Kyle Cheesebrough - Baseball Coach

Kyle Cheesebrough

Title:
Volunteer Assistant/Camps Coordinator
Email:
cheese@athletics.msstate.edu
Phone:
662-325-3597

In his seventh season as an assistant coach, Kyle Cheesebrough works alongside Mississippi State head coach Chris Lemonis for the fourteenth straight season in 2024.

In his 15-year career as a college assistant coach, Cheesebrough has used his experience to fill a unique role on each staff. The former college backstop has been tasked with coaching his program’s catchers while working with the hitters.

Cheesebrough helped Mississippi State to the College World Series in 2019 and the 2021 national title after spending four years at Indiana University (2015-18), three at the University of Louisville (2012-14), and one year with the University of Pittsburgh (2011). He also spent one season as an undergraduate assistant at Louisville in 2010 while finishing his degree.

As a coach, Cheesebrough has been a part of ten NCAA Tournament teams and made four trips to the College World Series. Along with helping MSU reach Omaha in his first season on staff, Cheesebrough was a part of back-to-back College World Series squads at Louisville. He also made a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances as a student-athlete at U of L, reaching the 2009 Fullerton Super Regional.

Recruiting and Development

Overall, 14 student-athletes Cheesebrough has recruited or coached have earned All-American honors, while eight others have garnered Freshman All-America status. He has worked with 65 all-conference selections during his time as a coach, which includes the trio of Tanner Allen, Justin Foscue, and Jake Mangum, who each earned first-team All-SEC during the 2019 season.

Cheesebrough had a hand in 21 draft picks during the 2019 Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft, as a school-record-tying 11 Mississippi State student-athletes and program-record 10 Indiana student-athletes were selected in the draft. The MSU total ranked No. 3 nationally, while the IU total was tied for No. 5 among NCAA Division I programs.

In 15 years as a collegiate coach, Cheesebrough has heard 66 of his pupils' names called in the Major League Baseball Draft, with 21 reaching the big leagues. In his first coaching stop at Pittsburgh, both Kevan Smith and Ray Black were selected in the seventh round and have each reached the Major Leagues, Joe Harvey was selected n the 19^th round and reached the majors, while Matt Wotherspoon was drafted in the 34^th round and reached the Major Leagues. Fourteen more big leaguers came during his time at Louisville, including Nick Burdi, Cody Ege, Adam Engel, Chad Green, Matt Koch, Kyle McGrath, Will Smith, Nick Solak, and Tim Herrin, Andrew Saalfrank, Jonathan Stiever, Caleb Baragar, Scott Effross and Kyle Hart from Indiana.

Mississippi State

During the 2024 season, Cheesebrough worked with the hitters and catchers and guided the 79 home runs on the season. For the second straight season a catcher hit three homers in a game. Joe Powell had a career-day when he hit three home runs and drove in six runs leading the Dawgs to a win over North Alabama. With the catching duo of Johnny Long and Powell, the pitchers ERA was lowered by 2.84 and the pitching staff walked 104 less batters.

With leading the catchers and working with the hitters, Cheesebrough helped guide the Diamond Dawgs to the fourth most homers in program history during the 2023 season when they hit 91. Catcher Ross Highfill became the first player since Brent Rooker in 2017 to hit three home runs in a single game on March 11 against Lipscomb.

In 2022 Cheesebrough mentored Logan Tanner to become a second round MLB Draft Pick in 2022. With Tanner being selected in the second-round with pick 55, he became the highest-drafted catcher out of Mississippi State. Behind the coaching of Chessebrough, Tanner became a second-team All-SEC selection and an SEC All-Defensive Team honoree.

Helping guide the Diamond Dawgs to its sixth season with 50 or more wins and the program's first National Championship, Cheesebrough guided Logan Tanner to First Team All-Southeastern Conference honors, along with being named to the SEC Newcomer Team. Tanner finished third on the team with a .287 batting average a led the team with 15 home runs. Following the College World Series, Tanner was named to the All-Tournament Team after seeing him hit .308 and drive in six runs in the College World Series.

While the 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Diamond Dawgs saw a pair of hitters drafted in the first round. Justin Foscue was taken by the Texas Rangers with the 14th overall pick, while Jordan Westburg was the 30th overall selection by the Baltimore Orioles. Add in second-rounder JT Ginn to the New York Mets, and MSU tied for the most picks nationally in the first two rounds of the draft.

In his initial season at Mississippi State, Cheesebrough tutored Dustin Skelton to a career year that saw the backstop drafted in the 18th round of the MLB Draft after setting career marks in every major offensive category. Skelton was tabbed second-team All-South Region by the American Baseball Coaches Association after hitting .314 with ten home runs and 55 RBIs.
His catching corps threw out an SEC-best 29 potential base stealers in 2019, including 20 by Skelton. The 20 base runners caught stealing ranked No. 2 in the conference, were sixth among Power 5 catchers and were more than any Pac-12 team threw out in 2019.

The 2019 campaign saw Cheesebrough help the Dawgs offense reach new heights, as the squad piled up a nation’s-leading 166 doubles – the first MSU team to lead the country in an offensive category in program history – and also ranked among the top five in hits (2nd; 755), runs scored (4th; 530) and batting average (5th; .315). The doubles total also ranks No. 4 all-time in SEC history.

Indiana

During his time at Indiana, Cheesebrough served as the program's hitting and catching coach. He was also the program’s recruiting coordinator and helped the Hoosiers land three top-35 classes in four seasons. Overall, 12 Hoosier hitters earned All-Big Ten honors during his time in Bloomington and eight garnered Big Ten All-Freshman Team laurels.

In 2018, Cheesebrough helped infielder Matt Gorski and utility player Matt Lloyd earn first-team All-Big Ten, while rookie infielder Drew Ashley brought home all-freshman team honors after hitting .365 in Big Ten play. Catcher Ryan Fineman tied for the Big Ten lead with 21 runners caught stealing during the 2018 campaign, while the 30 stolen bases against were the fourth fewest among every day starting catchers in the conference. As a team, IU compile a 40-19 record and earn an at-large berth as the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Austin Regional. The Hoosiers led the Big Ten in slugging percentage (.448), home runs (68) and total bases (905), finished second in batting average (.284) and third in runs scored (360). That season, Indiana was ranked by at least one of the major publications for 15 of the 16 weeks of the regular season, including nine-straight weeks in the top 15 on its way to just the eighth 40-win season in program history.

Indiana found itself in the NCAA Tournament field again in 2017, finishing with 34 victories and finished just two games out of first place in the conference. Four newcomers earned all-conference honors as Matt Lloyd was named second team All-Big Ten, while Matt Gorski (first base), Jeremy Houston (shortstop) and Cal Krueger (starting pitcher) each earned Freshman All-Big Ten laurels.

Cheesebrough helped lure a nationally ranked class for the 2016 season, with many of those recruits playing a key role on the field. Scotty Bradley, Ryan Fineman and Luke Miller each earned spots on the Freshman All-Big Ten team, with Miller also honored as a freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball. He tutored Fineman, who started 50 of Indiana’s 56 games at catcher and had just 23 stolen bases against, which was third fewest in the conference.

In his first season with the Hoosiers, the program reached its third-straight NCAA Regional and owned a 12-5 vs. ranked opponents, including five top-15 wins. Cheesebrough helped guide a Hoosier offense that ranked in the top five in the Big Ten in eight statistical categories. Working with the team’s catchers, he tutored Brad Hartong, who led the Big Ten in runners caught stealing (21), while hitting .303 with 70 hits and 13 doubles. Hartong was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 2015 MLB Draft.

Louisville

Cheesebrough returned to Louisville prior to 2012 and helped Louisville notch back-to-back College World Series appearances in 2013 and 2014. The Cardinals reached the NCAA Tournament during each of his three seasons on staff, winning 142 games during that stretch.

In each of his three seasons on the Louisville coaching staff, Cheesebrough worked with the Cardinals’ catchers, including Kyle Gibson, who was named to the 2012 NCAA Tucson Regional All-Tournament Team after hitting .417 with two doubles in four games. While at Louisville, Cheesebrough worked with Will Smith, and helped the future Major League player became a catcher.

Overall, 18 student-athletes were drafted during Cheesebrough’s time on the Louisville staff, with seven of his pupils reaching the major league level. Six Cardinals claimed All-America honors, three grabbed Freshman All-America honors and 27 were tabbed all-conference, including American Athletic Conference Player of the Year Jeff Gardner.

Pittsburgh

In his one season at Pittsburgh in 2011, Cheesebrough worked with catcher Kevan Smith, who earned first-team All-BIG EAST honors while hitting .397 with 11 home runs and 56 RBI. Smith, who was also a quarterback for the football team, became the second Panther in program history with 80 hits, 50 RBIs and ten home runs in the same season, and he was taken by the Chicago White Sox in the seventh round of the MLB Draft.

After winning the seventh-most games in program history in 2011, a program-record six student-athletes were taken in the MLB Draft. Ray Black joined Smith as a seventh-round selection to give the 2011 team a school-record-tying two picks in the first ten rounds of the draft.

Personal

As a two-year letter winner at Louisville, Cheesebrough helped the Cardinals advance to NCAA Regionals in two straight seasons, including an appearance in the 2009 NCAA Super Regional. Louisville won back-to-back BIG EAST Tournament titles and claimed the 2009 BIG EAST regular season title during his time on campus.

Cheesebrough is married to the former Brittany Collins and the two have two daughters and one son. The Rowlett, Texas, native owns a Bachelor of Science in education from the University of Louisville.