MSU baseball notebook: Landon Jordan leaves team and more
Outside and inside of Mississippi State's 14-0 win over Eastern Michigan on Friday night, a lot was going on. One Bulldog is...well...no longer a Bulldog. And we now have some updates on a few other situations as well. Let's dive in:
Landon Jordan no longer with MSU
Landon Jordan is no longer a part of the Mississippi State baseball team. (File photo courtesy of Mississippi State athletics)
Infielder Landon Jordan is no longer a part of the Mississippi State baseball program. Bulldogs head coach Chris Lemonis revealed the news in his Friday night postgame press conference.
"Landon is no longer with us," Lemonis said. "He decided he didn’t want to be on the team any more. We sat down and spoke and he’s going to move in another direction.”
Jordan was State's Opening Day third baseman and has played in 12 of MSU's 14 games this year. He started nine. However Jordan's playing time had diminished this week, ever since Lane Forsythe began starting at shortstop and former shortstop Kamren James moved over to third.
Lemonis didn't confirm that decreased playing time was Jordan's reason for leaving. MSU's skipper only admitted it kind of caught him off guard.
"I was surprised...definitely surprised," Lemonis said. "But we've got some talented guys and it's next man up."
Clark still recovering
Freshman Kellum Clark hasn't played in over two weeks for MSU and it appears his promising bat will be out of action at least a little bit longer. Clark has an undisclosed ailment he's been dealing with and Lemonis said to not expect to see Clark for at least this weekend's series.
"He’s in the medical world right now," Lemonis said. "He’s probably got a couple more days. He won’t be available this weekend."
Skinner gets at-bats
Outfielder Brayland Skinner has been entering games late as a defensive replacement at times this season, but as he recovers from a hand injury, he hadn't gotten an at-bat until Friday. Then, as luck would have it, he led off an inning, the Bulldogs batted around and he actually got an extra at-bat he wasn't supposed to get.
"He's on a rehab kinda working his way back in," Lemonis said. "He's supposed to only get one at-bat. Then we had the long eighth inning, so he got another at-bat. We're bringing him back slowly. He can play defense. He can base run and do some things. He can swing, but guys coming back from a hand injury you just want to take it a little slow and be cautious. The key is you have to get them back in the mix with everybody else, but everybody else has been seeing it for weeks.
"But we're excited. You saw the speed. Even the last play of the game (when he caught the final out), he's a really good defensive outfielder. He'll be a big addition once he's back and full-go."
Forsythe keeps raking
Lemonis said prior to the season that Lane Forsythe was an incredibly strong defensive player. But 13 at-bats into his college career after taking over the starting shortstop role last Sunday, Forsythe is showing he might can swing the bat a little too.
Forsythe went 3-for-4 on Friday. He's now 7-for-13 overall for a batting average of .538.
"It's exciting to see what he's doing offensively right now," Lemonis said of Forsythe. "He's spent a lot of time working with (hitting coach Jake Gautreau) and working on his swing. He's also spent time since he's been on campus in the weight room with (strength coach Seth Diters). He's a kid that showed up here (and now) we laugh when they put his picture on the scoreboard because he doesn't even look like the same guy that showed up in August. You're seeing all his hard work coming through and he put some really good swings on balls (Friday night)."
You can see Forsythe's postgame press conference from Friday night with the video at the top of this page.
Thank you for coming to Cowbell Corner for coverage of Mississippi State sports. Be sure to follow Cowbell Corner on Twitter (@SIBulldogs) by clicking here, and like it on Facebook by clicking here.