Lemonis confident in Mississippi State team, but much left with fans?

STARKVILLE, Miss. — Mississippi State had the Governor's Cup ready to head back to town against Ole Miss on Tuesday night.

Then they dropped it with yet another late collapse that is getting to be a pattern too familiar to a lot of fans. It's probably raising some folks' blood pressure.

Bulldogs coach Chris Lemonis, though, is in the tricky situation of not wanting to allow his team to let go of the rope.

Final | Mississippi State 7, No. 23 Ole Miss 8#HailState🐶
— Mississippi State Baseball (@HailStateBB) April 23, 2025

Nothing is finished because there are still games to play and that includes an SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala. No matter how many of these comebacks they give up in April if they can avoid them in May things could work out okay.

"I'm not going to say we've lost confidence and it's all over, that's not what we're in for," Lemonis said after a 10th-inning walk-off single gave the Rebels an 8-7 win. "We've seen it too many times. We have confidence in this group. We play with everybody."

Now they head to Auburn. Weekend road series in the SEC are not exactly easy. The Tigers are three games ahead of State in the standings and regular-season series are starting to run out.

"Just got to go this weekend and play," Lemonis said. "We need to have a good weekend. We need to go to Auburn and play well and stack it up and move on from there."

Mississippi State Bulldogs Ross Highfill (22) slides into third base during the annual Governor’s Cup played against Ole Miss in Pearl, Miss. | Sarah Warnock/Special to Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

That's pure coachspeak because he probably can't figure it out, either. The Bulldogs are able to compete with just about everybody, but somehow can't find ways to get outs in the late innings when they are needed.

"We had a lot of guys shut down today, so we needed those guys to hold on," Lemonis said. "Jacob Pruitt had his best stuff of the year. He kind of had a funky inning, gave up a couple, but we could have made a play for him in there."

The game-winner wasn't bad play, but just baseball. The problem is there's too much of that not breaking in the Bulldogs' favor. There is the exception of Sunday's win over Florida, but those haven't been happening lately.

"Ryan (McPherson) was great," Lemonis said. "He came out in the ninth and strikes out Utermark and looks as good as he's been all night long. Dottie was good there too. He had good stuff. A seeing-eye single goes through and then they end up getting the base hit."

Ole Miss players Luke Hill (7) and Judd Utermark (27) attempt to tag Ross Highfill (22) of Mississippi State Bulldogs during the Governor's Cup at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss. | Sarah Warnock/Special to the Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

State blew a two-run lead in the ninth inning to tie the game and what folks were left wearing Maroon were squirming. They didn't have a lot of confidence then.

It probably hasn't improved looking at the schedule the rest of the way, either.

Lemonis may have confidence that's a cover for hope. The problem is hope ain't a really good plan.

Mississippi State will travel to Auburn for a series starting Friday and Saturday with 6 p.m. starts. They will finish Sunday with a first pitch of 2 p.m. All games will be streamed on SEC Network+.

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