In front of a record crowd at Nusz Park, No. 12 Mississippi State stunned top-ranked Tennessee for its first loss of the season, starting SEC play with a bang and highlighting the team’s value despite ultimately falling short in a 2-1 series loss.
Friday night was their first loss of the series, where the Vols upscored MSU 3-1. Both teams put up a fight, as there were no runs until the ninth inning of the game, with redshirt freshman infielder Taylor Troutman earning the team’s only point with a home run. Junior transfer Alyssa Faircloth pitched all innings for the Bulldogs, striking out nine of the Lady Vols.
“Today, I felt good,” Faircloth said in the Friday post-game press conference. “I turned my brain off and went out there, trusted our plan and trusted the work that I put in beforehand.”
Although the Bulldogs did not come up with the win, Faircloth showed her talent, and head coach Samantha Ricketts said she is interested to see how Faircloth performs in the remainder of conference play.
“If she continues to throw like that, she is going to win a lot of games at this conference,” Ricketts said in the Friday post-game press conference. “So, I’m really proud of her.”
Mississippi State found its groove and beat Tennessee 1-0 during the second game of the series, evening out the playing field for an intense matchup on Sunday. This was the first loss of No. 1 Tennessee’s season, as they were 26-0 prior to Saturday’s game.
Similar to the game prior, the first few innings were scoreless, and the sole run was yet again by Troutman, another homer.
“Man, Alyssa and Peja, they’ve worked so hard,” Troutman said in the SEC Network post-game interview after game two. “They’ve pitched so many innings, and they deserve this win against the No. 1 team that hasn’t lost a game. I did that for them. I didn’t do that for me. I hit a home run yesterday. That was great. I felt good. I did it for them so they could get that win.”
Peja Goold was in the circle for MSU and struck out 10 batters, making it her fifth shutout of the season. Only two hits were allowed from No.1 Tennessee.
Winning is always nice, but winning with record attendance is even nicer. With fans lining up outside of Nusz Park nearly two hours before first pitch, Saturday saw 2,134 spectators show up to Nusz Park to witness the number one seed fall short to the Bulldogs, making that a regular-season attendance record breaker. This was also the third time in program history that more than 2,000 fans packed the seats in Nusz Park. The series attendance was also a record breaker; 4,818 Bulldog fans showed up to the park to support women’s sports.
Saturday’s game marked the fourth win in program history over a No. 1 team, and the 18th top-five win in school history.
Tennessee, unfortunately, secured the series win in the third game, finishing 4-1, with freshman infielder Gabby Schaeffer hitting a solo home run in the bottom of the third inning.
“I saw it, and I swung,” Schaeffer said in the Sunday post-game press conference. “And I put my best swing on it. You don’t have to swing hard when a pitcher is throwing at least 70 miles per hour.”
Three Bulldogs found themselves in the circle for the series finale. Leila Ammon opened up the game and pitched for 3 innings, striking out four Vols. Peja Goold then pitched for 3 innings, also striking out four batters, and Alyssa Faircloth closed out the game in relief in the seventh inning, striking out two batters.
Mississippi State is now 27-4 on the season, but conference play has just begun, and Coach Ricketts believes in her team.
“We’re not satisfied, we want to compete,” Ricketts said in the Sunday post-game press conference. “We’re going to continue, get back to work, keep fighting and try to make sure we can make these adjustments quickly because we’re right back at it with another ranked team next weekend.”
The Bulldogs will play a midweek game against UAB on Wednesday, then head to Athens to face No. 15 Georgia in conference play.
