Mississippi State turned a regional final into a rout Sunday night, pounding No. 25 Louisiana 19-5 at Dudy Noble Field to win the Starkville Regional and move on to the Athens Super Regional. Jacob Parker was at the center of it all, homering twice, driving in four runs and scoring five times as the Bulldogs closed the game with power from top to bottom.
The win gave Mississippi State its 17th NCAA Regional Championship and sent it into next weekend’s matchup with third-ranked Georgia. Parker went 4-for-4 with two walks, a double and a pair of home runs, and he was named the regional’s Most Outstanding Player after the kind of night that changes a postseason bracket in a hurry. Mississippi State scored in seven different innings, collected 20 hits and hit seven home runs, with Gehrig Frei opening the game with a homer, Ryder Woodson adding two more, Ace Reese driving in a fourth-inning two-run shot and Vytas Valincius finishing the blowout with a grand slam in the ninth.
Ryan McPherson handled the rest on the mound, giving up two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts over five innings to earn the win. Louisiana entered the championship game 43-17, but never found a way to slow the Bulldogs once Mississippi State started stacking extra-base hits and traffic on the bases. The game drew 9,901 fans Sunday night, capping a weekend that brought 57,794 to the regional, and it left Mississippi State with a clear next task: figure out how that lineup plays against Georgia on the road in Athens.
