May 1, 2019 - All Mississippi Baseball

hail to champs

One thing has been settled in the land of the Mississippi junior colleges. Itawamba Community College has won the MACJC regular season championship and will host the NJCAA Division II Region 23 Tournament later this month. The fourth-ranked Indians (37-6-1, 22-4) clinched first place on Tuesday by sweeping a twinbill from Mississippi Delta 9-4 and 5-2. ICC coach Rick Collier on Twitter: “Winning a state championship in this league is very hard to do! I am so proud of you all. Keep rolling there is alot of baseball left.” Northwest, ranked No. 8, sits at 20-6, No. 7 Jones County at 19-7 and No. 5 Pearl River at 17-9, each with one doubleheader left to play. The Nos. 2-9 teams in the final standings will pair off in best-of-3 series next week that will send four more team to the region tourney in Fulton, where ICC and top-ranked LSU-Eunice will be waiting. … ICC has ridden a dominant ace this season, but Houston Harding (10-0) wasn’t available on Tuesday. The wins went to Justin Medlin and Hunter Hughes, both 6-1. Medlin is also one of the top hitters for Collier’s club, batting .309 with seven homers and 35 RBIs entering Tuesday’s games. Brett Coker led the team with a .376 average, and Jackson Lancaster was at .333 with 38 RBIs.

effectively wild

Over his last 17 innings of work, Madison Central High product Spencer Turnbull has allowed one earned run and beaten the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Phillies. He has also navigated some choppy waters. Detroit’s 26-year-old rookie right-hander has walked 12 batters over those 17 innings. On Tuesday against the Phillies, in a 3-1 win, he yielded just three hits and fanned five but walked two, hit two batters and threw three wild pitches. Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire, the old Jackson Mets shortstop, called it an “effectively wild” performance. “I’m just trying to get outs, and however I have to do that is what I’m going to do,” Turnbull told mlb.com. He yielded a first-inning run to the Phillies but put up five zeroes after that. For the season, he is 2-2 with a 2.53 ERA in six starts, seemingly solidifying his spot in the rotation. As Gardenhire said: “I like watching this kid pitch.”