played despite posting up losses on the schedule.
“We played well last weekend,” Miller said. “We had two bad pitches, and those were the ballgames. We had plenty of opportunities to score, and we had good at-bats. We still played well. It’s not that we lost because we played badly.”
One of the brightest spots from the weekend was junior third baseman Gina McCloud, of Monticello. McCloud posted a .571 average on the weekend, knocking three doubles along the way.
McCloud said from what she saw, the team mainly needs to improve in capitalizing more on opportunities created when runners get on base.
From a student’s point of view, McCloud said traveling to Georgia for the second weekend in a row definitely takes a toll on the team.
“It can be physically tiring because we still have to have our schoolwork done,” she said. “We just have to stay mentally focused and play the best we can.