STARKVILLE — After a nearly two-month long search, Mississippi State baseball found its pitching coach and ended up not having to look far for him.
Sources with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to The Dispatch Monday morning that Justin Parker, who spent the last two years as the pitching coach at South Carolina, will succeed Scott Foxhall, who was relieved of his duties on May 1 by MSU head coach Chris Lemonis.
Call it a home run, because stealing a proven pitching from a Southeastern Conference rival certainly is.
Call it a Hail Mary, too, because Parker’s success could directly correlate to Lemonis’ future beyond the 2024 season.
After two miserable seasons on the mound in 2022-23, where the Bulldogs finished dead last in the SEC in numerous pitching categories, Lemonis had no choice but to cut ties with Foxhall, who was on MSU’s 2021 national title coaching staff.
The Bulldogs have yet to reach the SEC Tournament, let alone the Big Dance, since their ‘21 title run. At a critical point in the history of the MSU baseball program, Lemonis made a critical hire.
In Parker, a Fort Wayne, Indiana native, MSU adds a pitching coach whose staffs have historically improved by the end of his tenure. Though in some cases, that improvement wasn’t immediate.
In his two-year stint at Central Florida, the Knights went from a 4.80 team earned run average in 2016, the year before Parker arrived, to 4.08 in 2018, Parker’s final season before heading to Indiana.
With the Hoosiers, Parker’s first staff in 2019 took a slight step back from a 3.09 team ERA in 2018 to 2019’s 3.56 ERA. But by the time Parker left for South Carolina, it was back down to 3.18.
That trend held in Columbia. South Carolina’s team ERA jumped from 3.80 to 5.41 in 2021, Parker’s first year on staff. The Gamecocks were dealing with a myriad of pitching injuries that season, too. Last season, that number fell to 4.19, which ranked second in the SEC.
The Gamecocks also ranked second in the conference with 3.4 walks per nine innings, a 2.97 strikeout-to-walk ratio and fifth with a 1.32 team WHIP.
In comparison, MSU finished last in the SEC with a team ERA of 7.01, 6.4 walks per nine innings, 1.77 WHIP and 1.68 strikeout-per-walk ratio. In 2022, MSU finished last in the SEC with a 6.07 team ERA, 330 earned runs, 81 allowed home runs (bested only by Alabama’s 83) and 12th with 263 walks.
With those numbers, it would be tough for Parker’s first season to be any worse. He also walks into a situation where he can’t fail in year one.
It is somewhat of a gamble for Parker to take this job, leaving a program that earned the No. 15 national seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament and won a regional for the first time in five seasons for one in Starkville that is in “win now or else” mode.
Lemonis and the Bulldogs hope Parker brings his successful track record with him.
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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