Mississippi State
Queens
Diamond Dawgs Hosting Queens This Weekend
March 06, 2025 | Baseball
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State has one final weekend tune-up before conference play begins as Chris Lemonis and the Diamond Dawgs welcome Queens to town for a three-game set.
The series gets underway on Friday at 6 p.m. followed by a Saturday outing at 2 p.m. and Sunday's finale beginning at 1 p.m. All three games will be televised on SEC Network + and can be heard on the Bulldog Sports Network powered by Learfield.
Southpaw Pico Kohn gets the nod on the mound again on Friday night for MSU. Kohn, a junior, is 2-0 on the year with a 1.53 earned run average and tops the team with 28 strikeouts and has only walked two in 17 2/3 innings.
Queens will counter on Friday with Landry Jurecka, who is making his fourth start of the season and sports an 0-2 record and a 6.08 ERA. The junior right-hander has struck out 14 and walked five in 13 1/3 innings with opponents batting .365 against him.
The Bulldogs will switch up their pitching rotation for the rest of the weekend. Junior right-hander Ben Davis (0-1, 2.53 ERA, 18 K, 2 BB) will make his first start for State on Saturday followed by senior right-hander Karson Ligon (1-1, 5.00 ERA, 14 K, 4 BB).
The Royals are sending junior right-hander Adrian Quezada (0-2, 3.60 ERA, 9 K, 5 BB) to the bump on Saturday but have not named a starting pitcher for Sunday.
Mississippi State enters the weekend at 8-4 and coming off an 18-3 home victory over instate foe Southern Miss in seven innings on Wednesday. It was the fourth time this season the Diamond Dawgs have ended a game early due to the 10-run rule.
State is hitting .323 as a team with 24 homers and averaging 8.5 runs per game. The Bulldogs are also a perfect 18 of 18 on stolen base attempts and are fielding at a .970 clip.
Gehrig Frei leads MSU's regulars with a .478 batting average while Ace Reese tops the club with six homers and 18 RBIs. Reese, Noah Sullivan and Bryce Chance are locked in a three-way tie for the team lead with 16 hits apiece. Ross Highfill is the Diamond Dawgs' top base thief with six steals.
Mississippi State's pitching staff holds a collective 3.03 ERA with 139 strikeouts and 41 walks over 98 innings of work. The Bulldogs rank sixth nationally averaging 12.8 strikeouts per game and are holding opponents to just a .178 batting average against them.
Chase Hungate, Dane Burns, Evan Siary, Nate Williams, Kevin Mannell and Gavin Black all sport flawless ERAs with Hungate topping the team with two saves.
Queens heads to town with a 2-10 record and have dropped nine-straight games. The Royals were swept by West Virginia their last time out in a four-game series that spanned from last Friday through Monday.
Queens is hitting .221 as a team with a dozen homers and scoring five runs per game. The Charlotte, N.C. based university is 5 of 7 on stolen base tries and is have a .956 fielding percentage.
Jake Barbour is Queens' top bat hitting .319. Justin Hudson has slugged four homers and driven in 11 to lead the Royals in those categories while Nick Alderfer is 2-for-2 in stolen base attempts.
Queens' hurlers have a 9.52 ERA with 94 strikeouts and 69 walks in 103 frames. Opponents have hit .352 against them and blasted 15 long balls.
Brodie McFadden is the lone pitcher for the Royals with an ERA under 3.60 and Ryan Brown has recorded their lone save to date.
This weekend will mark the first-ever meeting between the Bulldogs and Queens.
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