Mississippi State baseball is regional No. 2 seed in 2024 NCAA Tournament. Here's the bracket
STARKVILLE — Mississippi State baseball is a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament field which was unveiled Monday. MSU will be part of the Charlottesville Regional where No. 12 overall seed Virginia is the host.
St. John's (37-16-1) is the No. 3 seed in the regional while Penn (24-23) is the No. 4 seed. The Bulldogs (38-21) will open play Friday (6 p.m., ESPN+) against the Red Storm. Penn plays Virginia (41-15) on Friday (11 a.m., ESPN+).
The Charlottesville Regional is paired up with the Fayetteville Regional where No. 5 overall seed Arkansas is the host.
Mississippi State is coming off its strongest regular season since 2021. After back-to-back years with no postseason appearance, MSU finished fifth in the SEC with a 17-13 record.
The Bulldogs won games against Texas A&M and Ole Miss at the SEC tournament before losing to Vanderbilt and Tennessee. Behind an RPI outside the top 20 and a nonconference strength of schedule ranking 132nd in the country, MSU was not among the 16 teams selected to host a regional.
Under coach Chris Lemonis, who is in his sixth season at the helm, Mississippi State has now earned three NCAA Tournament bids. In his previous two postseason trips, Lemonis led the Bulldogs to the College World Series.
Mississippi State fell short of its goal in 2019 but won the national title in 2021.
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NCAA Charlottesville Regional schedule
All times CDT
Friday’s games
Game 1: No. 1 Virginia (41-15) vs. No. 4 Penn (24-23), 11 a.m., ESPN+
Game 2: No. 2 Mississippi State (38-21) vs. No. 3 St. John's (37-16-1), 6 p.m., ESPN+
Saturday games
Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 11 a.m., TBD
Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 5 p.m., TBD
Sunday games
Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 11 a.m., TBD
Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 5 p.m., TBD
Monday game
Game 7: Game 6 winner vs. Game 6 loser (if necessary), TBD
Stefan Krajisnik is the Mississippi State beat writer for the Clarion Ledger. Contact him at skrajisnik@gannett.com or follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @skrajisnik3.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi State baseball in Charlottesville Regional: NCAA Tournament
