Mississippi State Baseball Loses Landon Sims, Stone Simmons for 2022 Season
Mississippi State baseball suffered two significant losses Monday afternoon as Landon Sims and Stone Simmons both announced they were out for the remainder of the 2022 season.
Sims suffered a torn UCL roughly one week ago that will require Tommy John surgery that will have him out not only for this year but will likely end his college baseball career.
He posted a 1.15 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 15 2/3 innings across three starts this year before injuring his elbow last week against the Tulane Green Wave.
"Unfortunately I will be undergoing surgery on a torn UCL this week and will miss the remainder of my junior season," Sims said via Twitter. "Although this is not the way I want my season and possibly my Bulldog career to end, I know that it is part of a bigger plan that might sometimes be hard to understand. I know I will always find myself going down the path I'm supposed to be on."
Sims has been heralded as one of the best closers and right-handed pitchers in the nation, and has two years of eligibility remaining with the Bulldogs, though he has the chance to go high in the next MLB Draft.
As a closer, he had a 1.44 ERA over 25 appearances, with 13 saves and an average of 15.98 strikeouts per nine innings.
Sims isn't the only right-handed pitcher the Bulldogs are now without, though, as Stone Simmons also announced he was out for the season with a UCL injury. Simmons was hurt just one day after Sims, on March 5 and will also have surgery this week.
The Bulldogs will find out a lot of answers about their largely unproven bullpen, comprised of Cade Smith, Preston Johnson and Parker Stinnett, moving forward in the season. MSU is set to face Binghamton at 6 p.m. CT on Monday in Starkville.