1985 Mississippi State University Bulldogs, 50 -15 (16-8 SEC), SEC Tournament Champion, College World Series (3rd)
 
The 1985 Bulldogs have often been touted as one of the most talented college baseball teams ever assembled, with four future major league stars playing key roles for the club.  Big things were predicted for the club from the beginning, with Bulldog teammates Will Clark and Rafael Palmiero together gracing the cover of Baseball America's preseason 1985 College Annual.   The two, both juniors, were known together as "Thunder and Lightning"; somewhat less publicized was the fact that Clark and Palmeiro were known to dislike each other and continued to have heated words for each other once they both hit the pros.  Regardless, their relationship did not impair their performance.  Clark batted .430 with 25 homers in 224 AB, and won the Golden Spikes Award in 1985 as college baseball’s best player, while Palmiero hit .300 with 20 homers.  In addition to this tandem, Bobby Thigpen played RF (hitting .306) and also was the team's top reliever, with 7 saves and 49 strikeouts in 42 innings.  Jeff Brantley went 18-2 as the staff ace, with a 2.29 ERA and 136 strikeouts in 145 innings.   The team won both the SEC regular season and the conference tournament, and they hosted and won the NCAA regionals to earn a trip to the CWS.

MSU's Thunder and Lightning

The trip to Omaha started well as the Bulldogs hammered the 1985 Oklahoma State 
Cowboys and Pete Incaviglia 12-3, jumping out to an early 5-0 lead that MSU starter Gene Morgan (14-2, 2.28) was easily able to make hold up, aided in part by a Palmiero home run.  After defeating Arkansas but losing to Texas, the Bulldogs faced an elimination game against the Miami Hurricanes in the CWS semifinal.  Everything was lined up for the Bulldogs--Miami was the lowest seeded team remaining in the tournament;  MSU had their ace All-America righthander Jeff Brantley ready to go on the mound; and taking no chances, Mississippi State donned their "lucky uniforms", in which they had never lost a game during the season.  And, it all seemed to work. Although Miami jumped out to a 3-0 lead, Bobby Thigpen hit a grand slam homer to left-center in the sixth inning to put the Bulldogs on top.  Brantley, trying to become the seventh collegian ever to win 19 games, took a 5-4 lead into the ninth. However, after Brantley walked Leake to open the inning, Mississippi State Coach Ron Polk decided that Brantley had pitched long enough in a game during which the temperature reached 99 degrees, and called Thigpen in from right field to pitch to Miami's Greg Ellena.  Ellena greeted Thigpen with a two-run blow over the leftcenter field fence, into a stiff wind, that gave Miami a 6-5 victory and an exit for the Bulldogs from the College World Series.