Mississippi State
Kentucky
State Set For Super Bulldog Weekend Showdown
May 01, 2025 | Baseball
STARKVILLE – Mississippi State's annual spring homecoming, Super Bulldog Weekend, will be headlined by an SEC baseball series between the Diamond Dawgs and Kentucky.
The three-game series gets underway on Friday at 6 p.m. followed by a Saturday first pitch at 2 p.m. Sunday's finale is slated to begin at noon. The first two games of the series will be streamed on SEC Network+ and the final contest is airing on SEC Network.
MSU will send its ace Pico Kohn to the mound to begin the series on Friday. The junior left-hander is 4-2 with a 3.82 earned run average, 89 strikeouts and only 15 walks in 61 1/3 innings this season. Kohn ranks fifth in the conference in punchouts while holding opposing hitters to a .219 batting average.
The Wildcats will counter on Friday with freshman right-hander Nate Harris, who will be making his 10th start of the season. Harris is 4-2 with a 4.32 ERA, 31 strikeouts and 15 walks in 41 2/3 innings.
New interim head coach Justin Parker, who also still serves as the Bulldogs' pitching coach, will also keep the rest of his weekend rotation intact. Junior right-hander Evan Siary (1-1, 4.09 ERA, 37 K, 11 BB) is scheduled to start on Saturday while senior righty Karson Ligon (4-5, 7.03 ERA, 48 K, 17 BB) gets the nod on Sunday.
UK plans to pitch senior righty Nic McCay (4-0, 3.42 ERA, 54 K, 31 BB) in Game 2 and go with sophomore southpaw Ben Cleaver (5-2, 3.02 ERA, 68 K, 21 BB) on Sunday.
State enters the weekend at 26-19 overall and 7-14 in Southeastern Conference play. The Diamond Dawgs are coming off an 18-5 win over Memphis in seven innings at home on Tuesday. It was their eighth run-rule victory of the year.
Mississippi State is collectively hitting .305 with 76 home runs and scoring 7.7 runs per game. The Bulldogs sport a .972 fielding percentage and have stolen 40 bases in 47 attempts this spring.
Senior left fielder Gehrig Frei leads MSU with a .371 batting average while sophomore third baseman Ace Reese tops the team with 60 hits, 16 homers, 56 RBIs, 121 total bases and a .703 slugging percentage and is also tying for the team lead with one triple. Reese ranks third in the SEC in homers and total bases, sixth in RBIs and slugging and ninth in hits. Sophomore catcher Ross Highfill is the Bulldogs' biggest base thief with 11 steals in 13 chances.
Senior first baseman Hunter Hines has hit 64 career home runs, which ranks second among active players in Division I. Hines is also three homers shy of matching Rafael Palmeiro (1983-85) for the most in school history. His 204 career RBIs ranks sixth in State's annals and is two away from tying Jon Knott (1998-2001) and Connor Powers (2007-10) for fifth all-time in that category.
State's hurlers hold a 4.53 ERA as a staff with 493 strikeouts and 145 walks through 375 2/3 innings. Opposing teams are batting just .231 against them and they rank third nationally in both strikeouts per nine innings (11.8) and strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.40).
Kohn leads the Diamond Dawgs in strikeouts while Cade O'Leary and Gavin Black both maintain perfect ERAs. Chase Hungate, Luke Dotson and Stone Simmons have all recorded two saves apiece to account for six of the team's seven this spring.
Kentucky comes to town with a 25-17 overall record and a 10-11 mark in the SEC. The Wildcats took a home series against South Carolina last weekend but lost 6-4 at Western Kentucky on Tuesday.
Kentucky's staff certainly knows its way around Starkville. Head coach Nick Mingione was an assistant coach for the Bulldogs from 2009-16 before being hired by the Wildcats. Former MSU pitcher and director of operations Trevor Fitts serves as UK's director of player development while assistant coach Austin Cousino worked as a graduate assistant for the Diamond Dawgs from 2017-18.
The Wildcats are hitting .274 as a team with 41 homers and average 7.2 runs per game. Kentucky has also been dangerous on the base paths with 106 steals in 130 attempts and maintain a .979 fielding percentage.
Cole Hage has been the Wildcats' biggest offensive threat, hitting .331 with 10 long balls while also being tied for the team lead with 11 steals with Patrick Herrera, Shaun Montoya and Ethan Hindle. Tyler Bell had driven in 40 runs to lead UK in that aspect.
The Wildcats' pitchers have a staff ERA of 4.24 with 387 strikeouts and 168 walks in 371 1/3 innings of work. Their opposition is batting .236 against them with 37 home runs on the year.
Cleaver tops Kentucky in strikeouts while Hayden Smith and Logan Grubb have flawless ERAs. James McCoy has two of the team's five saves this season.
Mississippi State leads the all-time series against the Wildcats 65-44 and swept Kentucky during its last visit to Dudy Noble Field in 2021.
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