The Mississippi State baseball program is launching a new student support group for the upcoming season to get students involved with athletics.
Head baseball coach John Cohen said he is excited about the opportunity to have a student support group.
“We have had interest on campus in creating a student-oriented baseball support group,”  Cohen said. “Essentially it’s centered on the availability of chair-back seating and a unified, cohesive student fan group.”
Incentives for members include free jersey-replica T-shirts, premier seating at home baseball games and the opportunity to be part of a strong athletic organization, as well as many other advantages.
“Its purpose is to bridge the gap between our baseball program and our campus,” said Cohen. “We want to make them more familiar with us and give them the opportunity to be a part of our baseball program.”
Students already have free admission to all baseball games at Dudy Noble Field, but members of The Dudes can upgrade from general admission to chair-back seating to all homes games depending upon availability. The program is also impacted to provide these incentives for non-conference and conference games, as well as weekend and midweek games.
Tyler Braton, director of Baseball Operations, said many students do not realize chair-back seats are available to students.
“We’d like to let students know that they can come to the game and actually have a seat in the chair-back section, which is a big draw to our stadium,” Braton said. “For the longest time a lot of students have not known that they have access to sit there. We want to enlighten students that they can get chair-back seating and come to all 37 home games this season.”
Those home games include series against conference foes Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Kentucky and Ole Miss, and include 12 games against opponents that earned a regional tournament appearance last year, as well as nine games versus teams ranked in the pre-season top 25 according to baseballamerica.com.
The Bulldogs had a successful season a year ago, including a super regional appearance and are reloaded this year to make a conference championship run. With the help of The Dudes, it could provide the Diamond Dogs with a true home-field advantage.
“It’s good for our stadium, and it’s good for our players to feed off the energy that the students can provide,” Bratton said. “It’s a big built-in home-field mechanism. The Dudes can be our tenth man in our organization to help us get that big hit when we need it or help that pitcher blow a fastball by somebody in a big moment in a game.”
In addition, members of the fan group can earn more gear the more frequently they attend games. Rhett Hobart, Student Assoication President, said The Dudes will be linked to the revamped Bulldog Coalition.
“It’s going to be in partnership with our new Bulldog Coalition system so students will be able to keep track on what games they go to,” Hobart said. “We can track how many games you go to, and once you scan in people get more points along the way and earn more prizes.”
Any student who is interested in getting involved or wants more information on the group can attend a meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 7 at 6 p.m. at the Palmeiro Center, located adjacent to Dudy Noble Field.
The Mississippi State baseball team opens the season with a weekend series against Washington State Feb. 17 through 19 at Dudy Noble Field.