The Mississippi State softball team started off their season on the right foot by taking home the Bulldog Round Robin championship Sunday.The Bulldogs (4-1) relied on the arm of senior pitcher Kelli Miller (3-0), who pitched 18 innings over the five-game weekend.
Miller, named to the All-Tournament team, sat out the majority of the 2006 season due to surgery.
She finished the weekend with an invisible 0.00 ERA, 10 strikeouts and only two hits. Opponents batted .164 against her in her three appearances.
“I thought Kelli came in and really shut them down,” MSU head coach Jay Miller said. “Again, that’s good to see, and I thought she threw great all weekend.”
Freshman Chelsea Bramlett, of Cordova, Tenn., started in all five tournament games and was also named to the All-Tournament team.
Bramlett played several different positions on the weekend, playing in the infield and at catcher. She batted .381 on the weekend and stole four bases on five attempts while also fielded a .958 fielding percentage at her different positions.
Also receiving All-Tournament honors was veteran left fielder Nakita Boyce, who finished the weekend batting .385 with a triple and a stolen base.
Boyce started the first four games but had to leave during the fourth game after suffering a nose injury in the outfield.
Miller confirmed that Boyce’s nose was broken, and, even though she sat out during Sunday’s game, she should be ready to play next weekend.
Bulldog Round Robin MVP honors went to All-American shortstop Courtney Bures, who led MSU in batting with a .500 average, knocking in 10 of the Bulldogs’ 24 total RBIs.
Bures, like Boyce, added one triple to her stat sheet on the weekend.
Junior center fielder Hayle Guess, also contributed to the Bulldogs’ weekend offensively, slamming the first Maroon-and-White home run of the season Sunday.
MSU began the tournament with three consecutive wins, defeating Iowa State 9-3, the Purdue Boilermakers 6-5 Friday night and the Kennesaw State Owls 6-0 Saturday.
Iowa State handed State its first loss Saturday afternoon, defeating the Bulldogs 8-3.
Sunday the Bulldogs bounced back and handed Purdue another loss, defeating the Boilermakers 8-1.
MSU committed four errors in the game, but none cost the team the win.
“We’d like to have gone undefeated in the first tournament, but we had a little slip-up Saturday night in which we didn’t play well defensively especially,” Miller said. “I feel we came back strong Sunday, though, and that’s good to see. After a bad game, it’s always good to see how we bounce back. We can either come back strong and put it behind us, or we can carry it with us. I think we did the right thing, and it led us to win.”
The Bulldogs hope to continue their early-season success in Las Vagas this weekend as they travel to the UNLV Kickoff Classic to tussle with Brigham Young, California, UC-Davis, Hawaii and Utah State.
“These tournaments at the beginning of the season are important in getting us in position for conference play, and getting us a bid for the NCAA tournament later on,” Miller said. “We play strong competition in these tournaments, and these wins help us build up our RPI.