COLUMN: This Mississippi State team has look of dangerous postseason squad

There’s something great about baseball: sometimes, all a team needs is a spark to do something special.

We’ve seen it at Mississippi State a few times over the years. State’s 2011 team was just a few outs away from reaching Omaha, Neb., and the College World Series, facing one of the top teams in the country in Florida. The 2017 team made a Super Regional despite a depleted pitching staff for most of the year.

In 2018, MSU went from losing its coach after the first weekend of the season to clawing back to .500 in league play. State was down to its last out on day two of the Tallahassee Regional when Elijah MacNamee’s walk-off home run changed the course of the season. From there, the Bulldogs fought through the loser’s bracket, won the Regional, and then took the Nashville Super Regional against Vanderbilt to punch their ticket to Omaha. That team came within one game of the national championship.

The 2025 team has aspirations of achieving similar feats, and the recent run suggests they’re built to do just that. After Chris Lemonis was fired following a series loss to Auburn, State found a gear it hadn’t reached all season.

Last 10 games have awakened Bulldog team

The Diamond Dawgs have won nine of their last ten games to close out the regular season, including four run-rule victories. That stretch featured a sweep of Kentucky, a series win over Ole Miss, and a sweep of Missouri to finish the weekend.

The pressure has been on for weeks. MSU was 7–14 in the SEC and couldn’t find ways to win games that were within reach. But over the last three weeks, this team is playing free and loose—ready for whatever comes their way.

Defense has been a struggle at times this season, but the team is showing marked improvement down the stretch. The pitching staff, which had regressed as the SEC schedule wore on, has also found its footing in recent weeks.

The biggest key has been the offense—a group that always had potential.

For much of the season, State searched for a consistent lineup. There were offensive candidates, but defensive concerns kept some out of the lineup. Now, the Bulldogs are settling in, and they’re swinging the bats as well as any MSU team in recent memory.

Over the last 10 games, State’s offense is batting .346 with 120 hits, 108 runs, 27 doubles, 23 home runs, and two triples. Although he missed most of the weekend with an injury, Gehrig Frei’s emergence at the top of the order has been a major catalyst.

Frei is batting .360 on the season with a 1.037 OPS, 45 hits, 11 doubles, seven home runs, and 16 RBI. His performance has left many wondering how good this team could have been with him in the everyday lineup from the start. The same can be said for Sawyer Reeves, who took over at shortstop several weeks ago after struggling at second base. He’s now batting nearly .300 and has significantly improved State’s defense.

Of course, no conversation about State’s offense is complete without mentioning Ace Reese and Noah Sullivan.

First, there’s Reese—the Houston transfer—who has arguably been the best hitter in the SEC this season. He leads the team in batting average (.369), hits (76), doubles (18), home runs (21), RBI (66), slugging percentage (.772), and runs scored (58). He ranks in the top five in the SEC in nearly all of those categories and is pushing for First-Team All-SEC honors and the Ferriss Trophy.

Sullivan has also been steady, hitting .341 with 63 hits, 15 doubles, 58 runs, 13 home runs, 43 RBI, and a team-best 33 walks.

What do these players have in common? They were all offseason acquisitions from the transfer portal.

Immediately after State’s season-ending loss to Virginia last year, I asked Chris Lemonis what the team needed from the portal. Offense was the obvious answer, but more specifically, he said the team needed better plate presence and players who were tough to get out. Mission accomplished.

Longtime hitting coach Jake Gautreau helped assemble what might be his best lineup yet in Starkville. This past weekend alone, State hit 15 home runs and scored 50 runs. The Bulldogs now sit at 97 home runs on the season, tying the school record. Their .309 team batting average is the best since 2019’s .315 mark, and their 119 doubles are the most since the national championship team’s 122 in 2021. They’ve also scored 447 runs—the most since scoring 476 in 2021.

This team has always had the potential it’s now showing, and it’s finally coming together. What happens next will define the season—and the opportunities are there for the taking.

Heading into next week’s SEC Tournament, State can be confident it will be playing postseason baseball. And when playing free, there aren’t many teams more dangerous.