Cowbell Corner

No. 19 Mississippi State Caps Regular Season With 2-1 Victory

MSU pitcher Aspen Wesley dominates again

Taylor Hodges

Mississippi State softball's Matalasi Faapito celebrates her first inning home run against Georgia on Sunday.
Mississippi State softball's Matalasi Faapito celebrates her first inning home run against Georgia on Sunday. / Mississippi State Athletics

STARKVILLE – Mississippi State has found plenty of success this season when it scores the first run of its game.

The Bulldogs were 23-5 in games scoring first headed into Sunday’s regular season finale. But MSU is also 9-12 when the opposing team scores first and those trends continued in the first two games against Georgia. MSU (33-17, 12-12 SEC) scored first Friday and won 2-0 and Georgia (38-15, 12-12 SEC) scored first Saturday to win 5-0.

In Sunday’s regular season finale, Matalasi Faapito gave MSU fans to be optimistic with a two-out, two-run home run in the first inning that led to MSU winning 2-1.

Georgia scored its first run in the fifth inning on a shallow line drive to left field that landed a foot in front of a diving Brylie St. Clair.

Aspen Wesley continued her dominance inside the circle with her third-straight complete game victory. Wesley struck out nine batters while allowing just four hits and one walk. In her last three games, Wesley has recorded 22 strikeouts, 10 hits and three runs.

MSU’s win evens its SEC record with both Georgia and LSU. Missouri could also end with a 12-12 SEC record (playing South Carolina on Sunday afternoon), which would leave a four-way tie for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth seeds of next week’s SEC Tournament in Auburn, Ala.

MSU will get the tiebreaker against Georgia via the series victory this weekend, but didn’t play LSU this season and the order of finish will be decided on tiebreakers after the Missouri and South Carolina game.

The 2024 SEC Softball Tournament starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday with the No. 12 and No. 13 seeds opening up the action. The winner of that game will play the No. 5 seed Wednesday, the first full day of games of the tournament. Every game of the tournament will be televised nationally on SEC Network.

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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. Taylor has covered all levels of sports, from small high schools in the Mississippi Delta to NFL games. Follow Taylor on Twitter and Facebook.