Williams to be in mix behind plate for MSU
There's a rehaul at the catcher position in this class for Mississippi State with three players coming in to vie for a starting spot.
With the loss of All-southeastern Conference defender Logan Tanner to the upcoming draft, things are wide open. Ross Highfill and Bryce Hubbard will compete for the spot as will Texas backstop Ryan Williams. After a big season for Bridgeland in Cypress, he believes he's ready.
“I just want to go in, show what I can do,” Williams said. “The big part of my game has been defense behind the plate. I feel like I can make an impact there. I hope that I can be a leader out there. It'll be a good battle. It'll be competitive and that's always something that I feel like I thrive in.”
The 6-foot-2, 175-pounder is an athletic defender with length. His focus during the offseason was to get bigger and to improve his receiving behind the dish to get ready for the Bulldogs and SEC play coming up next year.
Adding more weight will be a key for him when he gets to Starkville as well, but he felt like he progressed in that area this year as well as in his game.
His high school season ended before he wanted. “The season went pretty well,” Williams said. “It ended too quickly with us getting bounced in the first round. We won the first game and should have won the second game. It was the same team that we lost to last year. I think that I did pretty well. I've been working on switch hitting and defensively. I've been trying to put on weight because power hitting hasn't been my thing.”
MSU coaches certainly saw the potential for Williams back during 2020 when they took his commitment. He was picking up steady interest from great programs like Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas when the Bulldogs came calling.
Before State had even won a national championship, Williams felt like that was where he needed to be. The relationships that he had with the coaching staff put it over the top.
“It was really the coaches,” Williams said of why he committed. “They made me feel welcome and seemed very knowledgeable. It was a great place to visit too. I didn't get to go to a game until the Tennessee game this year and I know it was a down year this year, but the atmosphere is great. I feel like it's just baseball. They've been so good for so many years – one bad year doesn't put doubt in my mind about the program.”
This summer Williams is playing in a collegiate league to stay fresh before heading to Starkville in the fall. He's resting his arm a bit to get ready to compete against the talented pitchers on campus.