Harding on the hill as MSU battles USM
It's a midweek meet-up at the home of the Mississippi Braves.
No. 3 Mississippi State (5-2) takes on Southern Miss (4-3) Wednesday night at 6 p.m. at Trustmark Park in Pearl. So what should you know as the two Magnolia State schools meet on the diamond? Here's a quick look at the game.
Where can you watch?
Well, you only have one choice. That's to be in the stands at Trustmark Park. There is no television or online video stream of Wednesday's game. And if you want to get in to watch it, it could already be too late for that. The Mississippi Braves Ticket office said, as of mid-morning Wednesday, only about 50 tickets remained and those were anticipated to go quickly. Trustmark Park is expected to be at about 50 percent capacity for Wednesday's contest.
Where can you listen?
With a men's basketball game also taking place tonight, it's likely MSU hoops will fill the airwaves on many of your go-to MSU sports radio stations. Still, if you want to give it a shot, CLICK HERE TO SEE THE MSU BASEBALL RADIO NETWORK and you can at least check and see. Regardless, you'll be able to listen to the game via TuneIn.com or the TuneIn app. Fans can simply search "Mississippi State" on the TuneIn app. TuneIn is available for download on iOS and Android, plus more than 200 connected devices. Game audio can also be heard via Mississippi State's website HERE.
Who's pitching?
Houston Harding gets the starting nod for the Bulldogs. The left-hander will be making his third appearance of the year and second start. So far this season, the southpaw has a 1.69 earned run average over 5.1 innings of work. He has struck out six. Opponents are hitting just .158 against Harding.
Southern Miss is turning to a lefty as well in the form of Drew Boyd. He'll be making just his second appearance of 2021. He previously started back on February 22 and threw five shutout innings against Northwestern State. He allowed only two hits in that game and struck out nine.
Team numbers
Coming into Wednesday's action, Southern Miss is hitting just .191 as a group. The Golden Eagles have a team ERA of 4.50 and opponents are hitting .249 against the USM pitching staff.
MSU is batting .263 as a team. The State pitching staff has a 3.29 team ERA and opposing hitters are batting .216 versus Bulldog arms.
Prior to Wednesday
Mississippi State used late-game heroics to take two out of three from Tulane last weekend. Luke Hancock delivered a walk-off grand slam on Saturday and Tanner Allen came through with a two-out, game-ending two-run single on Sunday. The Bulldogs also took two out of three the previous weekend at the State Farm College Showdown, winning games against Texas and Texas Tech, while losing by a run to TCU. State's other win was a midweek victory over Jackson State.
Southern Miss took two out of three from Northwestern State to open the 2021 season, then took two out of three from Connecticut last weekend. The Golden Eagles suffered a midweek loss to South Alabama on February 23.
Follow along here
Cowbell Corner publisher Joel Coleman will be at Trustmark Park Wednesday bringing you live play-by-play coverage right here on the site. So if you can't be in Pearl and can't listen, be sure to come back to Cowbell Corner and stay up to date on how the Bulldogs are doing.
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