If you just started watching them during the WCWS, I know it's probably not impressive, but this team deserves your admiration.
First, there is not an event in college sports that has such a massive difference than the WCWS. 12k in a softball stadium makes for a giant stadium. You grow up playing in city parks and even the elite teams rarely play in front of more than 2000. You go from one or two media members covering your team to hundreds in a press conference. ESPN is there filming all the vignettes. It's a lot to take in. Arkansas and Mississippi State were making their first appearance, and they were the first two teams out.
This WCWS is huge for the program. Mississippi State softball has never been bad since coming back to campus in 1997. The first season back, they played Alabama in the SEC Championship game, and by 2000, they were a staple in the NCAA Regionals. We've had All-Americans, SEC Players of the Year and overall No. 1 draft picks in pro softball, but could never get out of a regional because we could not find elite pitching. Ricketts got out of the regional in 2022 and we hosted a Super Regional. She alluded to it in an interview last week that week there were so many distractions with boosters asking for tickets and face time, unaware media becoming aware, etc. We got swept by Arizona in that Super Regional.
Then this year we get paired with Oklahoma, winners of four of the last five national championships in the Super Regional, and obviously they came through and made the WCWS. The future is bright for this bunch. The schedule becomes favorable next year (softball only plays 8 series, and this year we played 7 of the top 9 teams and a team that was in the WCWS last year) so hosting a regional and another Super Regional is still in play. We lose Peja to professional softball but return Faircloth and Everett. Our WCWS run has given us some exposure and some high level transfer pitchers are very interested in coming to State.
First, there is not an event in college sports that has such a massive difference than the WCWS. 12k in a softball stadium makes for a giant stadium. You grow up playing in city parks and even the elite teams rarely play in front of more than 2000. You go from one or two media members covering your team to hundreds in a press conference. ESPN is there filming all the vignettes. It's a lot to take in. Arkansas and Mississippi State were making their first appearance, and they were the first two teams out.
This WCWS is huge for the program. Mississippi State softball has never been bad since coming back to campus in 1997. The first season back, they played Alabama in the SEC Championship game, and by 2000, they were a staple in the NCAA Regionals. We've had All-Americans, SEC Players of the Year and overall No. 1 draft picks in pro softball, but could never get out of a regional because we could not find elite pitching. Ricketts got out of the regional in 2022 and we hosted a Super Regional. She alluded to it in an interview last week that week there were so many distractions with boosters asking for tickets and face time, unaware media becoming aware, etc. We got swept by Arizona in that Super Regional.
Then this year we get paired with Oklahoma, winners of four of the last five national championships in the Super Regional, and obviously they came through and made the WCWS. The future is bright for this bunch. The schedule becomes favorable next year (softball only plays 8 series, and this year we played 7 of the top 9 teams and a team that was in the WCWS last year) so hosting a regional and another Super Regional is still in play. We lose Peja to professional softball but return Faircloth and Everett. Our WCWS run has given us some exposure and some high level transfer pitchers are very interested in coming to State.
