2013 Baseball World Series Starkville Regional Breakdown
Mississippi State, South Alabama, Central Arkansas, Mercer
Mississippi State is hosting its 12th NCAA Baseball Regional, with the last coming in 2003. Dudy Noble Field also was home to Mississippi State’s 2007 NCAA Super Regional victory over Clemson. The Bulldogs have advanced six of the 12 times when hosting postseason rounds. MSU posted a 2-2 mark against two of the three teams in games played at Dudy Noble Field this year. State dropped two games of a three-game set (2-4, 5-7 [10 innings], 3-7) to Southland Conference Tournament champion Central Arkansas March 8-10 and nipped Sun Belt Conference co-champion South Alabama 6-4 in Mobile April 2 in the Diamond Dogs’ first road game of the 2013 campaign. ESPN commentator Ben McDonald and Baseball America’s Aaron Fitts tabbed the Starkville Regional as the toughest of the 16 regional tournament fields. Hunter Renfroe is the team's power hitter and it isn't even close. He has hit 15 of the teams' 28 home runs and has driven in 54 runs. Adam Frazier has a squad-leading 90 hits. Jonathan Holder has 16 saves in 28 appearances and has an impressive ERA of 1.00. He also has a team high 79 strikeouts.
South Alabama isn't much of a power hitting team, as it has just a total of 30 long balls on the year, with Dustin Dalken's eight home runs being the most on the squad. The Jaguars do, however, like to hit the ball into the gap, as four players have double-digit doubles, led by Jordan Patterson's 25, as well as Jeff DeBlieux, who has ten triples to go along with his 12 doubles. Matt Bell leads the Jaguars with a 6-1 record in 13 starts. For the second time in program history and the first time via an at-large bid, the Mercer baseball team was selected to participate in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. Nick Backlund leads Mercer with 13 home runs, 21 doubles and 65 RBI. Chesny Young has 61 RBI. Brandon Barker is 7-1 in 16 starts with a 2.35 ERA. The Central Arkansas Bears, who have won a school-record 39 games this season, took two of three games from the then-No. 3 ranked Bulldogs at Dudy Noble Field on March 8-10. UCA lost the weekend opener 4-2, won 7-5 in 10 innings to even the series, then won the finale 7-3 to earn their first NCAA Division I national ranking. They won five consecutive elimination games last week to win the Southland Conference auto bid and earn the school's first ever NCAA tournament bid for baseball. Michael Marietta leads the squad in home runs (four), doubles (16) and RBI (56).
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