Mississippi State Bulldogs Final '07 Rank: 8 38-22

Much to the chagrin of in state rival Ole Miss, the Mississippi State Diamond Dogs reached the College World Series last year after a nine year absence. Preseason prognosticators picked MSU to finish at the bottom of the SEC, however a productive regular season earned them an at-large NCAA bid and veteran Bulldog skipper Ron Polk, was able to make the most of it. The Bulldogs swept through NCAA Regional and Super Regional play, ousting Florida State and Clemson along the way, to make a return to Rosenblatt. They were two and out in Omaha, ending their run at 38-22.

A number of key offensive components will be gone in ’08, most notably Edward Easley (.358, 12, 63) who won the 2007 Johnny Bench Award as the nation’s top collegiate catcher. Also gone from Starkville will be Jeffrey Rea (.343, 1, 22) who finished his amateur career as MSU’s all time hits leader (third all time SEC) and Mitch Moreland who hit .343 with 36 extra base hits while also contributing a 3-0 record with 28 Ks in 19.2 relief innings. The good news is a trio of talented sophomore infielders will be back on the diamond. Brandon Turner, fell just short of his bid to become the first Bulldog rookie to hit .400, finishing at .399 with 17 extra base hits and only 27 strikeouts. Connor Powers, hit .306 with 22 extra base hits (including 8 homeruns) in only 209 at bats. Russ Sneed saw limited action, appearing in only 24 games with 13 starts, but impressed in his time on the field, batting .315 and earned all-tournament team honors in the NCAA Tallahassee Regional. The 6’5, 242 pound slugging Junior Jeff Flagg hit .312 last season and will lead the team in dingers if he get the at bats (five homeruns in 93 ABs in ‘07).

MSU has a couple of strong, reliable arms who have the ability for breakouts years in ’08; they will need to for State to have any chance to make it back to Omaha. Senior Justin Pigott paced the ‘Dogs with 76 strikeouts and 113.2 innings and was named the Tallahassee Regional MVP for his contribution in shutting down the Florida State offense. Junior Chad Crosswhite had an 8-5 record and tallied the second most innings (78.2) on the team and while striking out 66 batters. Both pitchers will need to work on lowering their ERAs (4.51 and 4.69 respectively) and hits per innings ratios (1.17 and 1.35) or MSU will be forced to win a lot of high scoring games. In the bullpen, reliever Ricky Bowen led the MSU pitching staff with 27 relief appearances as a freshman. Bowen compiled a 5-2 record with a team leading 3.00 ERA. He fanned slightly more than a batter an inning (36 IPs, 37 Ks) and added a team high five saves.