the hardest part

Well, rest is certainly no longer a concern for Delta State. Rust, however, might be. The Gulf South Conference Tournament has been pushed back two days; the Statesmen won’t play now until Monday night, in the last of the four first-round games. That’s an eight-day layoff. DSU coach Mike Kinnison said this week that his club needed a break, physically and mentally, after what has been a taxing season of ups and downs. But after taking two of three games from then-No. 1 ranked Southern Arkansas last weekend, the Statesmen had a wave of momentum to ride into the GSC tourney. That wave may have petered out by the time DSU gets on the field in Millington, Tenn. DSU, ranked sixth in the NCAA Division II South Region, needs a good tournament run to ensure a national tourney invitation. If the Statesmen go two-and-out … it gets dicey.
P.S. Expect Mississippi College to win its best-of-3 series in Clinton this weekend and reach the American Southwest Conference Tournament. And don’t be surprised if the Choctaws, with their strong pitching, win that, too. … It’s always big when Mississippi State and Ole Miss collide, but there is some major pressure on the Bulldogs to win this series — if for no other reason than to show they’ve got some fight in them. They’ve struggled for two years under John Cohen. Taking resurgent Ole Miss down a peg in Starkville this weekend won’t solve all their ills, but it would be a big lift. Bulldog Nation needs one.