21 Mar

a fresh start?

Southern Miss gets to wipe the slate clean, sort of, on Friday when Rice comes to Taylor Park for the Conference USA opener. The start of this season has been a bit messy for the Golden Eagles, who showed up in some preseason polls. They’re 8-12. They were walloped by Mississippi State last week before 7,000 strong at Trustmark Park. They took a punch to the gut Wednesday night when Auburn beat them in 11 innings. On paper, the Eagles’ problems appear to be many. They’re hitting just .268 with little power (six homers, .351 slugging average). They’ve been outscored 115-94. The staff ERA is 4.58, and there are a lot of individual numbers uglier than that. Bright spots? Sure. Chase Fowler is hitting .345, Tim Lynch .314 with 13 RBIs. Andrew Pierce has pitched like an All-American, going 4-1 with a 1.91 ERA plus 43 strikeouts and just four walks in 37 2/3 innings. What the Eagles need is another couple of arms, at least, to pitch in with some shutdown innings. They need former ballyhooed recruits Mason Robbins (.270) and Connor Barron (.237 in 38 at-bats) to rise up at the plate. Rice also began the season with high expectations and scuffled out of the gate. The bad news for USM: The Owls (16-7) come in on a seven-game win streak.

20 Mar

notable stuff

Tyler Aldridge, a senior from Steens via East Mississippi Community College, has hit safely in all 25 of Delta State’s games. … The NCAA Division II nationally ranked Statesmen (21-4) overcame an early 3-0 deficit to beat D-I Mississippi Valley State (3-21) by a 9-3 count on Tuesday in Greenville. … Mississippi State trailed Alcorn State 5-0 on Tuesday before mounting a rally and winning 7-6 in Starkville. The nationally ranked Bulldogs are now 20-4, the Braves 4-18. … Jonathan Holder notched his seventh save for State. … Southern Miss, sputtering at 8-11, travels to Mobile tonight to play Auburn in a final pre-conference tuneup. Conference USA power Rice comes to Hattiesburg on Friday. … USM is 1-4 all-time against Auburn, but the win came last year. … Jackson State (10-10) is 7-2 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, led by — no surprise here — Desmond Russell, the Bahamas native who is batting .321 with two homers and 19 RBIs and is 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA and a save as a pitcher. … Belhaven moved to 3-0 in Maloney Trophy Series play with a 6-4 win at Millsaps on Tuesday. … Robert Marzoni, who has seven saves, got the win for BU, now 21-12. … William Carey (21-8) is tied for first in the Southern States Athletic Conference with a 12-3 mark. Carey has series wins over the other two first-place clubs (NAIA nationally ranked Lee and Faulkner). … Carey’s Scott Fabre, who homered in a win over Arkansas Tech on Monday, is batting .389 with four bombs and 29 RBIs. … Mississippi College’s Josh Perez, a preseason All-American Southwest Conference pick, is batting .385 with 16 runs, 10 RBIs and 11 steals. … MC (9-12, 2-4 ASC) has hit just one home run (by Keaton Hankins) this season.

19 Mar

on the juco watch

The junior college season is young, but key series are already beginning to sprout. Longtime MACJC rivals Northwest and Northeast, both playing very well, meet in Senatobia on Wednesday. The host Rangers, coming off a much-wanted sweep of Itawamba, are unbeaten in the North Division at 4-0. Sophomore pitcher Cody Reed is 3-1 for a 13-6 club. Northeast is 3-1 in the league and has won six of its last seven, picking up coach Kent Farris’ 150th win during that stretch. First place in the South Division will be on the line in Ellisville on Wednesday when Jones County (15-7, 3-1) hosts Copiah-Lincoln (13-8, 3-1). Another South twinbill to watch this weekend is the Pearl River-Hinds clash in Raymond. Hinds, ranked in the preseason, is 10-10 overall and 2-2 in the division after a sweep of fading Gulf Coast last Thursday. PRCC (18-6, 2-2) is No. 8 in the most recent NJCAA Division II poll.

18 Mar

boxing out

Talking box scores here, not rebounding technique: Mitch Moreland is having a very good spring. The former Mississippi State standout, who has competition at first base and DH in Texas, went 2-for-3 with a home run (his third) on Sunday and is batting .361. … Also playing well for the Rangers is Starkville native Julio Borbon, batting .289 after a 2-for-3 on Sunday. He’s in the outfield picture. … MSU alum Tyler Moore blasted a pair of homers for Washington and is batting .261 this spring. He should break camp with the big club. … Ex-Ole Miss star Alex Presley, vying for a spot in the Pittsburgh outfield, is hitting .306; he had another hit on Sunday. … The Atlanta bullpen is overrun with strong arms, but Delta State alumnus Dusty Hughes has made a mark this spring, posting four holds and a 1.29 ERA. … Though he didn’t play Sunday, former UM standout Chris Coghlan is faring well for Miami (.318, three runs, four RBIs) as he attempts to reclaim a big league job in the Marlins outfield. … On the not-so-hot chart: Ex-Rebel Lance Lynn (now 1-3, 7.50 after a rough start Sunday) with St. Louis, Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton (.136) with Cincinnati and Ole Miss product Phillip Irwin (6.97 ERA) with Pittsburgh. P.S. Former Nettleton High star Bill Hall, trying to make the Los Angeles Angels’ roster as a non-roster invitee, hasn’t played since late February because of a thigh injury.

17 Mar

a spark in time?

After a rather tepid start, Belhaven University has begun to heat up. A three-game sweep of Auburn-Montgomery this weekend moved the Blazers to 20-12 overall and 7-5 in the Southern States Athletic Conference. BU has won eight of nine heading into a Maloney Trophy Series game at Millsaps on Tuesday. The Blazers completed the sweep of AUM in fist-pumping fashion on Saturday, winning 14-13 on Bud Britt’s walk-off, two-run homer in the 10th inning. It was the sixth homer of the year for Britt, from Brookhaven by way of Copiah-Lincoln Community College. P.S. The No. 1 catcher for Auburn-Montgomery is Brett Wellman, the son of former Mississippi Braves manager Phillip Wellman. The younger Wellman often caught in the bullpen for the M-Braves. The elder Wellman is now a hitting coach in the St. Louis system.

14 Mar

numb with numbers

If you follow baseball closely, numbers always grab you. Southeastern Conference play starts this weekend for Ole Miss and Mississippi State – and just check out the numbers involved. Ole Miss is 18-1 heading into its three-game set at Arkansas, which is 13-5. (Please note, the Razorbacks were Baseball America’s preseason No. 3.) State is 18-2 with 16-1 LSU coming to Dudy Noble Field. The Bulldogs are hitting .324 as a team, tops among SEC schools. LSU is second at .321. And Ole Miss is third at .310. Arkansas pitchers have a 1.60 staff ERA, tops in the league. State’s at 1.84, second. Ole Miss is fifth at 2.21 and LSU sixth at 2.41. Just for good measure, the Tigers lead the league in fielding percentage (.980). In Friday’s openers, Ole Miss will start Bobby Wahl, 4-0 with a 1.99 ERA, against Arkansas freshman Trey Killian, 2-1, 0.86. (The Hogs’ real ace might be Ryne Stanek, 1-1, 3.71, who’ll go Sunday.) State will start lefty Jacob Lindgren, 2-0, 0.96, against LSU’s Aaron Nola, 2-0, 2.77. All those numbers are indicative of the talent that will be on those two fields this weekend. Quite a few future pros, to be sure. Of course, the only numbers that will matter when all the dust has settled by Sunday evening are the ones that appeared on the scoreboards. Those will grab us, too.

14 Mar

major impact

In a Millsaps College lineup crowded with big hitters, Keith Shumaker has managed to stand out. Shumaker, a sophomore third baseman, leads the Southern Athletic Association in RBIs with 22 and is tied at the top with three home runs. The former Jackson Academy standout, a left-handed hitter who goes 6 feet 3, 220 pounds, was named the SAA player of the week earlier this week on the heels of a 7-for-17 performance. (He also threw six shutout innings as a starting pitcher.) Shumaker, who hit .307 with 22 RBIs all of last season, is surrounded by the likes of Stephen Gates (.458), Samuel Doucet (.431) and Wes Perkins (.414) on a club that is off to an 11-3 start. The Majors swept Hendrix in three games at home in their inaugural SAA series and head to Georgia this weekend to meet Berry College (5-1 in the league). The new SAA has no automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament, so every game has added significance for at-large consideration. The top two teams in the league’s regular season race will host four-team mini-tournaments and the winners of those will clash in a best-of-3 for the SAA title.

11 Mar

teepee time

Granted Ole Miss swiped the state spotlight over the weekend, moving to 16-1 with a sweep of Lipscomb. But let’s give Tuesday night’s Mississippi State-Southern Miss game its due. Though State saw a 17-game win streak snapped and actually lost the series to Central Arkansas over the weekend, the Bulldogs (17-2) are still a top 10-type club and they’re scheduled to start veteran lefty Luis Pollorena (3-0, 1.88 ERA). The game at Trustmark Park in Pearl will be the Dogs’ first away from Dudy Noble Field this season. USM limps in at 7-8, having lost two of three at home to Louisiana-Lafayette. The Golden Eagles have lost four in a row in the State series — the Dogs lead 77-36 all-time — entering the only scheduled meeting this year. Obviously, it’s a big game for the Eagles, who’ll throw Mason Robbins, who is 1-1, 3.08 though better known as a hitter (.302). State’s Hunter Renfroe comes in hot, with four homers for the year. USM’s top hitter is Chase Fowler at .395. P.S. Ole Miss has been doing a lot of things well, but the numbers put up by Stuart Turner and Bobby Wahl are worth singling out. Turner, a transfer from juco power LSU-Eunice, is batting .491 with nine doubles, two homers, 27 RBIs and 14 runs. That’s 41 runs accounted for in 17 games. Wahl, considered the top MLB draft prospect in the state, is 4-0 with a 1.99 ERA.

09 Mar

heat wave

Something special may be brewing in Hattiesburg at the “other” college in town. Yes, Southern Miss broke a three-game losing skid behind ace Andrew Pierce on Friday night — but a better pitching performance for a hotter club took place down the road at William Carey’s Wheeler Field. Jake Fabre, a senior right-hander from Houma, La., threw a 14-strikeout, seven-hitter at NAIA powerhouse Lee University, leading the Crusaders to their ninth straight win, 8-2. Carey is 17-6 and 9-1 in the Southern States Athletic Conference. Lee fell to 19-4 and 8-2. They’ll play a doubleheader today. Fabre improved to 3-2 with a 1.55 ERA; he has 40 K’s and just three walks in 40 2/3 innings. None of Carey’s top four starters has an ERA over 2.35. Coach Bobby Halford has a few hitters, too, with Mitch Bohon (.392, 17 RBIs) and Scott Fabre (.371, two home runs, 18 RBIs) leading the way. P.S. Corey Wimberly, the Alcorn State product now in Atlanta’s system, made a big league spring appearance on Friday, going 0-for-1 in the Braves’ win over Houston. Wimberly, 29, a switch-hitting second baseman/outfielder, has been plugging away in the minors since 2005 with decent success (.297, 281 steals). He batted .301 in 39 games for the New York Mets’ Triple-A Buffalo team in 2012. … Noticed that former Mississippi Braves Barbaro Canizares and Yasser Gomez are playing for Spain in the World Baseball Classic. Both are Cuba natives — how does that work?

08 Mar

coming attractions

Strap in. This weekend in college baseball could be quite the thrill ride. Where to start? Mississippi State is 16-0, its second-longest win streak ever, and climbing in the polls. The Bulldogs host Central Arkansas for a three-game set this weekend. Don’t sleep on the Bears, who are 12-1. … Ole Miss is 13-1 and hosting Lipscomb. The big story in Oxford: Coach Mike Bianco is two wins from moving past Jake Gibbs as the Rebels’ all-time leader in victories. … Southern Miss is 6-6 and in the throes of a three-game skid with Louisiana-Lafayette (10-2) coming to Hattiesburg. Never fear Eagles fans: Ace Andrew Pierce, 3-0 with a 2.08 ERA starts today’s opener. … Jackson State is hosting rival Mississippi Valley State for a SWAC series at Bob Braddy Field. … Delta State, 14-2 and 2-1 in the Gulf South Conference, welcomes conference foe North Alabama to Ferriss Field. … Belhaven, 13-11 but just 1-5 in the Southern States Athletic Conference, needs to get it going this weekend against Loyola in New Orleans. … William Carey (16-6) is 8-1 in the SSAC with a huge series on tap at Wheeler Field this weekend against NAIA No. 3 Lee University. … Millsaps (7-3), which has played just once since Feb. 24 (a 6-5 Maloney Trophy Series loss to Mississippi College on Tuesday), opens Southern Athletic Association play with a three-game home set against Hendrix. … MC (6-7) begins American Southwest Conference play at Texas-Tyler. P.S. Pearl River Community College and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC moved into the most recent (Feb. 27) NJCAA Division II poll, the Wildcats at No. 10, the Bulldogs at 15. Both are now 13-3. … East Central CC dedicated a new, $30,000 covered grandstand at Clark-Gay Baseball Complex in Decatur on Wednesday, then swept Meridian CC in a doubleheader.