STARKVILLE — Mississippi State baseball is starting with a bang.
Ranked the No. 7 team in America by D1Baseball, MSU will begin its season in the State Farm College Baseball Showdown held at Globe Life Field — home of the Texas Rangers — with matchups against No. 3 Texas Tech, No. 9 Texas and No. 10 TCU. MSU is also joined by No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 8 Arkansas in the six-team field, announced Thursday.
“We’re excited to open our season against three quality opponents in an amazing facility like Globe Life Field,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said. “The opportunity for our guys to compete against some of the best programs in college baseball in a professional park will only help us later in the season.”
MSU will open the tournament on Feb. 19 against Texas, followed by a Feb. 20 meeting with TCU and a final contest against Texas Tech on Feb. 21. The Bulldogs notably closed the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign with a two-game sweep of the Red Raiders in Biloxi in March.
Due to COVID-19 measures, fan attendance will be limited to between 14 and 15,000 and spectators will be required to wear masks. Rangers Executive Vice President of Sports & Entertainment Sean Decker also said the organization is still sorting out how it will handle splitting the four clubhouses on property between the six teams.
Tickets for the event went on sale at 1 p.m. Thursday.
“We are thrilled to welcome six of the top baseball programs in the country to Globe Life Field for the inaugural State Farm College Baseball Showdown,” Decker said Thursday. “We started conversations to make this event a reality back when the new park was in the design phase, and I would like to thank State Farm and all six schools for their unwavering support since that time.”
Entering his third year in Starkville, Lemonis brings back the bulk of his 2020 roster aside from early-round MLB draft picks Justin Foscue, Jordan Westburg and JT Ginn.
Despite the losses, MSU should boast one of its most complete pitching staffs in program history. Ace Christian MacLeod is back in the fold after a dazzling opening to the 2020 season. A relative unknown entering last spring after he redshirted his first year on campus due to an undisclosed illness, MacLeod became just the third player in school history to record multiple double-digit strikeout games in his first season.
Hard-throwing Canadian right-hander Eric Cerantola and talented freshman Will Bednar also return and are expected to anchor the weekend rotation. Other key pieces in the bullpen should include seventh-year senior Carlisle Koestler, sixth-year senior Spencer Price, junior Houston Harding and freshman Jackson Fristoe — who in a normal year may have forgone college entirely had the MLB draft been held under the normal 40-round format.
“I mean, we have some veteran guys there that have pitched a lot of college baseball to this point,” Lemonis said. “They haven’t thrown a lot of SEC baseball because of the season being canceled, but we’re optimistic. We’re excited about them, but they have a lot to prove.”
Replacing Foscue and Westburg at second base and shortstop, respectively, should prove a stiffer test. Freshman Kamren James, who hit .308 in 14 starts a year ago, could presumably move over to shortstop. Junior Tanner Allen could also conceivably move back into the infield given his previous track record.
Juniors Rowdey Jordan, Josh Hatcher, Allen and a handful of talented supporting castmates should round out a battery that hit .260 and was 9-0 when leading after six innings.
Asked Thursday what an opening weekend like the one awaiting MSU in Arlington does for his program, Lemonis was frank.
“It’s been a long year and getting the opportunity to play this level of competition, this early in the season in this beautiful a ballpark — excitement is probably the main word for us,” he said.
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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