Mississippi State coach Chris Lemonis knows the period in a baseball season between Week 1 and Week 2 offers the most room for improvement the Bulldogs are likely to get all spring.
Three days off and Tuesday’s 17-1 midweek rout of Arkansas–Pine Bluff will allow MSU (2-2) to answer some of the questions that always arise in any season’s early going.
“What do we need to work on?” Lemonis said Sunday. “What do we need to do?”
Perhaps the most important thing the fourth-year Mississippi State coach must do is figure out which players are best suited to help the Bulldogs chase a second straight College World Series title.
Realistically, it’s far too early to tell for sure. MSU never really cemented its title-winning lineup until late in the 2021 season, and just a few games into 2022, there’s hardly anything set in stone.
“We’re nowhere near finalizing a lineup or a rotation or anything like that,” Lemonis said. “There’s just too much competition.”
Through the season’s first four games, here’s an update on the Bulldogs’ four key position battles.
Rotation
Two-thirds of Mississippi State’s inaugural weekend pitching rotation got off to a strong start in last weekend’s opening series against Long Beach State.
On Friday, Landon Sims dazzled with 13 strikeouts in seven innings of one-run ball. Cade Smith was efficient and effective Sunday, allowing one run and striking out six hitters in 5.2 innings.
KC Hunt was the lone starter to have a rough outing, allowing five runs on six hits in three innings in MSU’s 13-3 loss on Saturday.
Sophomore right-hander Jackson Fristoe, who allowed one run over four innings Tuesday in a start against UAPB, professed faith in Hunt along with Sims and Smith.
“Our three weekend guys, they’re legit,” Fristoe said. “Everything will work itself out with that.”
Fristoe said he believes he is “a weekend guy for sure” and said there are seven pitchers he considers in contention for the rotation.
Lemonis said this weekend’s series against Northern Kentucky will help whittle things down.
“Most of the guys have been out there once now,” he said. “As we reassess and start to go through, we’ll see a lot more this weekend.”
Center field
Lemonis said preseason he expected the center fielder competition to come down to returnee Brayland Skinner or UAB transfer Jess Davis.
But former Hinds Community College outfielder Matt Corder has forced the issue so far and might end up stealing the job from both.
Corder is hitting .333 through three games, starting the most recent three after Skinner drew the start in Friday’s season opener. Corder hit a 428-foot two-run home run in Sunday’s 12-4 win, going 2 for 3 with three RBIs.
“He can do a little bit of everything,” Lemonis said of Corder.
Skinner is 1 for 5 this season, while Davis is 2 for 3 in a pinch-hitting role.
Lemonis said the center field job is one of several offensive competitions that weren’t there as much last season, when pitching competitions dominated the conversation.
“There’s some inner battles going on there between those guys,” Lemonis said. “They know they’ve got to show up every day, and there’s a really good guy behind them who could take their spot.”
In center field, that might just be Corder.
Right field
Kellum Clark entrenched himself as Mississippi State’s starting designated hitter as a freshman in 2021, starting regularly from May 9 through the end of the season.
Clark started the year as the Bulldogs’ Opening Day right fielder, but his job isn’t as secure as it might have seemed.
The Brandon product is 0 for 11 to start the season despite some bad luck Tuesday that kept him from his first hit. Clark lined a ball at more than 105 miles per hour, but it found the glove of the Golden Lions second baseman for a 4-3 double play.
Lemonis said Clark was the Bulldogs’ best hitter this fall but is trying to do too much at the plate and simply needs to work on “hitting strikes.”
“Kellum’s a really good player, and he’ll play a lot of baseball here,” Lemonis said. “We’re just trying to get him going a little bit.”
Drew McGowan had two hits off the bench in Sunday’s win and went 1 for 1 in Tuesday’s start before Clark replaced him with the Bulldogs nursing a big lead.
Lemonis said it’s hard not to let players like Clark play their way through struggles, but it can be critical when Mississippi State faces important games on its schedule.
“You have a lot of faith in them, but you’ve also got to win games at the same time,” Lemonis said. “Sometimes it’s good to step away from it, get a different perspective, and then they’re able to get back in there and give you some help.”
Shortstop
Perhaps Mississippi State’s most intriguing position battle didn’t portend to be one prior to the start of the season.
Lane Forsythe hit just .231 as a freshman last year, but his outstanding defense seemed poised to win him the job outright out of spring practice.
But senior Tanner Leggett so far seems hell bent on ousting Forsythe, belting a pair of home runs in just six at-bats so far this year. Leggett’s defense probably can’t match Forsythe’s, but the former Northwest Mississippi Community College infielder’s bat so far seems superior to a large enough degree to render that insignificant.
Lemonis said he was impressed by Leggett’s play so far as well as his positional versatility. Leggett said he’s willing to play anywhere, but shortstop seems like a natural fit if the Bulldogs want to upgrade their offense in the nine-hole and at shortstop.
“Really good players, they force your hand,” Lemonis said of Leggett. “He’s pushing.”
Leggett hit only .235 last year but got on base at a higher clip than Forsythe (.337 to .321) and outslugged the freshman as well (.321 to .274).
Forsythe is hitting 2 of 10 so far this season, and Lemonis said he wants the freshman to jump on more fastballs at the plate.
“The nine-hole, they come at you,” Lemonis said. “Hopefully he can get going here a little bit. He’s such a good defender; it’d be nice to get him going offensively.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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