As the Mississippi State baseball season comes to a close, Mississippi State Athletics has decided to fire head coach Chris Lemonis. Athletic Director Zac Selmon announced this change effective immediately on Monday.
Lemonis was in his seventh season leading the Bulldogs and the only coach to lead them to a National Championship title in 2021. Throughout his seven years at Mississippi State, he leaves with a 232-135 win-loss record. The team is currently 25-19 for the season, and 7-14 in SEC play.
Mississippi State is known for the memorable baseball atmosphere at Dudy Noble Field, but when the team is constantly letting its fans down, it becomes obvious that a change is needed. In what some say should have been an easy win against Florida last weekend, the Bulldogs lost two out of three games. In game two of the series, State was up 6-3 bottom of the 6th, then allowed Florida to score 6 runs in the seventh inning, leading to the final score of 11-8. The Florida series was one where fans got their hopes up only to be let down by poor game calls and errors.
The decision to fire Lemonis did not bring the blues to Starkville; students flooded social media with posts celebrating this decision. An anonymous student-run app, YikYak, is where students have been posting “WAR IS OVER, the lemon is gone!!!!” and “Day has been made. Pack the Dude. No more Lemonis.”
Social media has seen an ongoing conversation of both celebratory comments and speculation of a new coach for MSU. Names such as Nick Mingione, head coach at Kentucky, Skip Johnson, head coach at Oklahoma, and Josh Elander, assistant head coach at Tennessee, have been mentioned. However, nothing has been confirmed by Mississippi State Athletics.
Zac Selmon announced that pitching coach Justin Parker will be the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
“A change in leadership is what’s best for the future of Mississippi State Baseball,” Selmon said. “We have not consistently met the standards of success that our university, fans and student-athletes expect and deserve.”
The Bulldogs have three SEC series left of the season: Kentucky, Ole Miss and Missouri. Whether they liked Lemonis or not, everyone is rooting for the Bulldogs to pull through and finish the season strong.
