Acing It For The Diamond Dawgs
April 25, 2024 | Baseball, Joel Coleman
Khal Stephen has risen to the top of the pack as one of the SEC’s best pitchers.
STARKVILLE – There was absolutely, positively no way that Khal Stephen was going to willingly hand over the baseball.
It was last Friday night in the seventh inning against Auburn. Mississippi State was enjoying a 5-1 lead, but the situation was getting dicey. The Tigers were threatening a rally. Meanwhile, Stephen – MSU's starting pitcher – had a pitch count that was nearing 100.
State pitching coach Justin Parker headed to the mound for a chat. But it'd be just that – a chat. Nothing more.
"I joked with Coach Parker and said, 'I know you wanted to take [Stephen] out but you were scared to take the ball from him,'" Lemonis said later. "He wasn't going to give the ball up in that moment. I know Khal too well."
Stephen indeed stayed on the mound in that seventh inning. He blew away the Tigers with a pair of strikeouts to finish the frame, strand the bases loaded and put the Bulldogs on the way to a Friday night victory and eventual Super Bulldog Weekend sweep of Auburn.
After fanning the final Tiger he faced, Stephen emphatically pumped his fist and lit a fire under his teammates and the Dudy Noble Field crowd. It was the kind of stuff aces are made of.
Fire us up Khal! 💪
— Mississippi State Baseball (@HailStateBB) April 20, 2024
Stephen ties his career high with his 11th K of the night!
📺» https://t.co/GSm0IsguWI#HailState🐶 pic.twitter.com/IGJcndXBo4
Make no mistake about it. Stephen has indeed become an ace. Mississippi State knew it was getting a solid right-handed hurler when the Diamond Dawgs landed Stephen as a transfer from Purdue prior to this season. But State has gotten oh so much more.
"He's just such a high-level competitor," Lemonis said of Stephen. "I keep challenging the other guys to watch and learn. He has good stuff [and] I don't want to demean his stuff, but it's the makeup. It's the competitiveness. It's the bigger the moment, the better he gets. He's really, really good."
How good? Let the numbers tell the story.
Entering this weekend's series at Vanderbilt, Stephen has thrown more innings than anyone in the Southeastern Conference and is second in the league among qualified pitchers with his 2.50 earned run average.
He's also among the top 10 in the conference in strikeouts, opposing batting average, wins and fewest walks allowed. Yet for as good as all that is, maybe the best thing about Stephen is that he seems to be getting stronger as he goes.
Dating back to his March 22 start at Texas A&M, Stephen has thrown 34 1/3 innings, surrendering just three earned runs and striking out 40. His ERA over that span? A microscopic 0.79.
He's been brilliant, doing exactly what he sat out to do when he made the call to put on the Maroon and White.
"I wanted to be somewhere that'd continue my development and somewhere that was going to put me on the big stage," Stephen said. "I was weighing out my decision [before coming] and honestly, Coach Parker here with him being the pitching coach, it definitely helped sway my decision. I was very comfortable with him. And Coach Lemonis, they came out and saw me [last] summer. We had a really good conversation and they talked to me about what my future would look like here. I was really looking forward to that to come true."
Come true, it has. As a result, Stephen has helped lead State into the postseason picture. Current projections from D1Baseball and Baseball America both have MSU solidly in the field for the NCAA Tournament.
It's a great spot to be in late April, but there is still a lot of baseball left to be played. Fortunately for Mississippi State, the Dawgs have an ace up their sleeve for the stretch run to try to turn those predictions into reality.
"I think my confidence just kind of rolls week to week," Stephen said. "So, it's just being able to keep putting weeks together and rolling from there. I definitely feel confident in my game."
