Colby Holcombe searching for more consistency, confidence in 2024
Colby Holcombe ended last season like many pitchers on the Mississippi State Baseball staff – dissatisfied.
Holcombe came to Mississippi State after serving as the ace for Northeast Mississippi Community College where he had a 2.60 ERA over 65.2 innings of work and striking out 115 batters in 2022. Holcombe was expected to be one of the next great ju-co warriors that have long served the Bulldogs over the course of the program’s history. In some ways, he did that in 2023. In others, as he will tell you, not as much.
The achilles heel of the Mississippi State pitching staff last season was an abundance of walks. Under new pitching coach Justin Parker, though, Holcombe says that he’s confident proper changes have been made to mitigate the issue.
“(Coach Parker) simplified everything,” said Holcombe. “He’s just kind of making everything more simple and easier to do…everybody on the whole staff is throwing more strikes this year.”
Holcombe said a lot of that comes from the confidence that Parker has instilled in the new-look pitching staff.
“Coach Parker is pushing us really hard,” Holcombe said. “He’s like a big alpha male. Like, he’ll get on us like anything, and I feel like (that’s) just getting us well prepared and just kind of made all the confidence come to us.”
Holcombe came to Mississippi State to be a flame thrower, whether it’s in a starting spot or a late-inning role. With that heat, though, comes controlling emotions on the mound. That’s something else that Parker has helped Holcombe with, according to the Florence, Alabama, native.
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“(Coach Parker has focused on) just controlling emotions,” Holcombe said. “Just kind of being plain, simple, don’t show any emotions. Don’t show any good, don’t show any bad emotions, just get up there and pitch and compete.”
The addition of transfers Khal Stephen and Karson Ligon, both power five conference transfers, to the Mississippi State bullpen have naturally caused an uptick in the level of competition between the Bulldogs. According to Holcombe, though, that kind of competition is what the staff thrives on.
“We love it. We all love competition, and we need good arms. I wish we had more arms. I wish we had more power five arms,” said Holcombe.
With the season less than a week away, Holcombe and the rest of the Bulldog pitching staff will be hard at work preparing for the opening day against Air Force on Feb. 16.
