Pair of State baseball signees named Gatorade Players of the Year
As the book closed on the 2024 Mississippi State baseball team, the 2025 roster will start to really take shape in the coming months.
A big part of State’s roster will be known shortly after the MLB Draft concludes on July 16. There are two players that the Diamond Dawgs hope make it to campus to see the team take another step forward in a season.
The Gatorade Player of the Year selections showed that Chris Lemonis is after some of the best in the country as he had Conrad Cason and Braden Booth land their state PotY picks.
Cason earned the distinction of being Georgia’s best player which is a prestigious honor considering the talent that comes out of the state every year. The RHP and SS put together an incredible senior season for Greater Atlanta Christian School as he was 7-1 with a 0.48 ERA and 99 strikeouts in 43.2 innings. At the plate, Cason hit .364 with three home runs, 32 runs scored, 28 RBI, 25 walks and 16 stolen bases.
While he projects on the next level at either position, scouts believe his highest ceiling will be on the mound. Cason consistently threw 92-95 mph off the mound and touched 97 this season. He is a draft risk for the Bulldogs with a projection somewhere in the first three rounds.
For Booth, he continues a line of Bulldogs that have won the award from the state. Hunter Stovall (2015), Pico Kohn (2019) and Maddux Bruns (2020) also won the award in the last 10 years.
Leading his Bob Jones team to the Class 7A state championship this year, the RHP was 13-1 with a 1.51 ERA and 127 strikeouts in 83.1 innings. He also batted .429 while playing short stop and had 10 home runs, 57 runs scored and 49 RBI with a 1.333 OPS. In the state championship series, Booth gave up just two hits and threw a complete game while batting .700 and hitting three home runs on the way to MVP honors.
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While Booth is one of the top prospects in the state of Alabama, he has a shot of making it to school in the fall and helping the Bulldogs on the mound and at the plate as a toolsy right handed hitter.
Both Booth and Cason committed to the Bulldogs in the months following the National Championship win in 2021.
Also of note from the Player of the Year announcements, two former MSU commitments made the list.
South Carolina’s representative is catcher P.J. Morlando. The Summerville HS alum committed to State all the way back during his 8th grade year during 2020 and stayed committed until last season. He would choose to stay in state and play for South Carolina.
RHP William Schmidt was named the Louisiana PotY. Schmidt was a longtime commitment to State before opening things up and he eventually signed with home state LSU instead. Fellow Tiger signee Konnor Griffin from Jackson Prep was named the Mississippi PotY. All three players are projected in the first three rounds of the the MLB Draft.
