STARKVILLE — On the eve of his team starting fall practice, Mississippi State baseball coach John Cohen stood before the assembled media Monday afternoon and was asked for an opening statement.
Naturally, as Cohen crafts his seventh edition of the Diamond Dawgs, he started the fall practice period by talking about MSU’s No. 1-ranked football team.
“I can’t imagine anything being more exciting than what we all saw on Saturday,” Cohen said. “I want to take a minute to mention what that does for every one of our student-athletes. We are all in this together. It’s an incredibly exciting time of year for our kids and every student at Mississippi State.”
The momentum provided by the football team is real. And so is the work about to be put in by the MSU baseball team. On Monday, the school released its fall roster and tentative 2015 schedule in advance of today’s first intrasquad scrimmage. The schedule includes a span of 24-straight home games to open the season, which is slated to begin Feb. 13 against Cincinnati. MSU won’t leave Dudy Noble Field, Polk-Dement Stadium until a March 20 trip to Kentucky.
For Cohen, now two seasons removed from a runner-up finish in the 2013 College World Series, the race to return to the rarefied air now occupied by MSU’s football team will begin at 4:30 p.m. today with an intrasquad scrimmage at Dudy Noble Field. The scrimmage is free and open to the public.
When asked what could set his latest team apart from previous editions, Cohen began with the physical shape the Bulldogs find themselves in as fall practice dawns.
“We have been going now for two months and we have gotten a lot work of done with our skill work,” Cohen said. “I think this is the best conditioned team I’ve had a chance to start a fall with. Our arms are in great shape. Coach (Brian) Neal has done a great job with our strength and conditioning. Our kids are just so excited to get started competing against one another in intersquad games. We are very excited about seeing where we are as a team.”
Asked to provide examples of that conditioning, Cohen singled out a pair of seniors Wes Rea and Ross Mitchell, who were key contributors to the run to Omaha two seasons ago.
“I don’t think Ross Mitchell has ever been as healthy as he is right now,” Cohen said. “He has just been outstanding. He has really changed his body in kind of an exciting way. His lower half is stronger than it has been in the past.”
That’s the buy-in Cohen has seen from his team as the Bulldogs begin the road to recovery from a 2014 season that started with national title aspirations and a top-10 ranking but saw it finish sixth in the Southeastern Conference and lose to Louisiana-Lafayette in the regional round of the NCAA tournament.
“We were pretty disappointed because we felt like we had a pretty strong group of guys that came back last year,” Rea said. “We had a disappointing year no matter how you look at it. That is just the bottom line.”
Rea and right-hander Trevor Fitts one of two seniors who hope to lead the Bulldogs back to the heights the Bulldogs reached in 2013.
“I feel like we are a lot closer as a group,” Fitts said of improved team chemistry. “We have a very close senior class. I feel really good about this team and how hard we have been working.”
The Bulldogs went 39-24 (18-12 in SEC) last season. But Cohen said the Bulldogs lacked a strong identity, something he hopes his newest team will build in the fall.
“We went into the year without having a catcher that had caught one inning of Division I baseball,” Cohen said. “That is another area of our program that is going to be really improved. We went in trying to figure out who our shortstop was. We found that guy. We went in without a power guy in the middle of the (batting) order. We need that to happen this year. We had to redshirt some guys a year ago because of sheer numbers that really have a chance to be power bats. Those guys will have their opportunities this year.”
Cohen also expects the Bulldogs will have more power despite lacking a huge power threat in the middle of the lineup, saying, “I think we are going to be a little bit better in the run-scoring area. That is something we needed to improve upon. I think we have the pieces in place to do that.”
Sophomores Gavin Collins and Reid Humphries, who will spend time in the outfield, could play key roles in helping MSU improve from finishing ninth in the SEC in runs scored a season ago.
But MSU still will be built around pitching and defense, which have been the constants in the Cohen era.
“Our identity is always going to be about trying to be the best defensive club in America, the best situational pitching club in America, and trying to dominate (games) at home,” Cohen said. “That is what I want the identity of this club to be.”
The return of staff ace Mitchell and key pieces like Fitts and junior Preston Brown give MSU’s pitching staff depth and versatility. Cohen also mentioned the need to find MSU’s next stars in late-game relief, spots once occupied by former closer Jonathan Holder and Jacob Lindgren, who emerged last season as the team’s best pitcher.
Cox not on roster
Right-hander Will Cox, a product of Amory High School, missed the second half of the 2014 season with elbow trouble and wasn’t listed on MSU’s fall roster.
Cohen said Cox is “one of those wait-and-see guys. He’s not very far along, so we will have to see where he is health-wise at the end of the semester.”
The next wave
In May, Perfect Game anointed MSU’s 2014 signing class as the No. 6 recruiting class in the country. MSU’s fall roster includes six freshmen, including left-hander Paxton Stover, of Newbern, Tennessee; catcher Aaron Dominquez, of Chino, California; Cole Gordon, a 6-foot-6, 240-pound first baseman/left-handed pitcher from Tampa, Florida; and left-handed pitcher Andrew Mahoney, of Daphne, Alabama.
New Hope High’s Taylor Stafford, who signed with MSU during his senior season with the Trojans, wasn’t listed on the fall roster and is no longer with the team.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
