Mississippi State baseball opens Charlottesville Regional against St. John’s

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA. (WCBI) — Mississippi State baseball kicks off its regional tomorrow night at 6 o’clock against Saint John’s.

Winning the first game of the regional to advance to the winners bracket is crucial, so the Bulldogs aren’t taking any chances. Their ace, Khal Stephen, is getting the ball against the Red Storm and is ready to get Mississippi State off on the right foot.

“It’s a big deal,” Stephen said. “We have everybody healthy so it was kind of up in the air on who was going to get it. We had a short conversation and I’m definitely very proud and excited to get out there tomorrow.”

The bulldogs pitching staff has been one of their calling cards all year. State ranks 12th in the country in team ERA with a 4.15. If State is going to make it out of Charlottesville the pitching is going to need to lead the way.

“It’s a really talented group and their is some depth there, we can do some different things and they’ve performed all year,” head coach Chris Lemonis said. “We are looking forward to it, there are good hitters all over this regional so they are going to have to compete and fight and they’ll give up some stuff but I think they’ll compete too.”

It would be easy to look ahead to a potential matchup with Virginia in the winners bracket but Lemonis is not looking past Saint John’s. Lemonis squared off with the red storm in the Big East while he was an assistant at Louisville, so he knows coming away with a victory won’t be easy.

“They do a lot of different things offensively and they have a very mixed pitching staff,” Lemonis said. “They can do a lot of things. It’s a good matchup. I’ve played against saint john’s for years, some really tough matchups and probably some of the tougher kids you’ll play against so a great matchup.”