Baseball Grabs Second Top 10 Recruiting Class Ranking
September 23, 2019 | Baseball
by: Greg Campbell, Assistant Director/Communications
STARKVILLE – As fall practice enters its third week, the Mississippi State baseball program and head coach Chris Lemonis have received the second top-10 recruiting class ranking. Perfect Game has tabbed the Bulldogs' 2019 recruiting class as the No. 7 class nationally, while Collegiate Baseball has ranked the 23-person class as the 17th-best signing class.
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State already received a No. 6 ranking from Baseball America, as Lemonis and his staff – including assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Jake Gautreau, and assistant coaches Scott Foxhall and Kyle Cheesebrough – now have back-to-back top-10 classes after earning a top-5 ranking last season from D1Baseball.
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Mississippi State welcomed 23 newcomers to campus when classes started in August, including 13 freshmen, eight junior college transfers and two four-year college graduate transfers. The class includes student-athletes from 10 different states, with 11 pitchers, four two-way prospects and eight position players added to the roster.
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Of the 13 freshmen, 11 of them earned at least one all-state honor in their careers and six sat among Baseball America's final Top 500 for the 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft: Will Bednar (No. 190), Landon Sims (No. 198), Logan Tanner (No. 312), KC Hunt (No. 313), Kyte McDonald (No. 415) and Davis Rokose (No. 480).
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Among the eight junior college transfers, Brandon Pimentel and Houston Harding each earned National Junior College Athletic Association All-America honors. Jared Shemper was selected to NJCAA USA National Team in 2018 and competed at the National Baseball Congress World Series. Four-year transfers David Dunlavey and Carlisle Koestler will also add depth to the pitching staff, as each pitched in the weekend rotations at their previous stops.
STARKVILLE – As fall practice enters its third week, the Mississippi State baseball program and head coach Chris Lemonis have received the second top-10 recruiting class ranking. Perfect Game has tabbed the Bulldogs' 2019 recruiting class as the No. 7 class nationally, while Collegiate Baseball has ranked the 23-person class as the 17th-best signing class.
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State already received a No. 6 ranking from Baseball America, as Lemonis and his staff – including assistant coach/recruiting coordinator Jake Gautreau, and assistant coaches Scott Foxhall and Kyle Cheesebrough – now have back-to-back top-10 classes after earning a top-5 ranking last season from D1Baseball.
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Mississippi State welcomed 23 newcomers to campus when classes started in August, including 13 freshmen, eight junior college transfers and two four-year college graduate transfers. The class includes student-athletes from 10 different states, with 11 pitchers, four two-way prospects and eight position players added to the roster.
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Of the 13 freshmen, 11 of them earned at least one all-state honor in their careers and six sat among Baseball America's final Top 500 for the 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft: Will Bednar (No. 190), Landon Sims (No. 198), Logan Tanner (No. 312), KC Hunt (No. 313), Kyte McDonald (No. 415) and Davis Rokose (No. 480).
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Among the eight junior college transfers, Brandon Pimentel and Houston Harding each earned National Junior College Athletic Association All-America honors. Jared Shemper was selected to NJCAA USA National Team in 2018 and competed at the National Baseball Congress World Series. Four-year transfers David Dunlavey and Carlisle Koestler will also add depth to the pitching staff, as each pitched in the weekend rotations at their previous stops.
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