Report: Mississippi State fires pitching coach Scott Foxhall
Mississippi State fired pitching coach Scott Foxhall Monday, according to Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com.
“COACHING NEWS: (Mississippi State) has fired pitching coach Scott Foxhall, effective immediately,” Rogers wrote on Twitter. “Foxhall was in his (fifth) season with the Mississippi State program. MSU is ranked No. 206 in terms of earned-run average in Division I Baseball.”
Foxhall was in the middle of his fifth season on the Mississippi State baseball staff. He was recently the 2021 ABCA Assistant Coach of the Year.
It was his 29th season in college baseball and his pitching staffs helped lead Mississippi State to two consecutive College World Series appearances (2019 and ‘21 after 2020 was canceled).
In 2022, the Bulldogs pitching staff continued to put up big numbers. After the previous two seasons, Mississippi State set program records in strikeouts, the Diamond Dawgs put up the fifth most in program history in 2022 with 592.
Behind Foxhall’s leadership, the Bulldogs pitching staff ranked fourth in the nation and first in the SEC in strikeouts per nine innings (10.9). In the 2022 MLB Draft, four pitchers were selected, Landon Sims, Preston Johnson, KC Hunt and Jackson Fristoe, with three of the four signing professional contracts.
In 2021, Foxhall’s pitchers broke the school record for strikeouts for the second consecutive season. Bulldog pitching led the nation with 817 strikeouts, which is also the all-time NCAA record for strikeouts in a single season.
The Mississippi State pitching staff finished in the nation’s top 15 in seven different categories, including strikeouts (No. 1), shutouts (No. 3) and hits allowed per nine innings (No. 6).
Prior to Mississippi State, Foxhall was the pitching coach at NC State for four seasons. Foxhall helped the Wolfpack to four straight NCAA Tournament appearances and back-to-back appearances in NCAA Regional finals in 2017 and 2018.
In all, 22 NC State student-athletes heard their names called in the MLB Draft, including 10 pitchers.
Foxhall spent six seasons at Auburn as the program’s pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. In his final three seasons, the Tigers registered a sub-4.00 earned run average each season, including 3.40 and 3.34 marks in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
The Bulldogs are 24-20 overall this season with a 6-15 record in the SEC.