FINAL PIECE OF THE PUZZLE

Chris Lemonis earned a reputation as a recruiter, but after winning a national title at Mississippi State, he will be remembered as a champion

- TEDDY CAHILL

Mississippi State is one of the biggest programs in college baseball. It’s the alma mater of Thunder and Lightning—Will Clark and Rafael Palmeiro—as well as Jake Mangum, the Southeastern Conference’s hit king.

Longtime Mississippi State coach Ron Polk is known as the Godfather of the SEC for the way he brought the show of big-time baseball to the conference. Dudy Noble Field is an iconic venue and the home of the largest on-campus crowds in the college baseball history.

The one thing Mississippi State was always missing, however, was a national championship.

From the time Chris Lemonis was hired as head coach following the 2018 season—when the Bulldogs made a Cinderella run to the final four of the College World Series under interim head coach Gary Henderson—he has never run from the program’s championship expectations.

This year, in his third season at the helm, Lemonis and the Bulldogs made good on them. Mississippi State fended off Texas in the bracket final to reach the College World Series championship series against Vanderbilt. After losing Game 1 in the best-of-three series, the Bulldogs stormed back to twice rout the Commodores, 13-2 and 9-0, to win the national championship.

It was not only the baseball program’s first national title, but also the first for a team sport in Mississippi State history.

Nearly a month later, Lemonis said the national championship remained a surreal feeling.

“When you have it sitting over your heads like that (facing elimination in Games 2 and 3 of the finals), I told them, ‘You have to do something special,’ ” Lemonis said. “Having to face Kumar Rocker in the last game, that’s about as tough as it gets.”