Monthly Archives: May 2014

13 May

that’s more like it

Though it has notched another 30-win season and currently holds third place in the Conference USA standings, Southern Miss has not had a good year with the bats. The team is hitting .244 and no individual is batting above .280. But the Golden Eagles and their fans have to be encouraged by the recent performance of Connor Barron, the one-time prized recruit who has scuffled for most of his three seasons in Hattiesburg. Barron is riding a career-best eight-game hit streak. The center fielder/leadoff batter has lifted his average to .259, second on the club to Matt Durst’s .279. Barron has four homers, nine doubles, 19 RBIs and 28 runs. During his injury-hampered freshman and sophomore seasons, Barron batted .250 and .198; he had no homers and 19 RBIs total. This was not what was expected of a player drafted in the third round (by the Florida Marlins) in 2011. This was not what was expected of a player who batted .490 with eight homers as a senior at powerhouse Sumrall High. But maybe things have turned for Barron, and it would be good timing. USM finishes regular season play with a three-game C-USA series at Charlotte starting Thursday, then hosts the C-USA Tournament next week. Its postseason fate likely will be determined there. P.S. In what could be the event’s pivotal game, Belhaven (41-19) meets top-seed Oklahoma Wesleyan (53-6) today at 2:30 in the winners bracket of the NAIA regional at Smith-Wills Stadium. … Of the five finalists for the Ferriss Trophy, you could build a good case for BU’s Tyler Akins, who is batting .340 and has 17 saves. Akins is joined by Ole Miss’ Auston Bousfield and Chris Ellis and Mississippi State’s Ross Mitchell and Jacob Lindgren as finalists for the award that goes to the state’s best college player.

12 May

see how they run

Expect the Belhaven Blazers to kick up a lot of dust during this week’s NAIA opening round tournament. Well, they won’t actually be kicking up dust because Smith-Wills Stadium has an artificial surface — but the Blazers’ feet will be flying. That’s their game. The team has stolen 194 bases in racking up 40 wins. Five BU players have swiped double-figure totals. Reagan Rutledge has 59 bags (in 63 attempts), Paul Pickerrell 35, Emilio DeSilva 33, Dominick Francia 26 and Tyler Akins 11. This is not a team of mashers. Akins, the former Madison Central High and Hinds Community College star, leads the club with four home runs. Homers are hard to hit at Smith-Wills, especially with today’s bats. Stealing bases helped BU win 31 of 35 games there. Of course, you need some pitching depth, as well, to have postseason success, and the Blazers have a nice stable of arms. Boomer Scarborough, the Southern Miss transfer, won nine games with a 3.55 ERA. Preseason All-America pick Chris Good went 4-2, 3.73 and Ben Allison 6-0, 2.32. Austin McCann has a 1.98 ERA in 32 relief appearances, and Akins has notched a school record 17 saves. BU will try to dash past Oklahoma City today at 2:30. Oklahoma Wesleyan, which will play in today’s third game, is the top seed in the five-team regional.

12 May

title searches

Delta State, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its 2004 NCAA Division II national championship, will begin its quest for another title on Thursday against Florida Southern in the South Regional at Tampa, Fla. The Statesmen (38-11) are the No. 3 seed. The top seed is No. 1-ranked Tampa, which is 47-2. Also in the regional are Lynn, Stillman and Alabama-Huntsville, which beat DSU in the title game of the Gulf South Conference Tournament. … MACJC champion Jones County Junior College opens NJCAA Region 23 Tournament play on Thursday against East Central; Hinds and LSU-Eunice meet in the other first-round game at Community Bank Park in Ellisville. JCJC (43-9) is ranked No. 1 in Division II; LSU-E (41-11) is No. 2. Jones overcame a challenge from Hinds in Saturday’s state championship final, winning the clincher by run rule (14-3) with an eight-run seventh inning. Trent Giambrone’s three-run homer ended it. Jones last won the state title in 2011 and also claimed the region crown — and a Juco World Series berth — that season. LSU-E has won four national championships since 2006 and was national runner-up a year ago. But the Bengals were just 10-8 away from home this season. So there is hope for the Mississippi schools. … As of Sunday night, the SWAC still had not released the bracket for its tournament, which starts Wednesday in New Orleans. Alcorn State and Jackson State are in the field as the Nos. 3 and 4 teams from the East Division. JSU (27-23) won the tournament last year but has had a rough season, one made even more stressful when the team bus, with much of their equipment, caught fire during a road trip on May 5. The trip was aborted; JSU last played on May 3. … Belhaven University begins play today against Oklahoma City in the NAIA regional (opening round) it is hosting at Smith-Wills Stadium.

11 May

have a day

Seth Smith went 3-for-4, drove in four runs, scored two and came up a single shy of the first cycle in San Diego Padres history. But the Ole Miss product’s big day wasn’t the best by a Mississippian in the majors on Saturday. No, that honor would have to go to Corey Dickerson, the ex-Meridian Community College star from McComb, who went 4-for-5, hit two homers, drove in four runs and scored three in Colorado’s 11-2 win at Cincinnati. Dickerson, in his second MLB campaign, is batting .385 with four homers and 11 RBIs as a platooning outfielder for the rolling Rockies, second in the National League West. Jackson native Smith, playing more regularly for the Padres, has been on a roll of his own with 15 hits in his last 27 at-bats. He is batting .327 with three homers and 13 RBIs. P.S. Vicksburg native Ellis Burks, who had some monster years with Colorado during his playing days, is working as a part-time instructor with Rockies hitters this season.

10 May

scatter shots

The Mississippi Braves, starting to make a move (perhaps) in the Southern League South, settle in tonight at Trustmark Park for a 10-game homestand. The M-Braves have won 10 of 14 to climb to 17-17. Prized prospect J.R. Graham (0-1, 2.42) goes to the mound against Montgomery. Pitching has carried the club. The M-Braves rank third in the SL in ERA and fourth in WHIP. Williams Perez, 22-year-old right-hander from Venezuela, has been a rotation revelation with a 1.50 ERA (but just a 2-3 record). Aaron Northcraft is 3-1, 2.82, David Bromberg 1-2, 2.01, Jason Hursh 2-2, 3.41. Closer Shae Simmons has eight saves and 1.13 with 21 strikeouts in 16 innings. Shortstop Elmer Reyes continues to rake at .347 with 16 RBIs, and M-Braves vet Mycal Jones has three homers in 13 games since rejoining the club. … Looking for some offense, St. Louis called up Pascagoula native Joey Butler, who was batting .360 with four home runs at Triple-A Memphis. The former ’Goula High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College standout, who debuted with Texas in 2013, didn’t play Friday. Maybe he should have: The Cardinals went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and lost to Pittsburgh 6-4. … Mississippi State product Paul Maholm fell to 1-3 in his six starts for Los Angeles as San Francisco beat the Dodgers 3-1. Maholm allowed three runs on three hits (one homer) and four walks in 5 2/3 innings. The left-hander’s ERA is now 4.71. He may not keep his spot in the rotation much longer. … Milwaukee recently re-signed Tim Dillard, the former Itawamba CC star from Saltillo. The 12-year pro, who has some big league time, is currently in Triple-A. … Good sign for Chris Coghlan? The Ole Miss alum got a ninth-inning hit off Atlanta closer Craig Kimbrel on Friday and scored the game-tying run for Chicago. Alas, the hapless Cubs lost in the 10th (on yet another clutch hit by former M-Braves star Freddie Freeman). … Ex-UM standout Seth Smith was robbed of his third homer on Friday night in San Diego, but he did get three hits in the Padres’ 10-1 win over Miami and raised his average to .309. … Belhaven University is really good at home: an eye-popping 31-4 this season. But the Blazers, hosting the NAIA’s Jackson Bracket at Smith-Wills Stadium, aren’t the top seed in the regional. That would be Oklahoma Wesleyan, which brings a 52-6 record and a No. 3 national ranking to town. Belhaven (40-19) plays Oklahoma City in Monday’s second game, after Sterling and Houston-Victoria tangle in the opener. The winner of the latter gets Oklahoma Wesleyan in Monday’s late game.

09 May

remember the time

Some nights at the ballpark stay with you. Here’s one: It was May 9, 1996. The Jackson Generals were playing host to the Wichita Wranglers in a Texas League game at Smith-Wills Stadium. There was a player photo giveaway that night: Russ Johnson, the former LSU star who was playing shortstop for the Houston Astros’ Double-A club that season. And wouldn’t you know it: Johnson put on a show. He hit for the cycle, one of baseball’s rarest feats. It was the first time a Generals player had done it in the six years the team had been in Jackson. Johnson, who would go on to play in the big leagues, scored three times and drove in a run as the Generals won 8-4. Former Ole Miss star Kary Bridges also played for the Gens in that game, as did Richard Hidalgo, Chris Hatcher, Donovan Mitchell, Tim Forkner and Dennis Colon. Doug Simons got the win. The announced attendance was 2,284. Still have the box score and the photo. And the memory.

09 May

true to form

Jones County Junior College looked the part of the No. 1 team in the nation today, whipping Northeast Mississippi 14-4 in the opening round of the MACJC Tournament at Booneville. Chris Morgan and Trent Giambrone combined for nine hits, three home runs and six RBIs to back the pitching of Westin Stringer. The Bobcats (41-9) play Hinds, a 13-4 winner over East Central, in today’s winners bracket game. Northeast and East Central play an elimination game at 10 a.m. today, and the winner of that game will play the JCJC-Hinds loser in another elimination game on Friday. JCJC and Hinds have clinched berths in the NJCAA Division II Region 23 Tournament next week. P.S. Meridian Community College, the state’s only NJCAA Division I program, plays Delgado on Friday in the Region 23 Tournament at New Orleans. The Eagles (25-24) lost four of five games this season against Miss-Lou Conference rival Delgado, the No. 3 team in the nation. MCC is led by Dalton Thomas (.349, seven home runs), Ben Gann (.291, seven homers, 43 RBIs) and Goose Yates (5-2, 2.75).

08 May

a season to celebrate

This month marks the 25th anniversary of a very special occasion in the state’s baseball history. In May of 1989, Hinds Community College became the first Mississippi school to reach the Junior College World Series. But the story runs much deeper than just that fact. The 1989 season was the first since the merger of the predominantly white Raymond campus with the predominantly black Utica campus. The athletic programs also merged and were split up between the two campuses. Raymond got baseball. Hinds’ Rick Clarke remained the head coach, with Utica’s George McQuitter becoming his assistant. The players, heated rivals in 1988, were thrown into a blender. “It was a very, very difficult transition,” Clarke told The (Jackson) Clarion-Ledger years later. But a funny thing happened amid the tumult: The team started winning. Terre Woods, a former Utica player, had a monster season with the bat. Jeff Long, a Raymond player in 1988, set a team record for runs. Doug Thomas hit 16 homers. Mark Anders won 11 games and saved nine more. The Eagles rolled to an MACJC division championship, then claimed the state title, then the region and finally the district, which sent them on to the nationals at Grand Junction, Colo. They didn’t bring home a national crown, but they did blaze a trail to the Juco World Series that many Mississippi schools would follow. And, really, the ’89 Eagles did a lot more than that, taking a tough situation and turning it into something we can applaud 25 years later.

08 May

ups and downs

The new job seems to be working out fine for Seth Smith. The former Hillcrest Christian and Ole Miss star, in his first year with San Diego, is batting .344 over his last 10 games and is at .295 for the year with two homers and seven RBIs. He batted .253 last season in Oakland. … Mississippi State product Tyler Moore, batting .200 in limited work for Washington, has been sent down to Triple-A Syracuse to make room on the roster for pitcher Doug Fister, coming off the disabled list. … Meridian Community College alumnus Corey Dickerson went 1-for-4 with two RBIs in Colorado’s 9-2 thumping of Texas on Wednesday. He is batting .348 with two homers and seven RBIs as a part-time outfielder. … Ex-MCC star Cliff Lee allowed six runs in 6 1/3 innings as Philadelphia lost to Toronto 10-0. Lee’s record dipped to 3-3 and his ERA jumped to 3.64. … Southwest Mississippi CC product Jarrod Dyson contributed a hit, two walks and a run and Schlater native Louis Coleman threw a scoreless inning in Kansas City’s 8-0 win over San Diego. Dyson is batting .286; Coleman, who has been scuffling, dropped his ERA to 6.30. … Billy Hamilton, the ex-Taylorsville High star, did not play in Cincinnati’s 3-2 loss to Boston. He has made just two appearances — no starts — since hurting his left hand on May 1. Ole Miss alum Zack Cozart took an 0-fer for the Reds and is batting just .200 despite a recent hot streak (.314 over his last 10). … Former Southern Miss star Brian Dozier picked up a couple of RBIs — he has 14 for the season — in Minnesota’s 4-3 loss to Cleveland.

07 May

on the macjc menu

The appetizer at noon on Thursday features Hinds Community College, seeking an eighth state championship, and East Central, the defending state champion but an upstart in this postseason. The main course, served up at 4 at White Field in Booneville, will be Jones County JC, the No. 1 team in NJCAA Division II, and host Northeast, riding a wave of momentum after a dramatic playoff series win over Pearl River (see previous post). Hinds (29-16) is led by Matt Jones, a former Madison Central High star, and Casey Sutton, who swept the MACJC weekly awards after their performances in the playoff series against Northwest. Jones, 4-for-8 with two home runs against the Rangers, is batting .354 with six homers, 32 RBIs and 32 runs. Sutton is 6-2 with a 3.82 ERA after tossing a three-hit complete game vs. Northwest. The Eagles face an East Central team coming off a stunning upset of North Division champ East Mississippi. Neal Holliman’s Warriors (23-25) are led by sluggers John Morgan Berry and Maxwell Harmon and pitcher Ty Hendrix, who stymied East Mississippi in Game 3 last Saturday. From all indications, Jones County is loaded. Chase Hensley is hitting .408, Tyler Graves .377 and Trent Giambrone .373 with 36 RBIs and 48 runs. Westin Stringer, the former Terry High star, is 10-2 with a 1.76 ERA. But Northeast (27-18), playing at home, could be a real threat. Brandon High product Trent Turner is batting .431 with seven homers and 47 RBIs. Heath Wood is at .372 (and has 98 career hits), and catcher Riley Alef is a defensive stalwart. P.S. Three teams from this double-elimination event (the 0-2 team is done) will advance, along with second-ranked LSU-Eunice, to the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament next week. If Northeast is still around, it will host again. Otherwise, it’ll be JCJC.