Noah Sullivan grew up playing baseball in his backyard. Literally.
Behind Sullivan’s childhood home lies the baseball complex that he grew up playing in. There was no easy escape from baseball in a household that would raise three college baseball players. At one point, for convenience, Sullivan’s grandfather installed a gate in the backyard fence so that the Sullivan kids could go to and from the fields whenever they wanted.
The Orlando native is the youngest of four brothers, all of whom went on to play college sports. Brothers Matthew and Jason went on to play baseball at West Florida and lacrosse at Cleveland State, respectively. Sullivan’s third brother, William, played baseball at Troy and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2023.
Sullivan grew up following in his brothers’ footsteps. Having three older brothers meant being dragged along to go watch their games, which turned into wanting to do what they were doing.
“He was raised on their sports and I’m going to say he was raised on ESPN,” Phillip Sullivan said. “Other kids were raised on ‘Barney’ or kids shows, he was raised on ESPN because that’s what the older son was watching or that’s what I was watching. Kind of monkey see, monkey do. ‘I want to be like my older brother, I want to be like my older brothers. They’re having success doing something, I want to do that, too.’”
Noah Sullivan was still in high school when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and suspended sports. With nothing else to do, Sullivan went back out through the backyard gate and put in hours of work on the diamond. A trip to a Play It Again Sports in Lakeland produced a home gym in the garage, and that was enough to more than just stay busy during the pandemic.
“We were able to do whatever we wanted throughout that tough time,” Sullivan said. “But it was a time for me that allowed me to grow and get exponentially better compared to other guys.”
But the pandemic that helped shape the Sullivan of today also had some complications. The pandemic ended Sullivan’s junior season early, which made finding a landing spot to play college baseball that much harder.
“That junior summer is probably one of, if not the most important, summers just for the entire recruiting (process),” Sullivan said. “But with the pandemic going on, you’d just mass-send videos and try to get recruiting done that way just because nobody was allowed to be there in person.”
But Sullivan had an in with USC Upstate through a travel baseball coach, and he ended up suiting up for the Spartans for three years.
Big numbers in the Big South
Kane Sweeney, who oversaw USC Upstate’s offense during Sullivan’s tenure and is now the Spartans’ head coach, took a liking to Sullivan immediately. With the pandemic shutting down recruiting, Sweeney watched a video of Sullivan taking a pair of pitches and instantly knew he wanted Sullivan on campus.
“Before I’d seen him take a swing, I wanted Noah Sullivan to be on our team because of how he took pitches,” Sweeney said. “It was so professional, so balanced, such a good embracing of who he was as a hitter at such a young age.”
Sullivan was an immediate contributor for the Spartans once he stepped foot on campus. He hit .303 with three home runs and 42 RBIs. That, plus a 3.31 ERA in nine appearances on the mound, was enough to garner Big South Freshman of the Year honors.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what was really going on, I was just hoping to make the travel roster,” Sullivan said. “The next thing you know, you look up opening day and you’re hitting the four-hole and you’re sent into a panic real quick of whether all the work I’ve done has paid off or not. It turned out, everything I did was worth it, and it’s just one big blessing.”
Playing both ways is just natural for Sullivan. He grew up both pitching and hitting, and it doesn’t look like that’s changing any time soon.
“I’ve been doing it my whole life, I don’t really want to do it any other way,” Sullivan said. “I don’t want to just hit since I’m more so a hitter than a pitcher. But I’ve kind of been doing it my whole life, and it’s serving a great purpose here to just help the team and make it easier for the weekends, saving arms for the important weekends that we have coming up.”
Year 2 was rocky for Sullivan, as he struggled with injury. But he broke out in a big way in his third season with the Spartans. Sullivan’s batting average jumped up to .324, and he led the team with a .453 on-base percentage. On the mound, he served as the Spartans’ Friday night starter, finishing the season with a 4.88 ERA.
“It got to the point where he would hit BP and then he’d go down and get his throwing in with the pitchers and then he’d go through all his pitching stuff and then he’d hop back in the cages afterward with me and we’d hit for a while,” Sweeney said.
However, the biggest difference for Sullivan last year was unlocking how to hit with power. Even when he was a standout freshman, 54 of his 67 hits were singles, and Sullivan only hit five home runs in his first two seasons combined. That all changed in 2024.
Sullivan clubbed 17 home runs, drove in 56 runs and saw his slugging percentage jump from .459 his second season to .613. He credited Sweeney with changing his swing for the better.
“He knows the swing inside and out, he knows the approach base, he knows what I’m thinking, what I’m trying to do at the plate,” Sullivan said. “He really just made me into the hitter I am that has led me to come here.”
After USC Upstate’s season, Sweeney knew the writing was on the wall. Sullivan entered the transfer portal, and for the first time, everyone came calling. At the time, Sullivan was driving from Spartanburg, South Carolina, to Pensacola, Florida, and it got to the point where his girlfriend had to drive because Sullivan was too busy fielding calls left and right.
With nothing left to prove at the Big South level, Sullivan wanted a new challenge, and that meant playing against the nation’s top teams.
“Everybody knows that, at the end of the day, the SEC is the cream of the crop,” Sullivan said. “Every night in the SEC, you’re facing first-rounders. It’s exactly where I want to be, it’s what I want to challenge myself. There’s no place I’d rather be than Mississippi State.”
Bulldog Days
Once Sullivan stepped foot on campus, he knew Starkville was where he wanted to be. The bright lights of Dudy Noble Field are a far cry from his humble beginnings in South Carolina.
“The community – I’ll just be walking around town and getting noticed by little kids or anybody, honestly,” Sullivan said. “They kind of warned me about that, but it’s hard to put it into words how cool it is to have little kids looking up to you.”
Sullivan arrived in Starkville with plenty of hype, being named a preseason first-team All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Sullivan showed what he was capable of immediately, lining a three-RBI double in the first inning of Mississippi State’s season-opening win over Manhattan.
“I thought the hit of the day was in the first when Noah Sullivan hits the back-side gap,” head coach Chris Lemonis said afterward. “Noah is probably your most professional hitter you’ve got in there, him and Bryce Chance. They’ll just take what the pitcher gives them, use the back side. If you watch Noah, he’ll crush a ball and hit it out to left.”
Mississippi State’s start to SEC play hasn’t gone as well as it had hoped, but Sullivan has been a bright spot for the Bulldogs. Through 33 games, he’s hitting .360 with eight home runs and 29 RBIs. Sullivan still has his plate discipline – he has more walks than strikeouts for the second consecutive season – while also hitting for power. His on-base and slugging percentages are both up at least 40 points from last year, despite now playing in the SEC.
The analytics show that Sullivan has been mashing as well. His wOBA (weighted on-base average) of .502 sits 11th in the SEC through Wednesday, an increase from .469 last year, according to FanGraphs. His wRC+ (weighted runs created plus, where 100 is average) is also 11th.
“Baseball is baseball still at the end of the day,” Sullivan said. “The competition is way better, you’ve got to bring your A-game every at-bat. There isn’t a whole lot different. The stuff is better, but they throw the ball, the catcher catches it and I’ve still got to find a way to hit it.”
Just like at USC Upstate, Sullivan has also pitched some for the Bulldogs. Sullivan has a 1.50 ERA in five midweek starts for Mississippi State. His arm has been an asset for the Bulldogs, helping keep arms fresh for the weekend, which could also come in handy if Mississippi State makes it to the postseason.
“He doesn’t throw the hardest, but he really throws three or four pitches for strikes and he competes and he makes pitches,” Lemonis said after a Sullivan start against Jackson State in March. “He’s given us some solid efforts on the midweeks. For us today, a lot of our weekend guys didn’t have to throw, which I think will be huge by the time we get to the weekend.”
It’s not just on-field contributions, either.
“He’s been our most consistent leader by far,” said teammate Reed Stallman. “From the moment he stepped on campus, he’s been just a consistent guy through and through. In the locker room, on the field, you know what you’re going to get from him and we can all rely on him and he relies on us.”
The road to Starkville wasn’t always easy for Sullivan. But he’s shown that he can be a difference-maker for the Bulldogs going forward.
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 32 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 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
