STARKVILLE, Miss. – Coming off a 2016 Southeastern Conference regular season championship, Mississippi State looks to repeat against a challenging schedule in 2017 under first year head coach Andy Cannizaro.
The Diamond Dawgs will play 20 games against eight teams that made the 2016 NCAA Tournament, 11 games against four programs that reached the NCAA Super Regional round and a pair of games against a team that reached the College World Series. In addition to 30 SEC contests, MSU is slated to play 26 non-conference games, with 39 of their 56 regular-season contests to be played within the state of Mississippi and 34 of those to be played at Dudy Noble Field.
“We have a very exciting and extremely challenging 56-game schedule ahead of us that will be enjoyed by our fans and also help us grow as a team,” Cannizaro said. “We’ll learn a lot about ourselves early on with some tough non-conference matchups and that’ll be a good measuring stick before we head into our SEC schedule.”
MSU opens its spring slate with a nine-game homestand that begins with Opening Day on Friday, Feb. 17 against 2016 College World Series participant Texas Tech. The Diamond Dawgs will hit the road for a three-game series at Oregon (March 3-5), representing the only games away from home in the first 18 of the season.
SEC play begins on the road for the Diamond Dawgs with a three-game series at Arkansas (March 17-19), the team MSU swept in 2016 to clinch the SEC crown.
MSU will make two trips to Pearl, Miss. this season, at the home of the Atlanta Braves’ Class AA affiliate, to take on Southern Miss (March 21) and Ole Miss (April 25) for the Governor’s Cup.
The Diamond Dawgs will also take on the Rebels in SEC play in Oxford (March 30-April 1) for a Thursday–Saturday series between the rivals.
Three more Thursday–Saturday series are on the schedule for MSU this spring, two of which are at home, Alabama (April 20-22) and LSU (May 18-20), and one of which is on the road, Texas A&M (May 4-6).
The home series against LSU will close out the 2017 regular season for the Diamond Dawgs.
The remaining five SEC series will come against Tennessee (March 24-26), Kentucky (April 7-9), at South Carolina (April 14-16), Auburn (April 28-30) and at Georgia (May 12-14).
Other key dates include a home midweek against a Louisiana Tech (March 7) team that saw its 2016 season end at the 2016 Starkville Regional. The Diamond Dawgs will also host 2016 NCAA Tournament team South Alabama (March 10-11) for two games, followed by a trip to Mobile for a single game versus the Jaguars (April 18).
“With Opening Day just over two months away I am very excited for this program and can’t wait to see the best fans in college baseball this spring at Dudy Noble,” said Cannizaro. “It’s going to be an exciting year and I can’t wait to get things started on February 17 against a 2016 College World Series participant.”
General admission season tickets are now on sale and can be purchased at HailState.com/tickets. Fans can also purchase a $20 Super Saturdayticket which will include a ticket to MSU’s Feb. 18 game vs. Western Illinois during Opening Weekend and a ticket to the 1 p.m. men’s basketball game vs. Florida earlier in the day. A $30 value, Super Saturday tickets can be purchased at HailState.com/tickets by using the promo code “SUPER.”
For more information on the Diamond Dawg program, follow the program on Twitter, like them on Facebook and join them on Instagram by searching for “HailStateBB.” You can also find all-access coverage of the program on SnapChat by searching for “HailStateSnap.”
2017 Schedule By The Numbers
56 Total Games
34 Games at Dudy Noble Field
20 Games vs. 2016 NCAA Tournament Participants
20 True Road Games
16 Games vs. Teams Which Finished 2016 with Top-25 RPI
4 SEC Series Which Run Thursday–Saturday
3 Doubleheaders at Dudy Noble Field
2 Neutral Site Games
1 Series vs. 2016 NCAA College World Series Participant
2017 Mississippi State Schedule
1 comment
Aggy will always choke.
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