Monthly Archives: March 2011

Division play is heating up in the MACJC ranks, and nowhere was there more of a sizzle than in Booneville on Tuesday. Northeast Mississippi Community College’s Daymon Ericksen and Jordan Gulley combined on a no-hitter as the Tigers beat Mississippi Delta 6-1 in the opener of a twinbill. Delta bounced back to win its first game of the season in the nightcap. The Trojans are 1-17. Holmes has emerged as the leader in the North Division with a 5-1 mark. The Bulldogs split with East Mississippi (4-2) in Goodman on Tuesday, getting stellar pitching from Rafiel Johnson and Patrick Stewart to salvage the second game and keep a grip on first. Holmes visists Northeast (2-2 in division play) on Saturday. In the South, Gulf Coast, just 11-11 overall, is 4-0 and leading the division pack. The Bulldogs swept Hinds in Raymond on Tuesday, posting 13-4 and 12-1 wins. Hinds, nationally ranked in preseason, fell to 1-5 in the South. East Central, coming off a sweep of Copiah-Lincoln in Decatur, is in second place at 4-2. The jucos never fail to provide compelling storylines.

Desmond Jennings is expected to have a big impact on the Tampa Bay Rays’ season — but it might not be this season. The former Itawamba Community College star, the subject of much buzz in the off-season after the Rays lost Carl Crawford, has had a rather subdued spring. He was hitting .154 with no extra base hits and one stolen base in 26 at-bats when he was sent to minor league camp last week. When Tampa Bay signed Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez, it created a glut of outfielders heading into spring camp, and Jennings, once penciled in as the starting left fielder, seems to have been lost in the shuffle. A superb athlete with plus-plus speed, Jennings still has a bright future in the big leagues. It’s just seems to be on hold.
P.S. Props to Southern Miss for cracking the Collegiate Baseball Top 30 at No. 25. The Golden Eagles (15-3) were impressive in winning three games in the Cougar Invitational at Charleston, S.C., over the weekend.

Chase Porch isn’t likely to show up on a Topps baseball card. His chances of playing in the major leagues, or even in an affiliated minor league, are razor thin. Still, his is a story worth recounting, a career worth tracking. To a baseball fan, it’s interesting stuff. Northeast Mississippi Community College sent out a release today announcing that Porch, a former Tigers outfielder, had signed with the independent Amarillo Sox of the American Association. Reading on in the release, one comes to find out that Porch was a seven-year starter (seven years!) for East Union, a teeny, weeny school in northeast Mississippi whose teams are nicknamed Urchins. He was drafted out of high school by the Atlanta Braves but didn’t sign, going instead to Meridian CC, where he pitched for a year. He left Meridian for Northeast, where, in 2008, he hit .431 with 10 home runs and 48 RBIs and earned third-team NJCAA All-America honors. From NEMCC, Porch went to NCAA Division II North Alabama. After a good season there, he signed with Pensacola of the American Association and was named the indy league’s rookie of the year in 2010. He’ll be back in the AA this summer. It’s a long way from The Show, but he’s playing the game. It’s a baseball tale, as yet unfinished.

Mississippi Valley State tuned up for the Southwestern Athletic Conference season by losing its first nine games. Good plan, apparently. Doug Shanks’ Delta Devils have won seven of their eight conference games and are in first place in the SWAC East. The Devils, now 7-14 overall, haven’t hit (.257, eighth in the league) or pitched (6.65 ERA, seventh) particularly well but do lead the league in fielding percentage (.965) and total chances. Defense does count in college baseball, especially now with so much juice taken out of the bats. Two stars have emerged for Valley: right-hander Steven Barnes, who is 2-2 with a save, a 3.50 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 36 innings; and Jerry Hildreth, who is tied for the league lead in steals with 10 and second in runs with 20. Valley hosts preseason SWAC favorite Jackson State for a three-game series April 2-3. That’s one to watch.

Delta State-William Carey is a nice little intrastate rivalry between two small colleges with proud traditions. When they meet Wednesday in Hattiesburg, the game could have more significance than usual. DSU coach Mike Kinnison can break Boo Ferriss’ school career mark for victories in that game. Kinnison picked up Nos. 637, 638 and 639 (tying Ferriss’ mark) this weekend as the Statesmen swept past Arkansas-Monticello in their first Gulf South Conference series of the season. (In fact, DSU outscored UAM 41-11, but that dominance is just a footnote here.) Kinnison, who played for the legendary Ferriss, will be inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame this summer. You might say he’s having a good year.
P.S. If DSU loses to Carey, Kinnison’s next shot at the record W will come next Saturday at Southern Arkansas in a GSC doubleheader.

Former Ole Miss ace Lance Lynn probably isn’t going to win the spring competition for the fifth starter’s spot in St. Louis, but he appears close to landing a big league job, perhaps later this season. Lynn, rated St. Louis’ No. 6 prospect by Baseball America, started Saturday against Houston and threw three hitless innings before allowing a couple of runs in the fourth. He’s 0-2 with a 4.91 ERA in 11 innings this spring; he has fanned nine and walked four. The 6-foot-2, 250-pound Lynn was a first-round pick by the Cardinals out of UM in 2008 and rose quickly. He spent all of last season at Triple-A Memphis, posting a 13-10 record with a 4.77 ERA. He grabbed a lot more attention when he struck out 16 batters in a Pacific Coast League playoff game. Lynn reportedly improved both his fastball and curveball last season and has impressed Cardinals officials this spring. Don’t expect him to make the 25-man roster for opening day, but he’s coming soon.

There was joy in Hattiesburg last June when right-hander Todd McInnis announced he would reurn for his senior season at Southern Miss. “I know he has a lot more he wants to accomplish,” USM coach Scott Berry said at the time. On Friday, McInnis tied the school record for career wins, beating nationally ranked College of Charleston for his 29th victory, matching the total of a fellow Northwest Rankin High alum, Darrell Lindsey. McInnis is 4-1 this season for a 13-3 team. Barring a calamity, he’ll set a career victories mark at USM that’ll never be broken. McInnis arrived at USM in 2007 as a highly decorated high school player; he was The Clarion-Ledger newspaper’s Mr. Baseball in 2006. He won four of his first five decisions at USM before a back injury curtailed his freshman season. He received a medical redshirt, giving him four more years of eligibility. He went 6-3 with a 5.45 ERA as a redshirt freshman in 2008, then posted a 9-4, 3.37 mark in 2009, earning Conference USA pitcher of the year honors and leading the Golden Eagles to their first College World Series berth. He won six games last year and lowered his ERA to 3.31. The Eagles won the C-USA Tournament but fell short of a return trip to the CWS. Though being a school’s career wins leader is certainly special, individual records weren’t very high on McInnis’ wish list when he decided to turn down a shot at pro ball last summer. (He was drafted in the 32nd round by Oakland.) He said he was coming back in hopes of making another CWS trip. And if USM is to get back to Omaha, it’ll need another big year from the 6-foot-1, 160-pound McInnis, who was named C-USA preseason pitcher of the year by Baseball America magazine. The Eagles, projected as an NCAA Tournament team by Baseball America, begin C-USA play next weekend against Tulane at Taylor Park. Expect McInnis to be on the hill in the Friday opener. That career wins mark could be his alone very soon.
P.S. An early nominee for Game of the Year: Belhaven 1, Mobile 0 in 15 innings on Friday. The Blazers (21-6) won the Southern States Athletic Conference game on a walk-off HBP. Josh Clarke got the win, his third, with four innings of one-hit relief.

For Mississippi State and Ole Miss, opening day is here again. The Southeastern Conference season begins tonight, when the Bulldogs visit Vanderbilt and the Rebels play host to Alabama. The good starts by the Dogs and Rebs — both are 14-4 — won’t mean so much if they stumble this weekend. State’s task is much more daunting; Vanderbilt is 17-1 and ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation. But Ole Miss may feel more urgency, opening at home against an 11-6 Bama team. Come Sunday night, reevaluations may be in order. … Conference play begins — or continues — for many of the state’s other schools this weekend, as well. Delta State, which has labored to a 12-9 start, hosts Arkansas-Monticello in its Gulf South Conference opening series. Elsewhere, Belhaven hosts Mobile and William Carey welcomes Loyola-New Orleans in Southern States Athletic Conference play; Mississippi College is home against American Southwest Conference rival Texas-Dallas; and Millsaps is on the road against Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference foe Hendrix.
P.S. Former MSU star Jonathan Papelbon got roughed up in an outing for the Boston Red Sox on Thursday and saw his spring ERA rise to 12.60 in six games. Consequently, Red Sox Nation’s concern about its closer is also on the rise. Keep an eye on this situation.

It’s not Chris Coghlan’s surgically repaired knee that’s the cause of concern in Florida Marlins’ camp. It’s his throwing shoulder. The former Ole Miss star was sent to minor league camp today and advised not to do any strenuous throwing in game action, mlb.com reported. Coghlan’s status as the opening day center fielder appears in doubt.

Millsaps coach Jim Page recently bemoaned his team’s lack of consistent offensive punch this season. It should be noted that he wasn’t talking about senior outfielder Will Hawkins. The Nettleton product is hitting .452 with five homers and 27 RBIs plus 17 stolen bases for a 14-6 club. He extended his hitting streak to 26 games (over two seasons) with a home run in Wednesday’s 8-5 win over defending NCAA Division III national champ Illinois Wesleyan. Hawkins hit two homers in an eight-run inning last Saturday as the Majors rallied past nationally ranked Trinity 12-4 in San Antonio. A remarkable athlete who has won Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference player of the year awards in both baseball and football, Hawkins may have a Ferriss Trophy award in his future.