STARKVILLE — Chris Lemonis was impressed with what he saw on television, when he was watching the Mississippi State baseball team in last year’s College World Series. That same talent has caught his eye in his first fall as the team’s coach.
Now all that’s left is to determine how he can deploy that talent.
Therein lies Lemonis’ biggest question one week after MSU’s fall practice slate ended with its intrasquad world series.
“We don’t have a ton of depth, so there is a point where you know who your center fielder and who your right fielder is,” Lemonis said, referencing returning starters Jake Mangum and Elijah MacNamee at those positions. “At this point, we’re trying to develop some different lineups. We’re doing a lot of that right now: who can play second, who can play third, who can play left field if we have a possibility there.”
In the infield, that shuffling is built around the strong fall from sophomore Jordan Westburg at shortstop. Others played there at times, but Lemonis was particularly impressed with Westburg, who shifted to third base and designated hitter as a freshman with good results: three RBI in the Tallahassee Regional, three hits in the Nashville Super Regional and a seven-RBI outburst in the College World Series win over North Carolina.
“I loved it,” Westburg said. “That’s where my comfort zone is, that’s where I played my whole life. I was excited to get back there and excited to play the way I did.
“I tried to take the confidence I had in from the postseason into summer ball and ultimately back into fall ball, and I think that’s exactly what I did. I struggled a little bit toward the end of the fall, but overall, now that it’s the offseason, go back to the drawing board.”
MSU’s other third baseman from last year, Justin Foscue, got work there and as part of a large crew at second base, too. Foscue was joined in the hot corner by freshman Landon Jordan, who Lemonis said benefitted greatly from fall experimenting: Lemonis said he played poorly at second base but truly shined at third.
When Foscue did try second base, he was joined there by junior Gunner Halter, junior Anthony Hickman and sophomore Tanner Allen, who was MSU’s everyday first baseman by season’s end last year. Allen still worked some at first, alongside fellow sophomore Josh Hatcher and junior Tucker Childers.
Having so many infield options should give MSU no shortage of designated hitter possibilities, and Lemonis plans on exploring them.
“It’s going to be a matchup piece: who’s matching up, who’s playing well,” Lemonis said. “It’s hard to be the everyday DH all season long and we have a couple of catchers that can hit, too.”
Even with sophomore Rowdey Jordan projected to retain his starting left field spot alongside Mangum and MacNamee, MSU has options in the outfield: freshmen Basiel Williams, Hunter Blaylock, J.T. Ginn and Benjamin Baker all saw time at left field in the fall.
“With me, Mac and Rowdey, we can show them how we do things here, just like when we were freshmen,” Mangum said.
MSU’s pitching staff left the fall in a similar situation to the infield: plenty of options with little definition of how they will be used. Lemonis even described it as what the team, “really needs to find out.”
It has an established Friday night starter in junior Ethan Small, but everything from the starters that follow to the exact bullpen usage from there remains to be determined.
The return of Riley Self and Spencer Price from their injuries will provide some competition for the back end of the bullpen and Peyton Plumlee’s return to eligibility should do the same for the starting rotation. Ginn has thrown himself into the mix to be a starting pitcher.
Once again, Lemonis is not lacking for options; if anything, the options are forcing hard decisions to come.
“There’s more work to do,” Lemonis said, “but I feel pretty good about where we’re at right now.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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