Monthly Archives: March 2011

In the immortal words of Jack Buck: “I don’t believe what I just saw.” Tougaloo beat Belhaven at Smith-Wills Stadium today. For the first time ever. Granted, the Bulldogs’ program hasn’t been around that long, but it has established a legacy of losing. A lot. Put it this way, Belhaven, ranked 12th in the latest NAIA poll, has won more games this season (12) than Tougaloo has won in its history. The Bulldogs, 0-13 and outscored 135-24 this season before today’s victory, were 0-77 all-time in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference before winning a conference game last year. Belhaven was the GCAC champ in 2010. So this was monumentally historic. The final was 2-1. Belhaven, hitting .313 as a team, managed two infield singles against Tougaloo’s Michael Langston, a little left-hander who baffled them with off-speed junk for nine innings. Langston, a senior from Chicago, threw about 125 pitches. He likely could’ve thrown 125 more. He never threw anything over 72 mph and operated in the 60s most of the time. He picked off two baserunners, and BU had another runner gunned down at third base on an attempted steal. The Blazers pushed across an unearned run in the first inning. Tougaloo tied it in the third on an RBI double by its imposing cleanup batter, William Walker. The Bulldogs took the lead in the eighth on a two-hit by Dustin Triplett. Langston, who came in with a 12.27 ERA in three previous games, made it stand up, stranding the tying run at third in the ninth. Where did this come from? Who knows? Stuff happens in baseball, as a shocked crowd at Smith-Wills today could attest.

There was a time — 2007, to be exact — when it appeared that Brandon Jones was on his way to being the Atlanta Braves’ starting left fielder for years to come. Now, he’s fighting for a backup job with the Milwaukee Brewers, his fourth team in about a year’s time. Just hard to believe, really. The soft-spoken Jones, with his picturesque left-handed swing, hit .293 with 15 home runs, 74 RBIs and 12 stolen bases for the ’07 Mississippi Braves, who rode his back to a first-half title in the Southern League South. He went to Triple-A and hit .300 with four homers and 26 RBIs there, then got a cup of coffee in Atlanta. He got another brief look with the Braves in 2008 but apparently didn’t impress the right people. Atlanta signed aging veteran Garret Anderson to play left field in 2009, and Jones seemingly became an afterthought. Though he batted .257 in his 51 big-league games with Atlanta, Jones was waived prior to the 2010 season and claimed by Pittsburgh, which gave him a short look last spring before demoting him to the minors. Jones, perhaps disheartened, struggled with the Pirates, who traded him to Detroit late last summer. He became a free agent this past off-season and signed with the Brewers. He’s in their camp now, battling the likes of Brandon Boggs and Chris Dickerson for the fourth outfield job. Jones is only 27, so he’s still got time to find his niche. There was magic in his swing in 2007. It’s still gotta be in there somewhere.
P.S. Ole Miss, unranked in any preseason polls, has cracked the Top 30 (at No. 28) in the latest Collegiate Baseball rankings. The Rebels are off to a 7-1 start and took two of three at Houston last weekend, a nice showing.