Mississippi State
Hofstra
O'Connor Era At MSU Opens Against Hofstra
February 12, 2026 | Baseball
STARKVILLE – The Brian O'Connor era of Mississippi State Baseball officially gets underway this weekend as the fourth-ranked Diamond Dawgs host Hofstra to open the 2026 season.
Friday's season opener is scheduled for a 4 p.m. first pitch followed by 1 p.m. starts on Saturday and Sunday. All three games will be streamed on SEC Network+.
O'Connor was hired as MSU's 19th head baseball coach on June 1, 2025 following a highly-successful 22-year stint at Virginia where he led the Cavaliers to 18 NCAA Tournament appearances, seven trips to the College World Series and the 2015 national championship. O'Connor was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2024 and is a three-time National Coach of the Year and five-time ACC Coach of the Year while leading the Hoos to two ACC regular season championships and two more ACC Tournament titles.
O'Connor quickly went to work revamping the Bulldogs' roster, resulting in 26 newcomers joining the team for 2026. State snagged 18 players from the transfer portal – the No. 2 class in the country – and added eight talented freshmen as well.
Despite all the newness, the Diamond Dawgs do have their top five bats back from a team that set a single-season record for home runs (103) last year. Mississippi State hit .304 as a team in 2025 with all five of those aforementioned offensive players each batting .317 or better.
First team All-Americans Ace Reese and Noah Sullivan return in the heart of the order. Reese, the 2025 SEC Newcomer of the Year, led the team batting .352 with 80 hits, 18 doubles, 21 homers, 66 RBIs, 163 total bases and a .718 slugging percentage. The now junior third baseman finished in the top seven in the SEC in each of those categories.
Sullivan is the lone Bulldog to start all 59 games last season. He was third in the SEC with a .475 on-base percentage while also hitting .345 with 70 knocks, 16 doubles, 15 homers and 46 RBIs.
One of the biggest wins for O'Connor during the offseason was retaining Justin Parker as his pitching coach. In his first two seasons in Maroon and White, Parker's staff has struck out 486 and 494 batters respectively. Those are the third and fourth-most strikeouts in a single-season in MSU history. He has also seen 14 of his pitchers get drafted, which ties for the most of any school in the country during the past two years.
This weekend against Hofstra, O'Connor and Parker are sending out a trio of sophomores to the mound. Right-hander Ryan McPherson will get the ball first on Friday for his third career start. In 20 appearances as a freshman, McPherson went 4-1 and tied for the team lead with three save while fanning 56 and walking 15 in 39 1/3 innings and a 4.12 earned run average.
Southpaw Charlie Foster is slated to start the second game following an injury-riddled rookie campaign that limited him to just seven appearances and one start. Foster was 0-1 with a 1.59 ERA, with 17 strikeouts and eight walks through 11 1/3 innings of work.
Virginia transfer Tomas Valincius gets the nod on Sunday following an All-ACC Freshman season last spring. The left-hander served as the Sunday starter for the Cavaliers going 6-1 with a 4.59 ERA, 70 strikeouts and 17 walks across 12 starts (13 appearances) and 64 2/3 innings.
Hofstra will counter on the mound with senior right-hander Carlos Martinez on Friday. Martinez missed all of last season due to injury after coming off a first team All-CAA selection in 2024. Another senior righty Sean Hamilton (1-5, 7.30 ERA, 35 K, 30 BB) is set to start on Saturday while Game 3 will go to either sophomore right-hander Christian Rasmussen (0-1, 11.20 ERA, 8 K, 6 BB) or freshman lefty Nick Reese.
The Pride posted an 18-36 overall record in 2025. Friday will be the first ever meeting between the Bulldogs and Hofstra on the diamond.
Visit www.HailState.com for the latest news and information on the baseball program. Fans can also follow the program on social media by searching 'HailStateBB' on X, Facebook and Instagram.
