The Mississippi State-Florida State Pensacola Exhibition, Part 1: Looking Back in History

Florida State hosts recent Regional Final opponent Mississippi State in a Pensacola, FL exhibition on October 18.

By Doug Kyle

When the announcement was made that Mississippi State and Florida State would meet for a college baseball exhibition the afternoon of October 18 in Pensacola, FL, at the Blue Wahoos minor league ballpark (reprising their NCAA Regional Final showdown from June), there was a lot of interest, especially among the MSU faithful still excited from new Head Coach Brian O’Connor’s June 5 introduction at Dudy Noble Field.

But, who could have imagined that a sellout of reserved seats to the general public would be announced in just over an hour? It was 80 minutes, according to Blue Wahoos officials. Yes, it’s the second straight year FSU will play there in front of a packed house, having met Auburn in 2024. Demand for that event relatively paled in comparison, taking a whole 12 hours to sell out.

UPDATE: As we prepared to publish this morning, fewer than 50 seats down the right field line appeared as available for purchase, but they were being quickly sold as word spread.

It should be noted Blue Wahoos season ticket holders had presale access, so it’s not clear how many of the 5038 seats remained when public sale began. And, it probably won’t be known until game day how the packed house will break down in terms of Garnet and Gold or Maroon and White. Nor, how many more opted for SRO (standing room only) admission.

It may be a repeat appearance for the Seminoles, but for the Bulldogs, it sends inquisitive minds digging into record books and querying former players to find out if Mississippi State has done this before—specifically, played in Pensacola or traveled to the state of Florida for exhibition play. Conference and postseason opponents and appearances abound throughout the Sunshine State, but performing in the Panhandle or for entertainment and education purposes only is not so commonplace.

The apparent answer on both counts is, once before. The record books show Mississippi State dropped a 6-3 decision on March 16, 1983, at West Florida, called after seven innings due to rain. The Bulldogs had easily taken two at home over the then-NAIA Argonauts the year before, 17-2 and 24-9, but the teams have not met again in the 42 seasons since that single game in Pensacola, their history quite possibly falling victim to tightened NCAA guidelines on scheduling non-Division 1 opponents.

How long ago was it? The box score shows that freshman Rafael Palmeiro was the designated hitter that night and collected one of just five hits for Mississippi State. And Will Clark? He had not yet ousted Chris Maloney as the starting first baseman. Outfielder Brad Winkler had two hits, including a double, to lead his team; fellow outfielder Bobby Locke had a hit; and third baseman Mike Bradford (whose son CT later played for MSU 2011-14) had a triple that drove in all three runs for MSU.

A couple of familiar names on the mound, losing starting pitcher Jeff Brantley and middle reliever Hans Herzog, were touched for three runs each in three innings of work. Notably, only two of the six were earned after the teams committed three errors each in the wet conditions. A final scoreless inning was pitched by closer Trent Intorcia.

Interestingly, after their Wednesday night stints, Brantley and Herzog started in the following Saturday’s home SEC doubleheader, 8-0 and 5-1 wins over Auburn, that apparently had them back on the right track. Intorcia picked up his second and third scoreless final innings for the week in the sweep over the Tigers.

Ron Polk was the Mississippi State head coach at the time and has a few recollections of the game. At the urging of West Florida head coach Jim Spooner, the two teams had scheduled a home-and-home, but the stormy weather that shortened the first return game in Pensacola and wiped out the scheduled second one also wreaked havoc as Polk and radio broadcaster Jim Ellis attempted a post-game show.

Polk recalls having to sit outside in the rain, under an umbrella Ellis held, on top of the dugout. College Baseball Central columnist Bo Carter, who was the MSU sports information director on duty that night, adds that not only was there no press box or accommodating connections, the broadcast was believed to be the first such radio attempt by home or visitor at the UWF campus ballpark. Fortunately, Ellis learned of this prior to the trip and made arrangements for a small portable antenna, plus a local radio station to receive and relay his call to WSSO in Starkville, the only Mississippi station carrying the weekday game.

At least the six-hour trip down had a positive beginning for Carter, Ellis, and team trainer Straton Karatassos, who visited the Pensacola Naval Air Museum the morning before the game. While Ellis toughed it out through the last several innings of rain and lightning with plastic covering his equipment, Carter retreated at one point to the dugout alongside Karatassos to preserve his scorebook, the game suspended and eventually called as official.

So, it’s a brief, and so far unsuccessful, track record for Mississippi State baseball in Pensacola. And in front of only 350 fans at the 1000-capacity ballpark, according to the box score, completed in Carter’s handwriting. Carter recalled the game was the second of a road trip by the team that week, begun the day before with a 10-2 victory at Livingston, AL, over the school now known as West Alabama.

As for exhibition play, available records do not show any previous such ventures into Florida, fall or preseason. All-SEC outfielder Ted Milton (1969-72), however, remembers Head Coach Paul Gregory—who several times scheduled his teams in both Riverside, CA, and Tallahassee, FL, for early regular season tournament play—took the Bulldogs to Sarasota, FL, prior to the 1972 season, where they scrimmaged for four days against Kansas City Royals major and minor league players to prepare for defending their back-to-back SEC championships and regional title that took them to a first College World Series in 1971.

We’ve looked back at the Pensacola and Florida exhibition history, and next week, we’ll look ahead at the upcoming game, as I’m joined by protégé and ACC baseball journalist Monty Taylor for a joint ACC-SEC preview of the two teams.

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