Diamond Dawgs look to stay hot in massive series against No. 24 Ole Miss
It’s a week-by-week approach for Mississippi State baseball as the Diamond Dawgs head into the final two weeks of the regular season.
Like many times in Bulldog baseball history, there have been some extreme lows and some extreme highs in the last five years. The highest of those highs came for State in last June of 2021 when they held the National Championship trophy in Omaha, Neb. The lowest of lows came when the coach that led them there was fired just over one week ago.
For the players, the loss of Chris Lemonis as the team skipper has brought them closer together. It helped them take on a four-game week that ended with four wins and two run rule victories. It has kept them alive heading into the final stretch.
“We just have to show up and play baseball every day,” senior utility player Noah Sullivan said. “Whatever leadership changes there are we show up, play the game and we move forward.”
Parker seeing new energy with State team
Pitching coach Justin Parker has had to step into a new role in the last week as he took over as the interim head coach of the team. He helped State to an 18-5 win over Memphis in his first game and followed that up with another run-rule in a 14-4 beat down of Kentucky in the first game last Saturday.
Two more wins followed against the Wildcats handing State its first sweep of an SEC team this year and the Diamond Dawgs are right back in the hunt. That sets up a monster week this week for the Bulldogs as they take on archrival and No. 24 Ole Miss (33-15, 13-11 SEC) in Starkville for a three-game set.
It’s been an adjustment for Parker in his first couple of weeks. He’s had to move some things around off of his normal schedule with his pitchers so he can spend more time around the rest of the team, but the players have made it easy for him.
“I have veterans on the staff and everyday position players so a lot of it runs itself. The entire coaching staff is obviously involved so there’s been very little changes,” Parker said. “I have a really veteran staff with Pico (Kohn), Karson (Ligon) and Evan Siary and those guys are incredibly self-sufficient and very mature. I’m not spending any less time with them, but I also trust their preparation and communication.”
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State (29-19, 10-14 SEC), at least for now, appears to have sprung new lie. This weekend’s three-game series with the Rebels will certainly tell the college baseball more about whether or not that is sustained, but they enter the series with momentum.
The two teams are both facing an important weekend with the Rebels looking to take back-to-back series over State after losing seven-straight from 2016-23 and it would also get them closer to grabbing a Regional host spot. For the Diamond Dawgs, a series win has them in position of locking up postseason in Columbia, Mo. next week.
Parker saw something that he knew was always in this team’s heart last week. Now it’s about doing it again.
“I think the big thing is that when you’re coaching 18, 19, 20-year-old kids, they’re very impressionable and impulsive. There’s been a lot of times this year where we haven’t played great, but as quick as you can turn it around, we’re able to flip it and have a really good week,” Parker said.
“It’s not a completely different club, there’s not a lot of different moves being made. We’re fairly consistent as a staff. I think it was just guys believing in themselves, getting a little bit of a wakeup call and responding to it.”
The Rebels and Dawgs start the three-game series on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. on SEC Network. Saturday’s game is set for 2 p.m. with Sunday’s at 1 p.m. and both games can be seen on SEC Network +.
