DIAMOND DAWG TIME LINE 2008 March 27
June 7
2009 July 3
2010 June 18
2011 June 12
2012 May 27
2013 Feb. 16
Head coach Ron Polk announces that the 2008 season, his 29th at Mississippi State and his 35th in collegiate baseball, would be his final season as head coach of the Diamond Dawgs. The Bulldogs end the year with a 23-33 mark, the only sub-.500 season of his coaching career, and Polk concludes his career with 1,373 wins, then the seventh most in NCAA baseball history. Former State standout John Cohen is introduced by then-MSU Director of Athletics Greg Byrne as MSU’s 16th head baseball coach. Cohen, with previous coaching stints at Missouri, Northwestern State, Florida and Kentucky, was an All-SEC outfielder at State, helping the Bulldogs set the school-record for wins (54) en route to the 1989 SEC championship. Former MSU coach Ron Polk and MSU and MLB great Rafael Palmeiro are among 10 inductees in the fourth class of the College Baseball Hall of Fame in Lubbock, Texas. They join a third player with MSU ties enshrined in the hall of fame, former State great Will Clark, a member of the inaugural hall of fame induction class in 2006. Former MSU and MLB great Will Clark leads the national fan balloting for the College World Series Legends Team, honoring the sport’s all-time greats that competed in the 60 College World Series held at Rosenblatt Stadium. Nick Vickerson swats a dramatic two-run walk-off home run against No. 1 national seed Florida to send the Bulldogs to the title game of the NCAA Gainesville Super Regional. State, which earlier won the NCAA Atlanta Regional with a 3-0 mark, builds a 6-4 seventh-inning lead in the title game before bowing to the eventual national finalists. MSU’s advancement to NCAA postseason play marks the 31st time in program history and the first since 2007. SEC Pitcher of the Year Chris Stratton picks up his first career save to close out a 3-0 shutout of Vanderbilt as State claims its seventh SEC Tourney crown and the school’s 32nd NCAA postseason advancement. Shortstop Adam Frazier goes 12-for23 (.522) in the six-game stretch to earn MVP honors and joins Jonathan Holder and Demarcus Henderson on the all-tournament team. Stratton, the winner of the Ferriss Trophy, later becomes the 11th MSU player taken in the first round of the MLB draft. Demarcus Henderson delivers a clutch RBI single in the sixth inning and AllAmerican closer Jonathan Holder tosses 1.2 innings of shutout relief as Mississippi State defeats Portland, 2-1, for MSU’s 1,000th win at the current site of Dudy Noble Field, MSU’s on-campus baseball home since 1967.
May 16
A total of 9,341 fans attend MSU’s game vs. No. 2 LSU at Dudy Noble Field, pushing the “Carnegie Hall of College Baseball” past the five million attendance mark.
June 9
The Bulldogs hold on for a dramatic 6-5 win in game two of the NCAA Charlottesville Super Regional, clinching its ninth trip to Omaha. With the win, MSU becomes the fifth program in NCAA history and the only SEC team ever to make it to the NCAA College World Series in five-straight decades. On the same weekend, MSU AllAmerican Hunter Renfroe (San Diego) becomes the 12th player in school history to be taken in the first round of the MLB Draft
June 25
The Maroon and White play in the NCAA College World Series Championship Series for the first time ever as Omaha turns into “Dudy Noble North.” John Cohen’s ballclub battles UCLA in front of the largest single-game crowd in the history of TD Ameritrade Park (27,127) and the seventh-highest attended game in CWS history. The Bulldogs fall short against the Bruins in two games, but finish 2013 51-20 for the best finish in school history (NCAA Finalist).
2014 April 12
Mississippi State break their own NCAA on-campus attendance record as 15,586 Bulldog fans attend a 6-5 victory against in-state rival Ole Miss. Trailing 5-2 in the bottom of the 10th, All-SEC freshman catcher Gavin Collins ripped an RBI walkoff single to cap a monster four-run 10th inning. A total of 39,181 fans attend the threegame series April 11-13, marking a new NCAA on-campus attendance record for a three-game series.
2016 May 21
Mississippi State clinches its 11th SEC Championship in program history and the first regular season conference title since 1989 by defeating Arkansas 9-4 in front of 8,421 fans at Dudy Noble Field.
May 23
Jake Mangum becomes the first freshman to win the C Spire Ferriss Trophy, awarded annually to the top college baseball player in Mississippi. He also becomes the first Bulldog to take SEC Freshman of the Year honors. To add to that, Mangum is named to the All-SEC first team, making him the first MSU freshman since Rafael Palmeiro (1983) to do so.
May 30
MSU was awarded a national seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever, being awarded the No. 6 national seed and hosting its 13th NCAA Regional.
June 29
Jake Mangum is officially named the SEC batting champion, becoming the first freshman in school history to do so. He is the first to capture the title since Brett Pirtle in 2014, giving the Diamond Dawgs two out of the last three leaders in that category.
Nov. 5
Andy Cannizaro is introduced by MSU Director of Athletics John Cohen as MSU’s 17th head baseball coach.
2017 May 22
After posting one of the most impressive regular seasons in the history of Southeastern Conference baseball, Brent Rooker becomes the first-ever Diamond Dawg to be named SEC Player of the Year. Through the 55-game regular season, Rooker hits .415 with 85 hits, in addition to being named First Team All-SEC.
June 5
Having dropped the opening game of the NCAA Hattiesburg Regional, State rallies to win four-straight games (all in just a two-day span) to become the 22nd team in the history of the current 64-team NCAA Tournament format (since 1999) to win a regional after dropping its opening game.
June 6
Once it was determined that MSU would not host the NCAA Regional or Super Regional rounds, the demolition of Dudy Noble Field begins to start the process that would lead to the construction for the $68 million new Dudy Noble Field.
June 28
The first Southeastern Conference player to ever surpass 20 home runs, 30 doubles and 75 RBIs in a single season, Brent Rooker claims the SEC triple crown by leading the league in batting average (.387), home runs (23) and RBIs (82). Rooker becomes just the second player ever to accomplish the feat, joining fellow Diamond Dawg Rafael Palmeiro (1984). Rooker also finished with a school-record 30 doubles and was the first Division I player to record 20 home runs, 30 doubles and 75 RBIs in a single season since Clemson’s Khalil Green in 2002.
2018 April 7
Under the guide of interim head coach Gary Henderson, the Bulldogs return to the half-built Dudy Noble Field to host rival and third-ranked Ole Miss after losing their first three SEC series. Sitting at 15-15 overall, State captures a walk-off victory in the rubber game of the matchup for its first SEC series win of the season. MSU would go on to defeat the Rebels later in the month at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Mississippi, to secure its third-consecutive Governor’s Cup victory.
May 19
In the last game of the regular season, the Diamond Dawgs defeat No. 1-ranked Florida, 13-6, to complete the series sweep and earn a spot in the SEC Tournament. MSU finishes the regular season 15-15 in SEC play, which would be enough to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
June 4
Mississippi State becomes the first program in the history of the current 64-team NCAA Tournament format to win a regional after losing its opening game in backto-back seasons. Following a 20-10 defeat to Oklahoma in their first game, the Diamond Dawgs rally to win four-straight games, including a dramatic walk-off win against host Florida State and consecutive victories against Oklahoma, and clinch the regional title. Five Bulldogs earn all-regional honors and junior Elijah MacNamee is named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player after his three-run walk-off home run against the Seminoles kept MSU alive in the regional.
June 8
MacNamee delivers a walk-off blast for the second time during State’s postseason run to lift MSU to a 10-8 victory at Vanderbilt in the opening game of the Nashville Super Regional. Two days later, the Bulldogs outlast the Commodores in an 11-inning battle in the series finale to punch their ticket to the College World Series for the 10th time in program history.
June 16-23
The Bulldogs win their first two games in Omaha to advance to the semifinals before dropping two games to eventual national champion Oregon State. Luke Alexander caps a tense opener with a walk-off RBI single to beat Washington, 1-0, and Jordan Westburg ties a College World Series record with seven RBIs in a 12-1 win over North Carolina. Second baseman Hunter Stovall is named to the all-tournament team.
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