Senior Feature: Jared Liebelt

By Austin Coats, Student Assistant/Communications

Jared Liebelt glares as he walks off the mound, his right fist clenched in satisfaction. He's just thrown a scoreless eighth inning to keep Mississippi State tied at zero with in-state rival, Southern Miss.

On his personal Instagram, Liebelt captions the photo: "Allow me to reintroduce myself…"

When Liebelt – pronounced LEE-belt – arrived at Mississippi State in the fall of 2017, introducing himself was a challenge. A native of Aurora, Illinois, Liebelt had played two seasons at Waubonsee Community College and was coming into a new place filled with new people and new teammates.

"Last year I wasn't ever uncomfortable, but I wasn't completely comfortable just because I didn't know anybody coming in," Liebelt said. "I've always been a shy guy, so I wasn't jumping all in to conversation with everybody.

"It just took me awhile to warm up. It's not directly correlated to the field, but I think it helps a lot when you feel like you can just be yourself around everybody and you can kind of open up more and just have more confidence."

In 2018, the junior transfer posted a 13.15 earned run average. In his first appearance, Liebelt was struck for seven runs against Southern Miss.

As the year progressed and the team clinched an postseason berth that eventually led to the program's 10th appearance in the NCAA College World Series, Liebelt said he didn't have the same experience as most of his teammates. In the postseason run, Liebelt only pitched in MSU's lone loss in the Tallahassee Regional, a 20-10 opening game defeat at the hands of Oklahoma.

"I don't feel like I really got to experience Mississippi State and Mississippi State baseball last year," Liebelt said. "The magical run we had was incredible, but I never really felt like I was truly a big piece of it."

Liebelt said his experiences during the 2018 season affected his love for the game of baseball.

"It was exhausting," Liebelt said, "because as much as I loved baseball, there was a point where I was kind of dreading having to pitch because my confidence had gotten so low and to a point where I didn't think that anything good was going to happen when I went out there.

"Feeling like that is a terrible feeling. I really didn't know how to get out of it. I think not knowing how and feeling like I had to figure out a way to contributed more. It all just piles up and everything's jumbled, and it makes things worse."

To help deal with his cluttered thoughts, Liebelt just needed a break, so he didn't pitch during the summer.

"I think taking a summer off allowed me to just clear my mind," Liebelt said. "I wasn't thinking about baseball, I wasn't thinking about throwing, and then when I came back it was kind of like a fresh start."

A fresh start included a new coaching staff. In late June, when Chris Lemonis took over as Mississippi State baseball's new head coach, he hired assistant coach Scott Foxhall from NC State to instruct the team's pitchers.

Fast forward, and Foxhall's pitching staff has had a dominant start to the season and Liebelt has been a huge part of the team's success on the mound, boasting a 1.38 ERA entering the sixth week of the season.

The biggest difference Foxhall has helped with has nothing to do with mechanics or the pitches he throws.

"On the mental side, that's been the biggest help [from Foxhall]," Liebelt said, "just talking more about how to pitch."

If you see Liebelt pitch, you might get a hint at why this has worked. Liebelt throws a tailing fastball, a changeup and a slider, all with great movement.

"When I'm throwing everything well, I usually throw the two seam and the slider, and they'll start in the same spot," Liebelt said. "When I've had my most success is when it looks like it's going to be the same pitch and they're not sure if it's about to break in under their hands or away from them."

In 2018, when his confidence was low, Liebelt was all over the place. Now, under Foxhall's guidance, he's daring batters to try and hit his pitches.

"I know my fastball, it's not the hardest fastball, but I know it's got a lot of movement and that it's hard to hit even if it's in the zone," Liebelt said. "That's what I've been told my whole life by coaches, and so I just kept that mindset of 'I'm just going to attack the zone and throw strikes on every pitch that I can.' I'm trying to be in the zone, let them hit it and get early groundouts."

Going into fall scrimmages, Liebelt was at first hesitant at the idea of more aggressively going after the strike zone. However, he gave it a try and eventually started having success against MSU's crop of talented hitters.

"You can always have that mindset but until you get out there and actually see it work, you're not completely buying in," Liebelt said. "After having a couple successful outings and seeing that I was having a lot of success being in the zone against SEC hitters, I think that helped a lot."

Mississippi State's offense was on notice.

"They said they don't like facing me," Liebelt said. "Facing our own hitters got kind of tiring after a while because anytime they'd face me, if they were right-handed, I'd see them take one big step off of the plate because they knew the fastball was going to run in on their hands."

In earning that respect, Liebelt gained confidence and everything else has worked itself out from there, like a snowball effect.

"[It] helped me feel like I was more deserving of being here and being around all the talented guys," he said. "Being comfortable with everybody helps on the field, knowing that the guys behind you are your true friends. They know who you truly are, and you know who they truly are... "I feel so much more connected with everything and it's made me love this place so much more.

"I'm just having a lot of fun."

Just over a year after allowing seven runs to Southern Miss in his MSU debut, Liebelt faced the Golden Eagles again when they visited Starkville for a three-game weekend series in February. That Friday evening, Liebelt kept the game scoreless in 1 2/3 innings pitched in the eighth and ninth innings, giving MSU a chance to win. On Sunday, he shut out Southern Miss in the fourth inning. The lanky redhead was lights out.

It was redemption, or as he might put it, a re-introduction.

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