STARKVILLE — Andy Cannizaro hasn’t hesitated to experiment in his first year as Mississippi State’s baseball coach.

His willingness to try something different knows no limits, whether it means shifting pitchers from the starting rotation to the bullpen or moving Cody Brown to another position on the field.

Cannizaro’s latest tweak re-shuffled the top five spots in his team’s lineup. His goal was to ignite an offense that slumped through the Southeastern Conference tournament. The move worked, as MSU responded from a loss to South Alabama in its first game of the NCAA tournament’s Hattiesburg Regional to score 28 runs in the next four games, all victories.

Those wins have pushed No. 20 MSU (40-25) in a rematch against No. 4 LSU (46-17) in the NCAA tournament’s Super Regionals in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Game 1 of the best-of-three series will be at 8 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2). LSU swept a three-game series from MSU last month in Starkville.

Cannizaro’s decision to move second baseman Hunter Stovall from cleanup to leadoff was just the start. While first baseman Brent Rooker stayed at No. 2, Ryan Gridley, the former leadoff hitter, moved behind him. Third baseman Cody Brown returned to the cleanup spot after a few games away, while center fielder Jake Mangum, who had been hitting in the No. 3 hole, found a new home at No. 5.

Gridley said he didn’t know about the changes until he saw them on the lineup card before the game.

“It’s worked out. He put me in the leadoff and I did really well; then he puts (Stovall) in the leadoff and he does well,” Gridley said. “It feels like whatever he does works out.

“We have really good players. You can go to anyone and count on anyone.”

The move to the No. 3 hole was a return home for Gridley, who had started there in all but three of MSU’s 41 games before May 16, when another one of Cannizaro’s changes moved him to the leadoff spot. Two weeks later, after the final week of the regular season and the SEC tournament, he returned him to the No. 3 hole.

Others haven’t had as much stability.

Left fielder Elijah MacNamee has hit third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh this year. Brown has been anywhere from third to sixth in the order. Stovall spent most of the season, when healthy, at No. 9 before hitting in the top-five spots in the last month.

The players acknowledge moving in the lineup has its difficulties. Gridley said he tries to work the count more when he is in the leadoff spot to give teammates an opportunity to see more pitches. When he hits third, Gridley said he’s much more likely to pounce on a first-pitch fastball because that might be the only fastball he sees in that at-bat.

MacNamee’s approach might not change depending on where he is in the lineup, but his timing does. When MacNamee is in the No. 7 hole, as he has been often, he could come to the plate 10 minutes into the game or an hour into it. He credited the players in front of him getting him to the plate earlier in games. He also credited them for his place in the lineup, where he has grown comfortable.

“I think I’m in the No. 7 hole because the guys in front of me get on and I’ll have a chance to knock them in,” MacNamee said. “I imagine myself as another 3-hole hitter right after the cleanup,” MacNamee said. “I think that’s how Cannizaro’s looking at it and I think it’s working really well.”

MacNamee said Cannizaro’s lineup changes have become the norm.

“No matter where I am in the lineup, I’m going to do what I have to do in order to help the team win,” MacNamee said. “I could be hitting leadoff. I could be hitting cleanup. I could be hitting seventh, ninth. It doesn’t matter. As long as I’m in the lineup, I’m going to do something to help the team win.”

Said Gridley, “I feel like I’ve been doing this all year, so I’ve gotten used to it. Wherever I see my name on the lineup card, that’s my approach.”

Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson