It’s really amazing how one season can turn around so quickly.
The Mississippi State softball Lady Bulldogs, after jetting out to the best start in program history, have now lost 13 straight games after dropping two to LSU Wednesday night. The losses push their SEC record to 4-15.
MSU didn’t score a single run Wednesday, tallying only three base hits in each game of the twin bill. The offense, or lack thereof, seems to be what is holding the Bulldogs down at this point in the year.
“We didn’t make the adjustments (at the plate) that we needed to make,” Mississippi State head coach Jay Miller said. “We hit one ground ball the entire game and that was a double play. One at-bat led to another at-bat and we just have to break that string and put something together. I thought we got good pitching in both games today, and we made some nice defensive plays. We made some mistakes, too, that hurt us a bit. Against a good team, every little mistake gets magnified.”
Mississippi State returns home to Starkville tomorrow after being absent from the home diamond for more than three weeks.
The 11-game road trip, the longest for the Dawgs all season, has the team looking toward the home atmosphere to provide an easier aura for a victory.
The Bulldogs (30-21, 4-15 SEC) welcome No. 4 Tennessee (44-6, 15-6) to Starkville Saturday and Sunday.
The series between the Maroon and Orange is fairly even all-time, with UT leading 15 games to 10.
However, Mississippi State has won only one matchup against the Lady Vols in the last nine pairings, dating back to 2003, with that lone victory coming in the 2004 SEC Tournament.
Mississippi State has a solid 16-5 record at home this season, but Tennessee boasts an impressive 8-3 road mark.
They are also 19-0 at neutral sites.
That makes the Lady Vols 27-3 in non-Knoxville locations on the year.
The Lady Volunteers are playing synchronized softball right now, as everything appears to be clicking for them.
UT’s last loss came against Florida on April 9, as the Gators blanked the Lady Vols in Knoxville 2-0.
The Lady Bulldogs’ current losing streak sets the school record for longest losing streak in one season.
However, the 1982 and 83 Bulldogs still hold the record for the longest losing streak overall.
The team finished with fifteen straight games in the “L” column.
When the Dawgs clash with the Lady Vols this weekend, that’s a record they hope to fall short of as soon as possible.