MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Mississippi State returns to the road on Tuesday to take on another set of Tigers.
After competing at now seventh-ranked LSU over the weekend, the Bulldogs are bound for Memphis on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. contest at FexExPark. The game will be streamed on ESPN+.
MSU has claimed the past four meetings against the Tigers and lead the overall series 58-27. The Diamond Dawgs won both outings versus Memphis last season with a 17-9 victory in Starkville before edging out a 6-4 road triumph thanks in part to a Bryce Chance double.
Junior right-hander Noah Sullivan (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 7K, 1 BB) is set to make his fourth-straight midweek start on the mound for State. The Tigers will counter with a junior righty of their own in Caden Robinson, who is making his seventh start of the spring and is 1-2 with a 6.75 ERA with 18 strikeouts and 13 walks in 20 innings.
The Bulldogs are 16-9 overall and have won five-consecutive midweek games. Chris Lemonis' club comes into Tuesday's affair batting .305 with 42 home runs and scoring 7.3 runs per game. They're also 33-of-37 in the stolen base department and maintain a .969 fielding percentage.
Sullivan is also the leading hitter among Mississippi State's regulars, batting .363 with 33 hits this year. Third baseman Ace Reese has clubbed nine homers and driven in 36 runs to top the Diamond Dawgs in both of those categories while catcher Ross Highfill has swiped nine bases in 11 tries.
First baseman Hunter Hines' 60 career home runs is tied for the highest among active players and needs only one more to match Will Clark (1983-85) for the second-most in school history.
MSU's pitching staff has compiled a collective 3.97 ERA with 320 strikeouts and 94 walks in 231 total innings. The Bulldogs rank No. 2 nationally in strikeouts per nine innings (12.5), third in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.40) and fifth in hits allowed per nine innings (6.97). Teams are hitting just .210 against them on the season.
Pico Kohn is ranked eighth in the country with 61 strikeouts while Sullivan, Gavin Black and Cade O'Leary sport flawless earned run averages. Chase Hungate and Luke Dotson have two saves apiece to account for all but one of State's saves in 2025.
Memphis heads into the midweek at 11-16 and riding an eight-game losing skid. The Tigers' last win came on March 16 and were most recently swept at home by Charlotte over the weekend.
Memphis is hitting a paltry .216 as a team with 29 homers and plating 5.2 runs a game. The Tigers sport a .973 fielding percentage and are 34-of-35 in stolen bases this spring.
James Smith IV is the leading hitter in Memphis' regular lineup with a .267 batting average 28 hits and 18 RBIs. Smith is tied for the team lead with four long balls with Chase Nixon, Shane Cox, Cy Turner and CJ Willis. Smith and Turner are also topping the Tigers with seven steals apiece.
Memphis' hurlers hold a 4.62 staff ERA with 223 strikeouts and 119 walks through 233 2/3 frames on the year. Their opponents are hitting .267 against them with 38 home runs.
David Case leads the club with 41 strikeouts while Luke Ellis, Brandon Chorzelewski and Eli Curtis all have perfect ERAs. Memphis has six saves on the year with Brayden Sanders (2) as the only Tiger to close multiple games.
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