Mississippi State Right as Rain headed into SEC play

There’s been 17 games played between Mississippi State baseball and a lengthy list of nonconference opponents already this season, and the Bulldogs have acquitted themselves well in the early goings of the 2026 season. A 14-2 record, each loss by a run apiece to clubs ranked in the top 10 and away from home, have Coach Brian O’Connor’s squad in prime position heading to Fayetteville to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks this weekend. Last week, State hosted a weather-affected series that had all three games moved up one day apiece and a finale played at 10 am. Two moderately competitive wins over Lipscomb, both five-run affairs, followed an utter shelling as State took game three by a score of 26-0. State didn’t get off to the hottest start at the beginning of the season, beating Hofstra by one run, five runs, and two runs in a three-game set, but caught fire shortly after by winning not-so-competitive games vs Troy, Alcorn State, three vs Delaware, Austin Peay, Arizona State, and Virginia Tech. Back-to-back losses vs UCLA in extra innings and at Southern Miss are the only blemishes thus far. 

Let’s take a look at who and what aspects of the Bulldog ball club are outperforming expectations, holding serve, and which have been underwhelming thus far this season.Above expectations: the weekend rotation for State was thought to have at least one known commodity in Tomas Valincius, a sophomore LHP who started all season as a true freshman for Virginia last year and finished with 4.59 ERA. But although Friday night starter Ryan McPhereson was known to be extremely talented, the increase in workload and significance of his role compared to last year left room for doubt. Those doubts have been answered. Sunday starter Duke Stone hasn’t had that role for the entire season, but he's impressed in three total starts with his 24/2 Ks/BBs ratio. Other pitchers that have over performed include RHP Jack Gleason, a redshirt freshman that was on nobody’s radar but has a 0.96 ERA while leading the team in appearances. Tyler Pitzer hasn’t given up a run in 5.0 innings of work. The lineup was guaranteed to be deep and dangerous this season, but I think the depth and length in this batting order has surpassed even the loftiest of preseason expectations. Thirteen position players have started 8 or more games, and eleven of those bat .333 or above. One of the two that do not is Aiden Teel, a highly projected MLB Draft pick this summer. 

Holding serve: the 14-2 overall record is right about where expectations were at preseason. You’d like to have one of those games back against UCLA or USM to put a nice feather in the Bulldog’s caps, but not slipping up anywhere else in the mild non-con schedule and getting out to big leads in most of those games bode well moving forward. The fact that many of their SEC counterparts have stumbled early and often so far give an extra lift to those that predicted the Bulldogs to be near the top of the SEC. Pre-season All-American Ace Reese has been as advertised but maybe not much better, with only 4 home runs so far but entered last weekend leading the country in doubles. 

Underwhelming: it’s difficult to fault the Bulldogs for 27 homeruns through 14 games, but I am surprised they aren’t top-ten in the country in long balls given the power hitting we expected preseason. Hitting-for-average has been perhaps better than expected, so maybe it's a plate approach thing from hitting coach Kevin McMullan and Brian O’Connor. A handful of pitchers have underperformed. William Kirk, tragically, tore his other ACL in the 9^th game of the season after missing the season at Virginia yesterday due to a leg injury. Charlie Foster was the original Sunday started, but the talented sophomore LHP is still working to meet his potential. Reliever Chris Billingsley is also a work in progress, a RHP with disgusting stuff that struggled to throw strikes early on and now, probably intentionally, is catching a lot of the plate with many of his pitches. Ben Davis has looked sharp in most of his outings, but the highly reliable returning reliever is not quite putting up the numbers he had a year ago with his 5.00 ERA in 9 IP. 

Mississippi State will travel to Arkansas this weekend for a three-game set after defeating Tulane in comeback fashion on Tuesday night.