After arguably the most successful first year by a Southeastern Conference head baseball coach, Chris Lemonis begins his second season as the leader of the Mississippi State baseball program.
The 18th head coach in the storied history of the program, a journey of nearly 40 years came full circle when he was introduced on June 25, 2018 on Adkerson Plaza inside Dudy Noble Field. The son of a 1973 State graduate, Lemonis resided in Starkville as a child and now leads one of the perennial powerhouses in college baseball.
In his first season at the helm of the Diamond Dawgs, Lemonis became the winningest first-year head coach in SEC history and in the process led the 2019 edition to the second-most victories in program history at 52 (54; 1989). The 40 victories over MSU’s first 50 games marked the third-most in the first 50 games of a season in program history and set the tone for State’s second-straight trip to the College World Series.
Lemonis became one of just three SEC head coaches to advance to the College World Series in their inaugural season in the conference, joining Jake Gibbs (Ole Miss, 1972) and fellow Diamond Dawg skipper Pat McMahon (Mississippi State, 1998).
Four Diamond Dawgs earned All-American honors during Lemonis’ first season, while left-handed pitcher Ethan Small was tabbed National Pitcher of the Year (College Baseball Foundation; American Baseball Coaches Association) and right-handed pitcher JT Ginn earned the National Freshman of the Year honor (Collegiate Baseball, Perfect Game). Ginn and Small each earned specialty awards from the SEC, as well, grabbing the conference’s Freshman and Pitcher of the Year, respectively.
A school-record-tying 11 Diamond Dawgs heard their names called in the 2019 Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft, including three taken in the first 10 rounds. Small became the 15th Diamond Dawg taken in the first round of the MLB Draft, while SEC career hits leader Jake Mangum (4th; New York Mets) and Colby White (6th; Tampa Bay) each heard their names called in the first 10 rounds. The 11 selections in the MLB Draft were No. 3 nationally in 2019.
Owning a head coaching record of 193-106-2, Lemonis was also a part of nearly 800 wins as an assistant coach and three trips to the College World Series. During his time at Indiana, Lemonis' teams averaged 35.3 wins per season, including a 40-win campaign during his final season in Bloomington. He averaged 39.2 victories per year during his career in an assistant role (784 wins), bolstered by a 44.9 wins-per-season average at Louisville. The Cardinals were college baseball's winningest program during that eight-year span and made the program’s first three trips to Omaha.
Lemonis not only understands what it takes to get to Omaha as a coach but also as a player. A 1992 graduate of The Citadel, Lemonis added a 1990 appearance in the College World Series as a student-athlete. The appearance make the Bulldogs one of just three schools in Southern Conference history (Duke, Wake Forest) and only current member of the conference to advance to Omaha.
One of the top recruiters and player development coaches in the country, Lemonis has seen success at every coaching stop. After helping his alma mater, The Citadel, to five NCAA Regional appearances in 12 seasons as an assistant coach, Lemonis joined college teammate Dan McDonald’s staff at Louisville and quickly turned the Cardinals into a consistent Omaha contender.
After helping Louisville to seven postseason berths in eight years, the 2013 American Baseball Coaches Association/Baseball America Assistant Coach of the Year headed to Indiana to take his first head coaching job with the Hoosier program in 2015.
In each of his head coaching stops, Lemonis has led his team to the NCAA postseason in his first season at the helm. He helped the Hoosiers into the NCAA Tournament field during his initial season in Bloomington, before he guided Mississippi State to the College World Series in 2019 – his first season in Starkville.
Overall, Lemonis enters his 26th season as a collegiate coach in 2020, making one College World Series appearance as a head coach, taking three trips to Omaha as an assistant, earning 16 NCAA tournament berths and aiding in four 50-win seasons. His pupils have earned 29 All-America honors, 13 Freshman All-America laurels and 79 have signed professional baseball contracts, with 17 getting the call up to Major League Baseball.
Recruiting and Development
Widely regarded as one of the elite recruiters and developers of talent in all of college baseball, a total of 92 student-athletes have been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft under Lemonis' watch, with 17 of those reaching the highest level of professional baseball.
Since arriving at Louisville for the 2006-07 academic year, Lemonis has been a part of 11 nationally-ranked recruiting classes, including his first two classes at Mississippi State. His initial Diamond Dawgs recruiting class was tabbed as the No. 12 class nationally by Baseball America and Perfect Game, while earned the No. 9 ranking from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
In his first season at State, Lemonis saw a school-record-tying 11 Diamond Dawgs selected in the 2019 MLB Frist Year Player Draft, including the program’s 15th first-round pick in left-handed pitcher Ethan Small. Sixteen of Lemonis' Indiana players were taken in the MLB Draft in the last four years and 14 signed professional contracts. He also recruited and coached nine of the Hoosier’s school-record 10 MLB Draft choices in 2019.
From 2007-14, Lemonis saw seven-straight classes ranked among the top-30 nationally, including the No. 12 national class for the 2011 recruiting cycle. In 2017, Baseball America revisited the Cardinals' 2013 class, re-ranking it No. 2 in the nation after the on-field success under Lemonis' watch. In 2018, the publication tabbed an un-ranked 2014 recruiting class – which included 2015 National Freshman of the Year and 2017 Golden Spikes Award winner Brendan McKay – as the No. 1 class in the publication’s re-rankings.
Lemonis mentored and or recruited 47 student-athletes that signed professional contracts after being selected in the MLB Draft during his eight years as the top assistant and recruiting coordinator at Louisville, including a school-record 10 selections in the 2010 MLB Draft. He helped produce 10 first or second round draft choices over a seven-year span.
To date, 15 Cardinals who were recruited by and played for Lemonis have gone on to reach the big leagues. Those players include Nick Burdi, Adam Duvall, Chris Dominguez, Cody Ege, Adam Engel, Chad Green, Dean Kiekhefer, Matt Koch, Trystan Magnuson, Justin Marks, Kyle McGrath, Brendan McKay, B.J. Rosenberg, Nick Solak and Tony Zych. Over $28 million in signing bonuses were accrued by Lemonis' Louisville draftees.
Mississippi State
Inheriting a team that is coming off of a trip to the College World Series doesn’t always translate into immediate success, but Lemonis was able to build off of that momentum as he began writing his chapter in Mississippi State history.
Along with the second-most single-season victories (52) during the 2019 season, his team also posted the second-best 20-, 30- and 40-game starts (18-2, 25-5, 32-8) in program history. He joined Pat McMahon as the only two Diamond Dawg dugout bosses to lead the program to the College World Series in their initial campaign and his 52 wins were the most by a first-year SEC head coach in the conference’s history.
State saw four student-athletes earn first-team All-SEC, tying for the fourth-most selections in a single season in program history behind the five selections in 1949, 1971 and 1977. Left-handed pitcher Ethan Small posted one of the most dominant seasons on the mound in program history, leading the nation in strikeouts and earning National and Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year honors. Right-handed pitcher JT Ginn was tabbed National Freshman of the Year and Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year after opening his career as the No. 2 starter in the weekend rotation.
Along with Small, Tanner Allen, Justin Foscue and Jake Mangum each earned top honors from the SEC, and Foscue, Mangum and Small each grabbed at least one first-team All-America honor. Small became Mississippi State’s seventh unanimous first-team All-American, joining Jeff Brantley (1985) and Chris Stratton (2012) as the only pitchers to accomplish the feat.
On the team side of things, State’s offense led the nation in doubles to mark the first time in program history the Diamond Dawgs led the NCAA in an offensive or pitching category. The 166 doubles set a school record and rank No. 4 all-time in SEC history. The offense also ranked among the top-five nationally in three other categories; hits (2nd; 755), runs (4th; 530) and batting average (5th; 315).
Indiana
Lemonis left a strong legacy at Indiana as he tied for the most NCAA postseason appearances by a head coach in school history and owns three of the eight all-time NCAA Tournament appearances. The Hoosiers were the only Big Ten program to appear in three NCAA Regionals during his four-year span in the conference and one of two to make back-to-back appearances from 2015-18. He became the first coach in program history to earn three NCAA regional berths in his first four years, finishing with a 141-91-2 overall record.
During his time leading the Cream and Crimson, 41 student-athletes earned Academic All-Big Ten honors, 25 were selected All-Big Ten and 14 signed professional contracts. His 2018 squad not only advanced to the NCAA Tournament, but produced a program-record 16 Academic All-Big Ten performers and three first-team All-Big Ten honorees.
The 2018 campaign saw Lemonis' squad compile a 40-19 record and earn an at-large berth as the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Austin Regional. The Hoosiers reached the regional title game after defeating Texas Southern and eliminating No. 25 Texas A&M. Indiana fell to eventual College World Series participant Texas, with a trio of Hoosiers earning all-regional honors. Eight Indiana student-athletes earned Big Ten honors – including three first teamers – representing the program's most since 2004.
The Hoosiers were among the Big Ten leaders in several categories in 2018, ranking first in earned run average (3.09), slugging percentage (.448), home runs (68) and total bases (905), second in batting average (.284) and third in runs scored (360). That season, IU was ranked by at least one of the major publications for 15 of the 16 weeks of the regular season, including nine-straight weeks in the top 15. Four Hoosiers were selected in the MLB Draft following just the eighth 40-win season in program history.
A season prior, the Hoosiers produced a 34-24-2 record and earned the No. 2 seed at the 2017 NCAA Lexington Regional. With the postseason appearance, Lemonis became the first coach in program history to make two regionals in his first three seasons as IU's skipper. Indiana finished as the highest rated RPI team in the Big Ten (34th), while seven Hoosiers garnered All-Big Ten honors during the 2017 campaign.
In year two at the helm in 2016, Lemonis' club posted a 32-24 overall record and a 15-9 mark in Big Ten play. On a national level, the Hoosier pitching staff finished second in walks allowed per nine innings (2.31), fifth in WHIP (1.15) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.17), 11th in team ERA (3.09) and 25th in hits allowed per nine innings (8.02). Three IU student-athletes were tabbed All-Big Ten, including first-team selection Kyle Hart, with the trio of Ryan Fineman, Luke Miller and Scotty Bradley each earning all-freshman honors from the conference.
During Lemonis' debut season of 2015, Indiana won 12 of its last 17 games –nine coming against RPI Top 50 teams – and earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Nashville Regional. Three Hoosiers earned a spot on the NCAA Regional all-tournament team, while two were tabbed All-Big Ten and a pair were selected to the Big Ten All-Freshman Team. Lemonis’ squad owned a 12-5 mark vs. ranked opponents in 2015, including five Top-15 wins.
An advocate of playing the game the right way, Lemonis' teams hold three out of the four highest single-season fielding percentages in Indiana history. The Hoosiers shattered the school record in fielding percentage in back-to-back seasons, including a mark of .979 in 2017.
Louisville
As an assistant coach, Lemonis' imprint in elevating the Louisville program to new heights was evident. The former Cardinals' recruiting coordinator aided Louisville to three College World Series appearances (2007, 2013, 2014) and a 359-159 (.693) record during his eight seasons there.
Louisville was college baseball's winningest program during the eight-year span that Lemonis was on staff, including back-to-back 50-win seasons in 2013 and 2014. Following the program’s first trip to the College World Series in 2013, Lemonis was named the ABCA/Baseball America Assistant Coach of the Year.
Lemonis helped the Cardinals produce 18 All-Americans, 61 all-conference selections, a trio of conference player of the year award winners, two conference newcomer of the year honorees and the first national “of the year” award winner in the program’s history. Louisville won four BIG EAST championships in the school's final five years in the conference, and he saw U of L set the school record for wins in a season three different times, including a program-best 51 victories during the 2013 season.
Louisville became a hot bed for professional talent during Lemonis’ time in the Derby City, as 40 Cardinals were selected in the MLB Draft from 2007-14 and another seven inked free agent contracts with professional teams. Of those, 13 have made it to the big leagues, including three from the 2013 College World Series team.
From 2007-2014, Louisville accomplished many program firsts on its way to becoming a perennial Omaha contender. Fourteen different Cardinals produced 43 different All-America honors, including first-team All-Americans Nick Burdi (2013 & 2014), Chris Dominguez (2009), Kyle Funkhouser (2014) and Neil Holland (2010). Dominguez and Funkhouser led a crop of nine student-athlete to earn Freshman All-America accolades under Lemonis.
Dominguez claimed the 2008 (Co) and 2009 BIG EAST Player of the Year award, marking just the second time in conference history a student-athlete won back-to-back Player of the Year awards (Steve Stanley, Notre Dame; 2001 & 2002). Burdi won the first-ever national “of the year” award when he was tabbed the nation’s top closer and winner of the 2014 National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year.
Along with Dominguez, Jeff Gardner claimed the 2014 American Athletic Conference Player of the Year award, while Justin Marks (2007) and Jared Ruxer (2012) each earned BIG EAST Freshman of the Year awards. Thirty-eight difference Louisville student-athletes totaled 61 all-conference honors, including a school-record 10 selections to the All-BIG EAST squads in 2012 and 2013. The 2010 (BIG EAST) and 2014 (AAC) squads each totaled a then-school-standard four first-team all-conference selections.
The accolades for Lemonis’ pupils weren’t limited to the regular season, as 27 Cardinals earned a total of 29 NCAA All-Region honors. The quartet of Dominguez (2007), Justin Marks (2009), Coco Johnson (2013) and Cole Sturgeon (2014) all claimed NCAA Regional MVP honors, with the 2009 squad grabbing a program-best five all-regional honors. On the conference level, Louisville saw 16 total all-tournament honors earned by 13 different Cardinals.
The Citadel
Lemonis arrived at The Citadel as a student-athlete, transitioned into an assistant coaching role and ultimately moved his way up to the associate head coach before finishing his 17-year journey on the Charleston, South Carolina campus.
During his time at The Military College of South Carolina – one of the six United State senior military colleges – the Bulldogs made six of their 13 all-time appearances in the NCAA Tournament and made the program’s only appearance at the College World Series. The 1990 team is one of just three Southern Conference programs (Duke, Wake Forest) and the only active member to make it to Omaha.
Lemonis’ coaching tenure spanned 12 seasons (1995-2006), included seven All-Americans and two Freshman All-Americans, saw 17 student-athletes selected in the Major League Baseball Draft and ushered in 35 offensive school records. Two of his Bulldog pupils reached the big leagues – Britt Reames and Dallas McPherson – while Philip Hartig finished his career ranked No. 7 on the NCAA’s career hits chart (360; 1998-2001), with his total now No. 10 all-time in NCAA history.
He was twice tabbed All-Southern Conference during his time as a student-athlete (1989-93) and led the team in home runs on three occasions, after redshirting as a freshman and appearing in just nine games his second year on campus. Following that, Lemonis started 162 games over his final three seasons and led the Bulldogs with a .367 average, 19 doubles, 52 runs, 10 home runs and 66 RBI as senior. A member of the 1993 All-Southern Conference Tournament team, Lemonis still ranks in the top 15 all-time at The Citadel in RBIs (152), home runs (23) and slugging percentage (.538).
Personal
Lemonis and his wife, the former Jill MacEldowney, have two daughters, Marissa and Makenzie. The Myrtle Beach, South Carolina native earned his Bachelor of Science in physical education from The Citadel in 1992 and received his Master of Arts in sport management in 1994.
He is also no stranger to Starkville, as he resided on campus as a newborn during his father's time as a student at State. His father, Thomas, was a 1973 Mississippi State graduate with a degree in electrical engineering.