Mississippi State Baseball Coach Chris Lemonis Addresses Thoughts On Future in Starkville

Mississippi State baseball (27-26, 9-21) missed the SEC Tournament in disappointing fashion this season, capping things off with a series loss to Texas A&M as the Bulldogs were taken down by the Aggies, 15-10 in Game 3 and 6-4 in Game.

MSU won the first matchup, 10-8, coming off of an electric series victory over the No. 2-ranked LSU Tigers.

Heading into the offseason, several questions surround the program. One of the most glaring is how pitching woes will be remedied after overall performance on the mound left plenty to be desired.

The other big one is as to which types of changes will be made to the coaching staff and if head coach Chris Lemonis will remain in the same role when the Bulldogs return to action next season.

Lemonis addressed that to an extent in his last postgame press conference.

("Athletic director Zac Selmon and I) meet almost weekly," Lemonis said. "We have a good relationship. As we go into the season, it’s been tough early, but we’ve spent a lot of time talking. I feel like I have a great relationship with Zac... I feel confident that he's confident in us. We know how to coach."

And Lemonis has a good idea of what needs to change moving forward after the team hit some historic lows in 2023. Unsurprisingly, a lot of that has to do with doing "a great job of hiring a pitching coach."

"The last two years we haven’t pitched well," Lemonis said. "There’s a lot of factors in that, not just pitching coach... "We’ve had injuries, but we can still pitch better."

Talent within a younger team has not been an issue, and Lemonis says he's focused on building around some of the high-ceiling pieces MSU has on its roster,

"I truly believe we had one of the younger teams in the league, but we have some really special young talent," Lemonis said. "We can build around those guys. Then, we’re probably going to have to go into the portal and find a handful of guys that can help us out in a couple of areas. Fix what we are."

It will be interesting to see what happens moving forward as the Bulldogs look to return to the true standard of Mississippi State baseball just a couple of seasons removed from winning it all.

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