By Parrish Alford
Mississippi State coach Brian O’Connor believes the Bulldogs lost to a team that can win it all.
It’s true, no doubt.
But it’s also the time-honored consoling self-assessment of a coach who believed his team could do the same thing.
Yet State’s season ended Sunday as SEC regular season and tournament champion Georgia powered through MSU pitching, both starters and relievers, with 13-12 and 11-9 victories by the eastern Bulldogs to win the Athens Super Regional and advance to the College World Series.
Georgia will face Texas Saturday night at 7 in a first round game in Omaha.
“We all know how hard it is to get to Omaha,” O’Connor said. “The reason you go to Omaha is not to get there, it’s to win the national championship. That team in the other dugout is absolutely capable of winning the national championship.”
He’s certainly not wrong.
Georgia ended the regular season with a 23-7 SEC mark and a 3 1/2 game lead on the team it will face in its Omaha opener in the all-SEC half of the bracket that also includes Alabama and Oklahoma.
Georgia began the series leading the SEC in average at .326, hits with 706 and – in its hitter-friendly park – 174 home runs.
In two games, Mississippi State starters pitched a combined 5 2/3 innings, while its relievers gave up 16 hits, 12 earned runs and five home runs in a combined 12 1/3 innings.
The performance on the mound drew criticism of pitching coach Justin Parker, who was hailed by many MSU fans last year for holding the team together over the last six weeks as interim coach. The 2025 Bulldogs went 2-2 in the Tallahassee Regional, finishing 36-23 overall, 15-15 in the SEC regular season.
It is indeed hard to get to Omaha, but that was no doubt the expectation when O’Connor, the former Virginia coach, was introduced to MSU fans amid fireworks at a Dudy Noble Field nighttime celebration last summer.
Not long before the paperwork was done on a $2.9 million deal to lure him away from Charlottesville, where he won the national championship in 2015. He led the Cavaliers to Omaha seven times in 22 years – 2009, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2021, 2023 and 2024.
He knows what Omaha means to the Mississippi State program.
“That’s what this is about. I knew when I accepted the job here the expectation of this program,” said O’Connor, pointing to the Mississippi State logo on his jersey.
His first season in Starkville was Omaha-empty but was not without meaning.
The Bulldogs won 43 games, seven more than last season, and earned a home regional with a 16-14 SEC mark.
Junior third baseman Ace Reese showed veteran consistency. His .336 and led the team in home runs with 24 and in RBIs with 74.
Freshman outfielder Jacob Parker showed the potential to become the program’s next great star. Parker, a year out of Purvis High School, hit .339 with 18 home runs and 62 RBI’s.
State hit a collective .317, second to Georgia in the SEC, led by center fielder and Madison-Ridgeland Academy alumnus Bryce Chance, a graduate student, at .349.
Parker’s two-run home run in the eighth on Sunday gave State a 9-8 lead and put the Bulldogs three outs from forcing a Game 3.
It was one of many big moments this season for the freshman.
“I’ve already won in my life,” Parker said. “I have Jesus Christ in my life. I really didn’t care what happened. Obviously I wanted to win, but I walked up to the plate knowing win or lose, I’ve won in life, and that’s what’s special, and I think that’s what this program’s about. It’s not about wins and losses. It’s about how can these guys (nodding to O’Connor) turn us into better men.”
O’Connor’s first Mississippi State team fell show of its Omaha goal but did important work, he said.
“I believe the foundation is set for how we’re going to go about our business,” O’Connor said. “That’s important. It lasts over time and continues on when you’ve got a guy like this (motioning to Jacob Parker) who will be returning next year and understands what it takes and the lessons that he learned and can pass it onto other guys.”
That’s what he’ll remember about the 2026 team.
“Their grit, their competitive spirit, the fire they played with,” O’Connor said. “Did we have bad games, sure, but they came ready to work. They’re a bunch of tough young men that love to line up and compete. We just fell a little bit short.”
He’s unbothered by losing key stars like Reese and the general task of rebuilding. He put together a strong roster last summer during a transition year, he said.
“I believe the foundation is set for how we’re going to go about our business,” O’Connor said. “That’s important. It lasts over time and continues on when you’ve got a guy like this (motioning to Parker) who will be returning next year and understands what it takes and the lessons that he learned and can pass it onto other guys.”
Parrish Alford, a two-time Mississippi sports writer of the year, was raised in Denham Springs, Louisiana and graduated from Northeast Louisiana University before the school changed its name to Louisiana-Monroe.
He’s covered college sports in Mississippi since 1989, spending time as a beat writer for multiple seasons at each of the state’s Division I schools.
He’s most known for his work as a beat writer and columnist for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo, where he spent 30 years.
He is the author of “Habitual Deadline – sports stories of three-plus decades from the guy who came and stayed.”
A Christian, husband, father and grandfather, he is currently the editor of American Family News (AFN.net), a division of American Family Association.
