Courtesy: hailstate.com

National Audience To Watch MSU Softball Battle Kentucky This Weekend

April 19, 2012

Game Notes

Parking Information

Super Bulldog Weekend Central

STARKVILLE, Miss. - Super Bulldog Weekend will bring with it a national television audience for the Mississippi State softball team (25-19, 8-14 SEC), as the Bulldogs will battle Kentucky (23-23, 10-9) in a critical three-game Southeastern Conference series at the MSU Softball Stadium starting Friday at 5 p.m. Saturday's contest on ESPNU will take place at noon, with Sunday's series finale beginning at 1 p.m. Admission is free.

"I want to personally invite each and every Bulldog fan that is in town for Super Bulldog Weekend over to the MSU Softball Stadium to show the national audience what this university is all about," Head Coach Vann Stuedeman said. "Kentucky is a well-coached, experienced team, so it is going to be a great weekend of softball here in Starkville."

Free audio streaming of all three games will be available through HailStateTV at www.hailstate.com/hstvlive. Video streaming will also be available on Friday and Sunday. For Saturday's ESPNU contest, Cara Capuano will serve as the play-by-play announcer and National Pro Fastpitch League Commissioner Cheri Kempf will handle the color analyst duties.

Both clubs are coming off series sweeps of Ole Miss, with MSU taking three from the Rebels this past weekend and the Wildcats winning two games in Oxford Wednesday. All-time, State owns a 24-16 advantage over UK, including a commanding 13-5 record in Starkville. While MSU leads the all-time series, the visitors this weekend have won eight of the last nine games in the series. Before that stretch, the Bulldogs had won 11 in a row and 16 of the past 17.

The last time the two league foes met in Mississippi's college town was on April 3, 2010, when current SEC Player of the Week Ka'ili Smith hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to defeat the Wildcats by a 1-0 score. The shutout was made possible thanks to current senior Lindsey Dunlap, who fanned nine UK batters and tossed a complete-game four-hitter.

As the pitching coach at Alabama the past 11 seasons, Stuedeman piled up a 27-2 record against Kentucky, including seven shutout victories. Before this season, all four SEC head softball coaches that posted a winning percentage of .560 or better in their first year have gone on to play in at least four Women's College World Series. Stuedeman is currently winning at a .568 clip in her inaugural year as the Maroon and White skipper.

With Sunday's series-sweeping 10-3 win at in-state rival Ole Miss, the Bulldogs surpassed last year's win total of 24 with their 25th triumph of the 2012 campaign. Stuedeman is on pace for the best first year of any coach in school history. State was ranked 31st in the fourth NCAA RPI rankings of 2012, released April 16 by the NCAA. With most teams inside the top 40 making the NCAA Tournament, it was a good sign for MSU, who has already played 19 games against teams in the RPI Top-25.

After hitting .615 (8-for-13) in her last four games, Smith was named SEC Player of the Week on April 16. During that stretch, the Hawaiian Hammer racked up six RBIs, six runs, two walks, two doubles, a triple, a stolen base and a .923 slugging percentage. Smith joins fellow MSU All-SEC candidate Jessica Cooley (March 5) as a 2012 recipient of the weekly SEC award, marking the first time in over eight years that the Maroon and White have had two players pick up the nod in the same season. Before this season, 14 of the previous 16 MSU players to be named SEC Player of the Week have gone on to earn All-SEC honors, with eight of them being named an All-American.

Leading the Wildcats is junior infielder Kara Dill, who has a conference-best 60 base hits. Dill's .377 average leads the team and ranks seventh in the SEC. In the circle, Big Blue's pitching staff will display the reigning SEC Pitcher of the Week in Lauren Cumbess, who has a team-low 2.78 ERA.

Following the matchup with the Cats, Starkville's Team welcomes another breed of cat to town Tuesday for a Feb. 12 rematch against the Memphis Tigers. State will try to extend its nine-game winning streak against non-conference foes starting at 6 p.m. For more information regarding MSU softball, follow the team on Twitter at @MStateSB and like the team at Facebook.com/MStateSB.

WEEKEND PROMOTIONS

Friday, April 20^th, 2012 (5:00 pm)

National Anthem: Laura Lee Lewis

Ceremony: Columbus Air Force Induction Ceremony & Newsome Award Presentation to Senior Catcher Ka'ili Smith

First Pitch: Scott Stricklin, MSU Director of Athletics

In Game Promotions: