State Climbing in Baseball Polls

Fifth-ranked Mississippi State continues its season-opening 19-game homestand Tuesday afternoon when MSU (9-0) squares off against Rhode Island(0-6) in a 4 p.m. game at Dudy Noble Field. It’s the first of two games between the Bulldogs and the Rams, who also meet Wednesday at 4 p.m. Stadium gates and ticket facilities open at 2 p.m., with $5 general admission tickets available for open seating in the grandstand’s chairback seating areas.

Sophomore right-hander Brandon Woodruff (1-0, 0.00) is set to make his second start of the campaign and the eighth of his career. Rhode Island, a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, is expected to send junior righty Milan Mantle to the hill for his first career start and second appearance of the year.

State swept two games each from defending Big Ten Conference champion Purdue and Samford last weekend to extend its season-opening win streak to nine games. Shortstop Adam Frazier (.444) legged out two triples and added six other hits during the Diamond Classic at Dudy Noble Field. He begins the week leading the SEC in both hits (16) and triples (3). The Golden Spikes Award candidate has registered a team-best six multiple-hit games while assisting with 10 of MSU’s 11 double plays.

MSU sits atop the early-season team statistics in hitting (.332), earned run average (1.22) and ranks third in fielding (.983).

MSU’s success is reflected in the latest college baseball national rankings, where State stands at No. 5 (Baseball America), No. 9 (Collegiate Baseball), No. 10 (NCBWA writers’ poll) and No. 13 (USA TODAY Sports coaches’ poll).

Rhode Island dropped three-game series at Florida State (5-11, 2-6, 6-8 in 10 innings) and at Ole Miss (1-8, 0-1, 3-5) to begin a run of 18 games away from its Kingston, R.I., home to start the 2013 baseball campaign. It’s the second visit to Starkville for the Rams, who opened the 2010 season with three games at Dudy Noble Field.

The radio broadcast of both MSU-Rhode Island games will be heard on a local basis only on WKBB-FM (100.9), the flagship station for Mississippi State athletics. Live audio and multi-camera video streaming for the two games will also be available online to HailStateTV subscribers