Chris Lemonis makes case for Mississippi State baseball to host

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) — Mississippi State baseball’s fate now rests in the hands of the NCAA Tournament selection committee after falling 6-5 to Tennessee in the SEC Tournament.

D1Baseball’s latest bracketology still has the Bulldogs as a 2-seed, meaning they would not host a regional. Experts have cited MSU’s five Quad 4 losses and RPI of 25 as the reason the team is being left out of the top 16. But head coach Chris Lemonis thinks some key factors are being overlooked.

“The only reason we’re having this conversation is our first week. We lost four games early in the first week of the season when we had seven guys injured,” Lemonis said.

And on the flip side, Mississippi State has 16 Quad 1 wins — the fourth-most in the country behind Texas A&M, Tennessee and Kentucky.

“I think we’re one of the better teams in the country, and it would be nice to bring it back to Starkville,” Lemonis said.

MSU will find out if there will be a Starkville regional when the top 16 teams are announced Sunday night. The rest of the field will be revealed Monday morning.