Mississippi State’s Ace Reese earns second preseason All-America honors

Ace Reese’s preseason All-America honor adds to the growing excitement surrounding Mississippi State baseball in 2026.

Mississippi State third baseman Ace Reese (3) fields a bunt by Texas A&M second baseman Ben Royo (10) but makes a wild throw to first in the first round of the SEC Baseball Tournament at the Hoover Met. | Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The countdown to the start of Mississippi State baseball’s 2026 season is 24 days.

With most of the preseason polls already published, the next phase are preseason All-American lists and the Bulldogs’ lone representative in the latest of that is no surprise.

Junior third baseman Ace Reese was named a second-team All-American in D1Baseball’s Preseason All-Americans. It’s the second such honor for Reese, who named a first-team All-American by Perfect Game last week.

He led the team with a .352 batting average, 80 hits, 18 doubles, 21 home runs, 66 RBIs, 163 total bases and a .718 slugging percentage and ranked in the top seven in the Southeastern Conference in each of those categories. His homer total was also the eighth-most in a single season in school history.

Reese started all 57 games for State last season and led the team in just about every category that matters when runs are the currency. Batting average. Hits. Doubles. Home runs. RBIs. Total bases. Slugging percentage. If it showed up in the box score, he probably led it.

That .352 average and .718 slugging percentage weren’t empty calories either. Reese finished among the SEC’s top seven hitters across most major offensive categories, doing it while seeing the kind of pitching attention normally reserved for late-night infomercial products.

By the end of the year, the Dawgs weren’t wondering if Reese would land All-America honors. They were just waiting to see how many envelopes showed up.

And plenty showed up.

The list of postseason accolades for Reese after the 2025 season is long. Five different publications labeled him an All-American and he was named the SEC Newcomer of the Year and a spot on the All-SEC first team.

Exciting Potential in 2026

By now, most Mississippi State baseball fans are giddy with anticipation and carrying some very high expectations for the upcoming season.

The Bulldogs went out after the season and made the splashiest of splash hires, bringing longtime Virginia coach Brian O’Connor to Starkville.

O’Connor then proceeded to recruit one of the top-rated transfer portal classes, as well as a highly-regarded high school class.

The freshmen on campus may be most notable with 100 mph, left-handed fireballer Jack Bauer and outfielder Jacob Parker. Both were widely mocked in MLB Mock Drafts to go in the early rounds of the last summer’s MLB Draft.

Fans will get their first look at Mississippi State’s squad for the first time on February 13 when it hosts Hofstra for a three-game, opening weekend series.