STARKVILLE – For the fourth time in the past six seasons, college baseball perennial national power Mississippi State will be playing on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
The Bulldogs are headed back to MGM Stadium in Biloxi, the home of the Biloxi Shuckers AA team, for another round of regular season games.
Mississippi State’s full 2023 baseball schedule is now set. Mississippi State’s final two games before Southeastern Conference action begins will come at MGM Park in Biloxi as the Bulldogs take on Nicholls on March Tuesday, 14th, and Louisiana-Lafayette on Wednesday, March 15th.
The games next year mark the third time in the past four seasons that MSU will play a pair of games in MGM Stadium. The Bulldogs faced Texas Tech in a pair of games this year and in 2020, and faced Southeastern in a single contest in 2018.
“It’s always a good thing when the Bulldogs come down to the coast,” Vancleave native and MSU alumnus Gene Robinson said. He attends several MUS contests in both football and baseball every year.
“It gives all of the fans down in South Mississippi and surrounding areas a chance to some great college baseball,” Robinson added. “I for one am always happy when they schedule games like this for all the fans down this way.”
The Bulldogs won the College World Series in 2021.
The SEC revealed the revised league slate recently, solidifying MSU’s 56-game regular season that features 33 home dates at Dudy Noble Field.
Home SEC series against Vanderbilt, South Carolina, defending national champion Ole Miss, Arkansas and Texas A&M, along with an early-March trip to the state of Texas for the Frisco College Baseball Classic highlight the upcoming campaign.
State will face 10 different opponents that were 2022 NCAA Tournament participants, including seven that reached the Super Regional round and five that advanced to the College World Series.
The Bulldogs start the year with an eight-game homestand. Opening Day is set for Friday, Feb. 17, as MSU welcomes Virginia Military Institute to Starkville for a three-game weekend series. Following a pair of home midweek games against ULM, State hosts Arizona State for three games from Feb. 24-26 ahead of hitting the road for the first time.
In-state foe Southern Miss will meet the Bulldogs at Trustmark Park in Pearl on Feb. 28 before MSU heads to Frisco. MSU will tangle with a trio of formidable foes in the Lone Star State, starting with Ohio State on March 3, then Oklahoma and California respectively over the next two days.
On March 7, State returns to Starkville for a brief four-game stretch of home games that starts with Valparaiso. The Diamond Dawgs will then challenge Lipscomb from March 10-12, before heading to Biloxi.
The SEC Tournament will once again be held at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Alabama, from May 23-28. The NCAA Tournament will follow in the month of June.
Note this schedule is subject to change due to television, including the move of some conference series to accommodate a Thursday start.
You can see the entire MSU 2023 baseball schedule at www.hailstate.com
(photo courtesy of MSU Athletics)
