Good morning, Bulldogs! Softball fans, Round Third with Jessie Blaine!

What else do we have brewing today?

🎾 SEC Player of the Week
🥎 Going, going, gone
🐶 And much, much more!

It’s so easy to forget that baseball seasons are marathons and not sprints. Wins can be exhilarating. Losses can be excruciating. But at the end of the day, probably the best attitude to take is the one that Mississippi State great Tanner Allen preached throughout his Diamond Dawg career.

Never too high. Never too low.

In other words, don’t let your emotions get the best of you in either direction. There are just too many games to allow yourself to get bogged down by defeat or caught up in success. Just keep on trucking, and let the chips fall where they may.

It’s no secret that MSU didn’t get off to the best of starts in Southeastern Conference play this season. But having two or three bad weekends doesn’t mean you’re out of the fight, and the Bulldogs have shown in the last week that there is still some bite in them.

After taking last weekend’s SEC series over South Carolina courtesy of impressive victories on Saturday and Sunday, State backed that up with an 8-3 victory over UAB on Tuesday night. Suddenly, the Dawgs have won three in a row and issued a reminder to everyone that there is A LOT of baseball yet to be played.

“The reality is that hopefully it allows us to play freer and more confident,” head coach Chris Lemonis said of recent wins. “[Hopefully we can] believe in ourselves more now that they’ve seen the way. They know that they can play with anybody. Sometimes when you lose, [it’s because] you’re not good enough. Our [losses have] been really frustrating because we feel like we are [good enough] and I believe we are. We’ve given some games away.”

They say that it’s better to give than receive. Well, that’s certainly not true when it comes to victories. This past week, the giving has stopped. The Bulldogs have gotten back to being takers.

They blasted South Carolina on Saturday behind 12 hits – five of which sailed over the fence at Dudy Noble Field. State then silenced the Gamecocks on Sunday as Karson Ligon and Stone Simmons combined for a two-hit shutout.

Tuesday, Noah Sullivan hit another dinger – something he’s seemingly doing every game these days – and the Bulldog bullpen led by four incredibly strong innings from Ryan McPherson kept all the recent momentum rolling.

The question now becomes, can State ride it into this weekend’s critical three-game series in Tuscaloosa against No. 12 Alabama?

Lemonis is certainly hopeful, while at the same time acknowledging the tough task at hand.

“I feel good,” Lemonis said. “We’ve just got to go and earn it. We’ve got to go and get them. There are no excuses or anything. At the end of the day, we’re either going to have success or not. So, we need to prepare well…then we’ve got to get there and get in the middle of the ring and be ready to fight.”

Fight, these Dawgs will. They’ve proven over the last week they have a lot of it left.

Just about every team gets knocked down over the course of a long season. State certainly has. But the Bulldogs are now back on their feet. If they can stay that way, plenty of opportunities remain for them as they battle to be in the postseason picture.

(Coleman’s Corner is brought to you each Thursday by Mississippi State athletics senior writer Joel Coleman. A 2007 and 2009 graduate of Mississippi State, Coleman has worked inside and around MSU sports for nearly two decades with prior stops also including the Starkville Daily News and Sports Illustrated.)

📈 STOCK UP

🔼 Top Dawg. After helping Mississippi State men’s tennis take down both No. 13 Texas A&M and No. 29 Auburn last weekend, Petar Jovanovic has been named SEC Co-Player of the Week!

🔼 Going, Going, Gone! This year’s Mississippi State softball team is already up to fifth all-time in program history for home runs in a single season — will they break the record?

🤔 BULLDOG TRIVIA

Anchoring The Lineup. Petar Jovanovic has spent all season playing either No. 1 or No. 2 singles for Mississippi State men’s tennis. What is his record in those matches?

Got a guess? 

Scroll to the bottom of the Bulldog Brew to see if you know your stuff!

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📆 LOOKING AHEAD

Thursday, April 10
No scheduled events

Friday, April 11
👟 Track & Field at 44 Farms Team Invitational — College Station, Texas
👟 Track & Field at Crimson Tide Invitational — Tuscaloosa, Ala.
🎾 Men’s Tennis at Ole Miss @ 5 p.m.
🎾 Women’s Tennis at Oklahoma @ 5 p.m.
🥎 Softball vs. Missouri @ 6 p.m. | SECN+
⚾️ Baseball at Alabama @ 6 p.m. | SECN+ | Listen

Saturday, April 12
👟 Track & Field at 44 Farms Team Invitational — College Station, Texas
👟 Track & Field at Crimson Tide Invitational — Tuscaloosa, Ala.
🥎 Softball vs. Missouri @ 2 p.m. | SECN+
⚾️ Baseball at Alabama @ 4 p.m. | SECN+ | Listen

Sunday, April 13
🎾 Women’s Tennis at Arkansas @ noon
🎾 Men’s Tennis at Alabama @ 1 p.m.
🥎 Softball vs. Missouri @ 1 p.m. | SECN+
⚾️ Baseball at Alabama @ 1 p.m. | SECN+ | Listen

🐶 Click here to see the full Mississippi State Athletics Calendar

🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: 13-6!

🐶 Have a great Thursday, y’all!