Mississippi State baseball has its first transfers for the 2027 season.
Brady Christman and Jake Souders are coming to Starkville after impressive seasons at the mid-major level.
Christman was the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year and was a conference all-first team selection as a designated hitter at Georgia Southern this season. He had a .384 batting average, a .480 on base percentage and a .719 slugging percentage in his 40 starts. He had 12 home runs and 44 RBI across 146 at bats.
Christman, from Forsyth, Ga, was the 46th overall player and No. 4 catcher in the state in the class of 2025, according to Perfect Game.
Souders is going from Bulldogs to Bulldogs after two years at Samford. He had a 1.006 OPS and a .356 batting average in 56 starts as a sophomore in 2026. Souders was awarded a First-Team All SoCon selection.
Souders was the only Bulldog to start all 57 games in his freshman season. He was a member of the SoCon All-Freshman Team. Originally from Birmingham, Ala., Souders was the 57th best player and seventh-best third baseman in the state in the class of 2024.
The duo join a team losing a good chunk of its offensive production. Mississippi State is set to lose four of its five leaders in batting average last season: Bryce Chance, Gehrig Frei, Ace Reese and Noah Sullivan.
“We’re certainly gonna need to do a great job recruiting,” head coach Brian O’Connor said after MSU’s season ended on Sunday. “We’ve got a pretty veteran club position player wise.”
Jake is the Mississippi State athletics reporter for The Dispatch.
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