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Mississippi State

State baseball duo plan to enter the transfer portal

3rupauk8_400x400by:Robbie Faulk•05/28/25•

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gavin black
Gavin Black (Photo by Mississippi State Athletics)

While the transfer portal won’t officially open until Monday, action is already beginning to trickle out around the country.

Mississippi State has not been immune to that early on as the Diamond Dawgs have two that are reportedly planning to enter the portal when Monday comes around. Junior RHP Gavin Black and Freshman OF Landis Davila will both be suiting up elsewhere next season.

Black is the biggest name of the two as the former Northwest Florida State College pitcher was expected to be a factor in State’s pitching plans this year and beyond. An injury took him out for nearly the entirety of this season as he pitched in one game against Troy in February and allowed a hit and walk in a scoreless inning of work while striking out two batters.

It was disappointing for State fans and for Black this season after he had a strong finish to the year in 2024. In the season finale against Virginia in last year’s Charlottesville Regional, Black faced four batters and fanned three of them with strikeouts in some dominant work out of the pen. Black pitched in 12 games last year and 13.2 innings with a 5.93 ERA. He gave up 13 hits, nine earned runs and eight walks while striking out 22 batters.

Black gave up four of those runs against LSU in 0.2 inning. In the other 11 games and 13.0 frames on the year, he surrendered just five runs and struck out 22 with four walks.

Farragut, Tenn., freshman Davila showed some promise in the fall and early spring. At 6’3, 200 pounds, his frame for his classification was impressive and he got a chance to play in six games this year with a hit and an RBI. He also was hit by pitch.

Davila is one of three Farragut players that came to State last year. Fellow teammates RHP Cade O’Leary and MIF Lukas Buckner are on the team with Buckner getting the most playing time out of the trio. Buckner has played in 18 games this year with three starts while batting .308 and getting eight hits and two RBI.

With the portal opening on Monday, Director of Athletics Zac Selmon is working to finalize a new head coach for the Bulldogs while the team itself is playing a Regional in Tallahassee, Fla. at Florida State. MSU starts the postseason run on Friday night against Northeastern at 6:30 p.m. CT.

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