Final non-conference series arrives for Mississippi State baseball

This weekend the final non-conference series of the year for Mississippi State as the Diamond Dawgs are preparing for the SEC gauntlet that lies ahead on the baseball field.

State (8-4) has had some ups and downs in the early part of the schedule and that has been the case for each of the last four years. How the Diamond Dawgs go from here will tell the story of what this year’s team will be.

For 2022 and 2023, it was a team that never found its footing in SEC play. Last year’s squad had some struggles in the non-conference but bounced back with 18 SEC wins and the team had a case for a Regional host.

Coach Chris Lemonis certainly believe this year’s squad is talented enough to be competing for even bigger things this season, but there are things that have to be settled first.

As the Diamond Dawgs enter the Queens series this weekend, they do so with a starting rotation that got a bit of a shakeup with Thursday’s announcement. Lemonis and pitching coach Justin Parker plan to keep Pico Kohn on Friday night as no surprise, but Karson Ligon has moved to Sunday’s matchup with Stone Simmons moving out of the rotation and Ben Davis getting his first start on Saturday.

Even with that shakeup, nothing is truly settled. State is preparing for a busy week next week with two midweek contests in Biloxi for Spring Break followed by Texas coming to town for the first SEC series next weekend.

“We’re going to have to use everybody because we’ve got to be ready to go against Texas so you’ve got to have your best bullets in there,” Lemonis said of his pitchers. Some of them just have to pitch more. They’ll all get increased a little bit as we go through the next couple of days.”

The staff has had mostly good moments early with a staff ERA at 3.03 and 139 strikeouts in 98.0 innings, but they also had two shaky starts aid Arizona and Oklahoma State in State’s losses at the Astros Challenge last week. The bullpen has certainly been the strength and that group will have some pitchers like Davis move into starting roles.

As for the offense, it has seen even more highs and lows. The highs are starting to outweigh the lows as MSU has averaged 11 runs in the last four games. The latest was an 18-3 beatdown of No. 20 Southern Miss on Wednesday night and it allowed pitchers like Chase Hungate to pitch freely.

“At any point with this lineup, the game could change drastically with the amount of talent we have on the offensive side,” Hungate said. “Pitching wise, it makes it a lot easier when you have a lot of run support and we had that.”

Bulldog talent and depth starting to show

It’s a noticeably more productive lineup than last season’s at this point. Despite the record being the same through 12 games as 2024, State has played an objectively tougher schedule and has put together a better offensive approach as a whole.

MSU had 95 runs, 113 hits, 24 doubles and six home runs through 12 games a season ago. This year, the Bulldogs have already scored 102 runs on 132 hits, 25 doubles, 24 home runs.

16 different players have found themselves in the starting lineup at some point already with 11 of them having started at least five games. It’s a good problem for Lemonis to have, but it also creates some issues where the coach has good hitters sitting on the bench. It’s something that is growing into a game-by-game decision.

“I like having about 12 (available hitters). We do have some guys I want out there,” Lemonis said. “Like (Wednesday) we put the lineup up and Aaron Downs isn’t out there. I’ve got to get Gehrig Frei in there. I’ve got two of our hottest hitters in there but the other guys matched up better and they performed. It’s a good problem to have and the good teams in the country have those problems. The more they hit as a group, the more they’ll get to play. I like having it set, but I’d rather have a couple extra good hitters.”

State will look to get on a winning streak starting this weekend as the Diamond Dawgs host Queens (2-10). The series begins on Friday night at 6 p.m. with a Saturday first pitch at 2 p.m. and Sunday’s at 1 p.m.