Monthly Archives: April 2013

Vito Perna, a junior DH/pitcher at William Carey University, has pulled off a neat double play. On Tuesday, he was named the Southern States Athletic Conference player of the week. In mid-February, Perna was the conference pitcher of the week. The former Jones County Junior College star from Laurel hit .600 last week with 10 RBIs and for the season is at .372 with two home runs and 27 RBIs. On the mound, he is 4-2 with a 3.25 ERA. He is not the Crusaders’ ace, however. That label would have to go to sophomore left-hander J.D. Little, who is 6-0 with a 1.15. Carey, which hopped into the NAIA Top 25 last week, is 27-11 and 15-6 SSAC. The pitching-rich Crusaders host Emmanuel College in a league series this weekend.

Opening day (or days) 2013 was kinda lackluster for Mississippians in the majors. Desmond Jennings, the former Itawamba Community College standout, takes best in show; he went 2-for-4 with an RBI, two runs and a steal in Tampa Bay’s loss today to Baltimore. Ole Miss product Seth Smith was 2-for-3 in Oakland’s loss on Monday, but he was the only other Mississippi native or college alum to get a hit in an opener. Brian Dozier, the Southern Miss product now starting at second base for Minnesota, was 0-for-3 with a walk; UM alum Chris Coghlan was 0-for-4 for Miami; ex-Rebels star Zack Cozart was 0-for-4 for Cincinnati; and, in Sunday’s MLB lidlifter, Mississippi State alum Mitch Moreland put up an 0-for-4 for Texas.

There is a bundle of prospects on the 2013 Mississippi Braves’ roster. J.R. Graham, Christian Bethancourt, Alex Wood and Edward Salcedo are highly rated by one publication or another. Yet it would not be terribly surprising if the key player for this team is an ex-prospect, a soon-to-be 27-year-old outfielder who was recently released by another organization. Kyle Russell was signed by Atlanta about a week ago and assigned to Mississippi. Russell was an All-American outfielder at Texas who led the nation in home runs with 28 in 2007. The Los Angeles Dodgers drafted him in the third round in 2008, and he blasted 26 homers in A-ball in 2009, his first full pro season. But his progress stalled when he reached Double-A in 2010. Even though he hit a combined 30 homers at Double-A Chattanooga in 2011 and ’12, his strikeout numbers apparently were troubling for the Dodgers. The 6-foot-5, 195-pound lefty hitter has a cryptic 666 whiffs in five pro seasons. The Dodgers cut Russell loose in late March. Atlanta, seeking some power for its Double-A club, is giving him a second chance. Sometimes that’s all a player needs.