Mississippi State baseball head coach Chris Lemonis has found his new pitching coach.
More than a month after firing Scott Foxhall, Lemonis tabbed South Carolina’s Justin Parker as the new leader to the Bulldogs’ pitching staff, a source with the program confirmed 247sports’ report of the hiring to The Dispatch.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Lemonis notified the team this morning that Parker was hired.
Parker, the pitching coach at South Carolina, spent the last two years in Columbia after serving as the associate head coach and pitching coach at Indiana University and two years as the pitching coach at Central Florida.
Under Parker’s watch, 20 pitchers have been selected in the MLB Draft, including nine in the first 10 rounds.
In 2021 Parker led South Carolina to a 5.41 team earned run average, which ranked 11th in the Southeastern Conference. That mark improved to 4.19 this past season, ranking second in the conference behind Tennessee (3.57).
The Gamecocks’ pitchers also ranked fifth in the strikeouts (608), second in earned runs (252) and second in walks allowed (205). South Carolina , the No. 15 national seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament, advanced to the Super Regionals before falling at No. 2 Florida.
Eight of Parker’s pitchers at Indiana were selected in the MLB Draft including four in 2021, including: McCade Brown (third round), Gabe Bierman (seventh round), Matt Litwicki (10th round) and Tommy Sommer (10th round).
