Chris Lemonis wraps up Mississippi State's fall ball

It’s been a productive several weeks for Mississippi State baseball on the diamond as the Bulldogs have gotten to work preparing for the 2025 baseball season.

Chris Lemonis’ seventh squad is beginning to come together as a team and had some good moments so far this fall. That culminated with the team’s second scrimmage against another opponent on Sunday.

After going to Birmingham and playing UAB last month, State welcomed in Arkansas State on Sunday afternoon for two seven-inning ball games. MSU played starters in game one and dominated in a 18-1 game while they dropped game two 3-1.

After the matchup, Lemonis spoke to the media about the production of his group on the day and also for the entirety of the fall.

Question: What were your thoughts on the day as a whole?

CL: “It’s an evaluation day. Last day of the fall for us. Shoot, I thought that first game we were as good as we could be. Pitching wise, it’s a lot of guys that haven’t pitched for us before. Even the older guys, Chase Hungate, you want them to pitch in the uniform here before opening day. I thought they were pretty good.

“You’d like to get a few more hits in that second game because a lot of those guys have got a chance to play for us in the spring. We still have so much up in the air. That first game, they were really good together.”

Q: Duke Stone and Charlie Foster started for you on the mound. What did you think of them?

CL: “Duke was just ok. We don’t make the first play of the game on a funky ball, but you’ve got to throw strikes. He looked a little tired out there (Sunday) and has been a little better for us this fall. He’s got a bright future for us. Charlie Foster was really good. They’re a little lower in their velo right now than they’ve been this fall but this is the most they’ve thrown in a while. I was pretty pleased with those guys.”

Q: Do you feel pretty good about that first game lineup being mostly your core guys in the starting lineup?

CL: “It is. You’ve got Dylan Cupp who could have played today if we were playing LSU. Ross Highfill could probably catch if we were playing. We’re just being cautious. Dylan has December 1 as live play date that his doctor gave him. He takes ground balls, he runs, he hits – I think he’s leading us in hitting this fall. He’s really close. Those guys are in the mix. Joe Powell is out for a couple of weeks and he’ll be back in that mix too. You’ve got some guys there.”

Q: Earlier in the fall you talked about bonding and team building what are your thoughts on the chemistry?

CL: “Well we know their names now. It’s a good group. It’s a fun group. I told them today, it’s our last day of the fall, how much I appreciate them because they like to work. It doesn’t mean that we’ve been perfect in our work and I haven’t chewed their ass a little bit, but it’s the mentality of coming here, having a good time and getting along.

“It still takes a while for that. Sometimes your closest teams have to fight through adversity. When I got here in 2019, that team had been through a lot. You’ve got to go through some things with each other too.”

Q: How would you assess your defense this fall?

CL: “I was really excited until the last game there. We’ve played 28 innings against somebody else and had one error. You add Dylan Cupp back and Ross Highfill back and that gets a little bit better. I like where our group is defensively. We’ve got some speed. (Michael O’Brien) makes a great catch (Sunday). We’ve still got some work to do, but we’ve got a chance to be a really good defensive team.”

Q: What kind of player did you guys get out of Ace Reese?

CL: “He had seven or eight homers this fall. He hits it everywhere. I think that’s the big piece. You’ll see it out to left, center and right. He does some special things with the bat. He’s not a strikeout type of guy. I’m sure he’ll strikeout, but he’s not a big one with that much power.

“That’s Noah Sullivan for us too. Noah has such a complete swing and had a big hit (Sunday) on the backside. You don’t want those guys with 15 homers and a ton of strikeouts so we’re trying to make that offense a little bit better.”

Q: It appears Michael O’Brien is taking over at centerfield?

CL: “Yeah, I think you’ve got Mikey. Our fall game against UAB Bryce Chance was awesome. I’ve got Ross Highfill that’s going to fall into that mix a little bit when he’s not catching. I don’t know how much of a load he can take catching early so you’ve got some candidates.”

Q: You wanted to add a lot of left-handed power bats. How would you assess what they did this fall?

CL: “We hit probably more home runs this fall than we’ve ever hit. I don’t know if that means we’re pitching any good, but the first couple of weeks we had 25 or 26 home runs in our scrimmages and had a few more (Sunday). I think we’ve just got more flex right now. We wanted to be bigger, more physical and have a little more depth in the offense.”

Q: You said you had five or six two-way players..

CL: “Well we’re down to two right now. Everybody has kind of gone to one side or the other. The two you saw today – Noah Sullivan and Nolan Stevens – they have a chance to really impact us. I think you look up and watch Nolan Stevens and Luke Dotson you watch those two throw and that’s pretty special coming out of your pen. Noah is the old crusty guy, he just doesn’t lose a lot. He knows how to pitch. It’s not blow-you-away stuff, but on a 27-man roster on an SEC weekend, you could use a guy like that.”

Q: Do you feel like this lineup has the potential to be better than last year’s?

CL: “I think so. It’s always hard to replace a Dakota Jordan, David Mershon, Connor Hujsak and some of those guys, but I think so. Ross Highfill has a chance to be as good as anybody in the league but he needs a good year. Mikey has a chance. Then you have a better year out of Bryce and Hunter and some of those guys and it gives us a real kick up.”

Q: How much has baserunning been a point of emphasis for you?

CL: “It’s always been a point of emphasis. I thought we were pretty good in the earlier game (Sunday). We just want to be as athletic as we can. I think that’s the biggest thing. We work on it every day in practice.”

Q: Do you envision having a determined starter at every position?

CL: “I think we’re going to have a little more flex than we did in the practice. Maybe it’s a wind blowing out guy or a left/right matchup, we can do a little bit more. We didn’t have that ability last year at all.”

Q: What is the schedule like for you guys now that fall ball is finished, do you go into weightlifting and conditioning?

CL: “Yeah, and a little bit of baseball. We take this time, assess everything, a lot of player meetings. It’s a lot lighter, that’s for sure but it’s really pointed at what we’ve got to fix. In the next couple of days if you’re a hitter it will be me, coach (Jake Gautreau) and the hitter. If it’s a pitcher, it’s me, (Justin Parker) and a pitcher. We’ll sit down and show them their stats and tell them where they’re at and where they need to improve. That’s a lot of meetings over the next week.”

Q: Could Noah Sullivan be an everyday guy?

CL: “I do. The hard part is we have some real good hitters in that area as well but I do think he can be real special.”