Ole Miss baseball faces off against Mississippi State in huge weekend series

According to Wikipedia, Starkville, Mississippi, is “a city in, and the county seat of, Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, United States. Mississippi State University is a land-grant institution and is located partially in Starkville but primarily in an adjacent unincorporated area designated by the United States Census Bureau as Mississippi State, Mississippi.”

Starkville is consistently ranked among the worst, if not the worst, college town in the Southeastern Conference due to it being devoid of all happiness, but if you’re making the trek to Starkville this weekend to watch the Diamond Rebs, here are some things you should know about the town and where to find things.

• Starkville’s bar scene is referred to as “The Cotton District” which makes sense considering Mississippi State is a land-grant institution. There isn’t a bar there that compares to what you’ll find on the Square in Oxford, but there are bars and there is alcohol in them. Two Brothers and The Bin are typically hotspots there. A lot of the bars are very small as far as space is concerned, so there will likely be a long line and standing-room only at a lot of them considering it’s Super Bulldog Weekend and everyone there will be geeked out because Ole Miss is in town.
• What was once Starkville’s largest bar as far as square footage, Cowbell’s, is now closed. Country music was played inside, typically. The establishment had banners of all the SEC schools hanging on the wall with, in true Mississippi State fashion, the Ole Miss banner hung upside down because inferiority complexes are a real thing, per psychologists.
• State fans are quick to hold onto recent success against Ole Miss in baseball, which, to be fair, is a real thing. Ole Miss hasn’t won a series in Starkville since 2014 I think (although my math could be wrong there), which also happened to be Super Bulldog Weekend. The Rebels went on to make it to Omaha that season.

With that out of the way, here are some notes about this weekend’s baseball series.

• Ole Miss isn’t wearing the confirmed-cursed road gray jerseys this weekend. They’ll be rocking the usual weekend rotation of uniforms.

• Drew McDaniel will be starting on Sunday in the place of Derek Diamond who got roughed up by the Hogs last Sunday. Diamond will presumably be available out of the bullpen, but in what situation remains to be seen.
• Justin Bench is hurt, which, I’m told, is a bad thing. Bench has been a consistent bat and defender for the Rebels this season, and we’ll have to see if his back injury keeps him out this weekend. My gut tells me that it will, meaning now the Rebels will have to overcome the absence of both Tim Elko and Bench. A lot of moving parts, but injuries are a part of the game, I suppose.

Here are the times and broadcast entities for each game this weekend:

• Friday: 6 p.m. — SEC Network
• Saturday: 2 p.m. — SEC Network +
• Sunday: 1 p.m. — SEC Network +

I plan to be at Saturday’s game in person, so if you have a hankering, come on by and say “hi.” Hopefully we’ll have something to cheer about.