BaseBall Bulldogs ready for bounce back season

A year ago for Mississippi State's baseball media day, the tone around the Diamond Dawg baseball team was much different.

It had just been a few short months since State brought home the school's first national championship and spoke on plans to do it again. Of course, the season turned out much differently as the Bulldogs suffered through a tumultuous 26-30 year with a 9-21

Southeastern Conference record, which meant missing out on the SEC Tournament and the NCAA Regionals all together after making threestraight trips to the College World Series.

On Friday, the team was relatively quiet, reserved and business-like. One of the main things that stuck out right away was when fifth-year senior catcher Luke Hancock walked up to the meeting with the media wearing a giant “C” on his chest.

That signifies that Hancock is a captain, which is something that hasn't been done around MSU over the years. It's something that he doesn't take lightly and was one of the main selling points by head coach Chris Lemonis to get Hancock to return to school for one more year.

“He told me if you come back, I want to put the C on your chest,” Hancock said of being named captain by Lemonis. “It's a huge honor for me. It's one of the biggest accomplishments of my life and I feel very honored to wear this C around here every day. I don't know how many captains there's been in Mississippi State history, but I'm glad I'm one of them, for sure.”

Hancock enters having played in 158 games in his Bulldog career with 144 starts under his belt as both a catcher and a first baseman. He's going to spend his final year behind the plate. He's hit .272 over four seasons with 141 hits, 112 RBI, 19

doubles and 17 home runs while striking out just 51 times in 519 at-bats.

His leadership and the emphasis on it was something that Lemonis wanted to make a priority in the offseason. After MSU's struggles last year, leadership was something that was missing that had left the team with the College World Series Championship and further with the loss of Landon Sims for the season with Tommy John.

“We need leadership,” Lemonis said. “That was a big piece of coming back. We have a captain's committee, (Hancock, Kellum Clark, KC Hunt and Parker Stinnett). I want them to take ownership of the program. I think that's a big piece – to have the ear of the ball club. When you have a year like we had last year, I think that's important. Those guys have been around a good long time. They've had as high as you can experience and as low as you can experience. Their mindset is huge for this ball club.”

The veteran leaders returning mixing with a talent infusion of freshmen and transfer portal players makes this 2023 Diamond Dawg team an interesting case.

According to D1Baseball, MSU added a signing class and transfer portal class that each ranked inside the top five nationally. The Bulldogs have talent coming in from the freshman class, junior college and from other programs that can help get things back on track quickly if it comes together.

“We brought in a lot of talented guys – freshmen, juco, transfer portal guys,” Lemonis said. “We're in such a different world right now. They have a lot of talent. (It's about) getting them to play on one page, play as a team, handle playing at the The Dude, in this environment and in the SEC. There's a real learning curve for us. We have a lot of work to do. I remember last year one of the best players in the country was RJ Yeager. He didn't look like it the first 10 days, getting used to everything. Getting our guys out here and getting them comfortable is huge.”

One of the players that is exciting the fans the most can get the job done with either arm. A rare ambidextrous pitcher by the name of Jurrangelo Cijntje was one of the top talents to watch in the Major League Baseball Draft.

He was taken in the later rounds by the Milwaukee Brewers, but Cijntje decided to come to college. He has shown some real stuff from both the right and left hands and is someone that should make a difference for State in year one.

“That's a rabbit hole we go down every day,” Lemonis said of Cijntje. “You don't think about everything. It's not so much on each arm, but it's special. It's not a circus act. A lot of people think it's cool he throws with both hands, but he's really good with both. He loves baseball. It's a really invested kid who loves to play the game. He loves to work at the game. He's gonna be a big part of what we do on the mound.”

As far as where Cijntje fits along with everyone else on the staff, that will be determined in the coming weeks. Lemonis said he didn't have a rotation ready to go at this point and most of his team believes they can all start for the Bulldogs on opening day.

The key is finding those roles for players and having them all come together right on time for MSU to get things going again.

First pitch of the 2023 season will be thrown on February 17 when the Bulldogs host VMI for the first series of the year.