Lemonis, Foxhall Host Midweek Media Session

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Mississippi State head baseball coach Chris Lemonis addressed the media on Wednesday for the first time since his introduction in June.

Scott Foxhall, who was officially announced as MSU's pitching coach on Friday, joined Lemonis.

Lemonis is the 18^th head coach in MSU baseball history, and takes over a program that made its 10^th College World Series in 2018 after spending four seasons as head coach at Indiana.

Foxhall has 22 years of coaching experience, most recently spending four years, in the same role, at North Carolina State.

Lemonis also announced the finalization of his staff with the retention of assistant coach Jake Gautreau, and the additions of assistant coach Kyle Cheesebrough, and director of operations Roger Rodeheaver.

Below are quotes from the media session:

MSU Head Coach Chris Lemonis

On hiring pitching coach Scott Foxhall…
"Hiring a pitching coach is different in this day and age. You're looking for an experienced pitching coach, a guy who takes care of arms and who fits your staff. Coach Foxhall and I played our whole career against each other. We coached against each other for 16 years at our rival schools. The Citadel and College of Charleston were right in town together, so they were pretty good rivals. I've know him a long time, and I trust him. We've always had a great relationship, and that's not common when you have rival schools. Being able to keep that relationship over many years has been huge."

On bringing staff in from Indiana…
"(Kyle) Cheesebrough came down to be our volunteer assistant coach, and he was our recruiting coordinator at Indiana. He coached and played for me at Louisville. He's a tremendous recruiter, but trust is also a big piece. He's been able to recruit until we've made another hire, so he will be back soon."

"(Roger) Rodeheaver will be our operations director. He's also coming from Indiana. He's coached on a College World Series team, and he played professional baseball with the Phillies. He's very good, and I trust him also."

On settling into the job…
"It's been a lot because you're getting ready for the fall and taking care of recruiting. Recruiting is going so many different ways. We've had two first-rounders, but then you're also trying to get this roster ready. We're also working on our 2019, 2020 and 2021 classes. Trying to build that relationship with those kids has been huge. I've been here every day, and I haven't been back to Indiana. I got the job on a Sunday, flew in on a Monday and I've been on the job ever since. There hasn't been much down time, but it's been fun."

On building relationships…
"A lot of our summer school kids are here, and we have some guys from last year's team working out. I've gotten to build some relationships with those guys, and that's all going well."

MSU Pitching Coach Scott Foxhall

On initial thoughts about Mississippi State…
"My initial thoughts are excitement. There's a lot of talent, and a lot of guys coming back that have been here before. They are ready to take the next step into a leadership role and be better at their craft than they were before. Also, there's talent that (Jake) Gautreau has done a great job at bringing in here. It's going to be an exciting time in the fall."

On building player relationships…
"I try to be a relationship guy. No one will work for you unless they know that you care about them. My first thing will be to develop those relationships with those guys. It's a bit scattered this summer because everyone is in different places. That's the first piece. I want them to know that I care about them as a person, first and foremost, then we will dive into the baseball stuff."

On bullpen depth…
"It's a mentality, and I think the backend of the bullpen is the most important thing in college baseball. In college baseball, you have some guys in this league that need to be mentally tough on the back side. That's what I start with. We have the talent, and there are some pieces here already. I'll start with the mentality of the bullpen, and what we want to do with the attitude and Bulldog mentality we want to have in those late inning situations."

On choosing starting pitching…
"Most of the time, they are guys that need to be able to pitch off their fastball. You need to be able to eat up innings with that fastball and have fastball command. I will start there with the starting pitchers. I'll see who can do that the best, and that's the best way for us to eat up innings. We want to get ourselves to the bullpen in the midst of late innings."

- HailState.com -

AUSTIN COATS
Student Assistant/Communications
Mississippi State Athletics
O: 662.325.2703 | C: 979.595.4041
Twitter: @ra_coats | HailState.com | #HailState

Mississippi State University Athletics

Lemonis, Foxhall Host Midweek Media Session

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