Cowbell Corner

Mississippi State’s Formula Keeps Working in 3-1 Win Over South Alabama

Mississippi State softball kept its strong start going with a 3-1 win over South Alabama as Alyssa Faircloth delivered 14 strikeouts in Mobile.
Taylor Hodges|
Mississippi State Pitcher Alyssa Faircloth (#4) during the game between the South Alabama Jaguars and the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Jaguar Field in Mobile, AL.
Mississippi State Pitcher Alyssa Faircloth (#4) during the game between the South Alabama Jaguars and the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Jaguar Field in Mobile, AL. | Mississippi State Athletics

Mississippi State didn’t exactly sneak into the weekend in Mobile. It walked in looking like a team that knows who it is and what it wants to be.

And on Friday, they kept doing the thing they’ve done just as well anyone in the country: handle business, stack wins, and make non‑conference play feel like a long runway toward the SEC grind waiting on the other side.

The latest example came in a 3-1 win over South Alabama, a game that never felt out of control because Alyssa Faircloth didn’t allow it to be.

If you’re keeping track (and at this point, you probably should) Faircloth entered the season with one career double‑digit strikeout game. She now has four. She matched her career high with 14 punchouts, scattered three hits, and generally looked like someone who’s figured out exactly how she wants to attack hitters.

Faircloth’s performance came after Peja Goold threw five scoreless innings against New Mexico earlier in the day.

"They did exactly what they're supposed to do, both strong quality starts, and I thought they got better any time runners gone on," Mississippi State coach Samantha Ricketts said. "They're calm. They're confident. They were mixing their pitches and attacking the zone, and they came right back after any runs or hits. That's what you expect from mature pitchers like both of them. It was just two quality starts that kept us in the game to get them some runs."

It helped that Mississippi State gave her a cushion right away. The Bulldogs opened the game with the kind of first inning that’s becoming routine: Morgan Stiles and Nadia Barbary reached, Kiarra Sells doubled one home, and Des Rivera lifted a sac fly for another. Two runs before South Alabama even settled in.

"I thought it was a good response from the offense of finding ways to have team at bats," Ricketts added. "With the sac fly, a two-out RBI from Mo B, we were just doing the little things right that we felt we could have done a better job of in the first game."

The Jaguars answered with a solo shot in the second, but that was basically the extent of the stress. Faircloth retired 13 on strikes, the defense stayed clean behind her, and the Bulldogs added an insurance run in the third when Morgan Bernardini punched a single through the left side.

And speaking of Bernardini, she’s quietly sitting third on the team in RBIs now. It’s the kind of steady production that gets lost when the top of the order is hitting everything in sight, but it matters. A lot of things on this roster do.

Take Sells, for example. She doubled in that first‑inning run and extended her hitting streak to 11 games, matching a career high. She’s hitting .613 during the stretch with extra‑base hits in 10 of those 11 games.

Or Stiles, who posted her eighth multi‑hit game and has reached to open the first inning in 16 of 23 games.

Or Kinley Keller, who quietly went 2‑for‑3 for her third multi‑hit day of the year.

None of it is loud. None of it is flashy. But it’s all adding up.

That’s really the story of Mississippi State’s non‑conference run so far. They’re 21-2, they’re getting dominant pitching every day, and the lineup keeps finding different ways to create pressure. It’s the kind of stretch that builds confidence without pretending the SEC won’t be a different animal entirely.

But that’s the point. You don’t want to peak in early March. You want to stack enough good habits that when the league schedule hits, you’re not scrambling to figure out who you are.

Right now, Mississippi State looks like a team that already knows.

They’ll keep the weekend rolling today with another matchup against New Mexico and a meeting with Samford. More chances to keep sharpening the edges before the real tests arrive.

And if Friday was any indication, they’re more than comfortable taking the long way toward them.

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Taylor Hodges
TAYLOR HODGES

Award-winning sports editor, writer, columnist, and photographer with 15 years’ experience offering his opinion and insight about the sports world in Mississippi and Texas, but he was taken to Razorback pep rallies at Billy Bob's Texas in Fort Worth before he could walk. Taylor has covered all levels of sports, from small high schools in the Mississippi Delta to NFL games. Follow Taylor on Twitter and Facebook.

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