By Parrish Alford
A Mississippi State-Georgia super regional gives the Bulldog faithful a chance to validate the pursuit of their new head coach.
State’s welcoming of long-time Virginia coach Brian O’Connor and the talented roster he built had the Bulldogs thinking national seed in the regular season’s early weeks.
But Georgia, the No. 3 national seed in its third season under former renowned pitching coach Wes Johnson, has shown this season the national profile State craves.
Johnson built his reputation at Dallas Baptist, then at State in 2016 and at Arkansas and with the Major League Baseball’s Minnesota Twins before helping LSU to the national championship in 2023.
Days later he was named the head coach in Athens and has responded with an 86-34 overall record, 35-25 in the SEC. Georgia just hosted its third-straight regional, now its second super in three seasons. The Athens Bulldogs are hopeful their coach will outsell O’Connor and earn his first Omaha bid.
Both teams had relatively easy times in their home regionals.
Georgia’s field included Long Island, Boston College and Liberty, and the Bulldogs swept through defeating Long Island 18-2 and Liberty 6-2 then 6-1 in Sunday’s finale.
State also won in three games, defeating Lipscomb 10-1, Cincinnati 10-5 and Louisiana-Lafayette 19-5.
The Bulldogs placed seven on Starkville’s all-regional team with freshman outfielder Jacob Parker, named the regional’s most outstanding player.
“This rookie here, obviously the job he’s done all year, but being the MVP of the regional is pretty special,” O’Connor said as he clapped Parker’s back during the postgame presser late Sunday.
Parker doubled and homered twice against the Ragin’ Cajuns.
“I’m sure glad he decided to go to college and wear this uniform.”
O’Connor’s praise was not limited to Parker.
Shortstop Ryder Woodson also homered twice and drove in four runs. State had single home runs from Gehrig Frei, Vytas Valincius and Ace Reese. Valincius added a double and five RBIs.
Sophomore right-hander Ryan McPherson, his innings limited to roughly half of what he might have thrown had he not dealt with a forearm strain much of the season, was solid for five innings, limiting the Cajuns to single runs in the first and fifth innings while his offense took control.
By the time McPherson left the game, the Bulldogs were ahead 8-2.
Game 1 of the Athens Super Regional is scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. Central on ESPN. Game 2 is scheduled Sunday for 11 a.m. Central. Game 3, if necessary, is scheduled for Monday at a time to be determined.
State will have to have a healthy McPherson to knock off Georgia and make the program’s first trip to Omaha since the 2021 national championship.
It’s a fact not lost on O’Connor who has cautiously guided his ace’s return to health.
“McPherson was outstanding,” O’Connor said. “It worked. Our plan that was laid out about 10 weeks ago was for tonight, for him to go out there and maybe give us four to six innings, give us a quality start in a regional.”
O’Connor credited the work of McPherson, pitching coach Justin Parker and the medical staff for having McPherson postseason ready.
This week McPherson will face a Georgia offense statistically more explosive than his own.
The Athens Bulldogs lead the SEC in hitting at .326 to State’s .317. Georgia also leads with 165 home runs (third most in Division I history), 545 RBIs, 1,301 total bases, a .624 slugging percentage and a .439 on-base percentage.
McPherson could be a wild card in State’s favor due to his own ability but also because the Georgia Dogs haven’t seen him this year.
State is 0-4 against Georgia, the most recent loss 5-3 in the SEC Tournament two weeks ago.
The Athens Bulldogs swept State at Dudy Noble Field April 2-4 winning 10-9, 3-1 and 8-5 in 10 innings in the third game.
Sophomore left-hander Charlie Foster took McPherson’s Game 1 start and lasted just two innings.
McPherson on the year has a 2.81 earned run average with 50 strikeouts, 10 walks and a .218 opponent batting average in 41 2/3 innings.
Georgia will be getting its first look at McPherson, but State won’t be seeing one of Georgia’s key players, infielder Tre Phelps, who is suspended after his ejection in Sunday’s decisive game in the Athens Regional.
Umpires didn’t take kindly to Phelps’ lengthy stare in the director of the Liberty dugout and a demonstrative rounding of the bases after his go-ahead two-run home run in the sixth.
Johnson protested, arguing that Phelps’ family was sitting behind the Liberty dugout and was also ejected.
The coach is not suspended for Game 1 of the super. The player is, and Phelps’ absence subtracts a .370 hitter with 19 home runs and 57 RBIs.
Phelps was 5-for-15 with four RBIs against State in Starkville, 1-for-4 against State in the SEC Tournament.
State will have to figure out Georgia right-hander Joey Volchko has held it to four earned runs in 10 innings in his starts in Starkville and in Hoover this season.
A hot bat from Parker would be a big help.
He enters the super regional hitting .340 with 10 doubles and is second on the team with 58 RBIs.
Parker is tied with Hunter Hines for second place among State’s freshman home run hitters with 16 on the season. They’re two behind Raphael Palmeiro, leaving Parker in place to catch one of State’s greatest with a good weekend in Athens.
“I’ll just try and hit a couple of singles. If I can drive one out it will be nice. We’ll see,” Parker said.
The sweat barely dry from the Starkville Regional-clinching win, O’Connor resisted the temptation to talk about the future, the immediate future of a possible Omaha trip or the plan for roster building to strengthen what he calls a solid foundation put in place by this year’s team.
Instead, he stayed in the moment and expressed gratitude.
O’Connor in the moment felt “proud, thankful, incredibly grateful that President (Mark) Keenum and Zac Selmon thought enough of me that they felt I was the right leader for this program. I never will ever take that for granted because I know how much (the program) means to the fans, what it means to the people that support Mississippi State, and I know how much it means to the players that where this uniform.”
Another trip to Omaha would be mean the world to the fans, players, and coaches. This would be trip No. 13, the first one in 1971 and the last one, the team’s only national title in 2021. MSU is tied with Arkansas, Clemson and North Carolina with the 10th most CWS appearances.
Hail State Nation can taste it. Two more wins to go at possibly the most difficult place out of the eight Super Regionals, at Georgia, the highest seed left in the tournament.
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.
