Monthly Archives: March 2014

21 Mar

two teams, one win

Coming this weekend: the battle at the bottom in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Mississippi Valley State, 0-18 and 0-7 in the league, visits Alcorn State, 1-19 and 1-5, for a pair of games Saturday and a solo Sunday at Rat McGowan Stadium in Lorman. Who knows what might happen? Valley coach Doug Shanks and Alcorn’s Barret Rey have had success with their programs in the recent past, but things have gone off the rails in 2014. Valley is hitting .197 (last in the league) and has an 8.24 ERA (ninth of 10) and a .938 fielding percentage (also ninth) with 41 errors. Alcorn is hitting .242 (tied for seventh) but is averaging just three runs a game with an ERA of 8.98 (last) and a fielding percentage of .932 (last) with 50 errors. The winner of this series will feel a little better about itself. Not sure what the loser might feel … . P.S. Also scuffling this year is Blue Mountain, 2-18 and 1-14 in its first year in the Southern States Athletic Conference. Last weekend, the Toppers lost a home series to William Carey by the scores of 12-2, 7-1 and 11-1.

19 Mar

wild night at the pete

Streaming highlights from Tuesday night at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg: Louisiana-Monroe (once known as Northeast Louisiana) vs. Southern Miss. Pricey tickets. Chilly weather. Wind blowing out to left-center. Tough sun field in right. Smallish crowd. Green T-shirts. Corky Palmer in the house. Loud p.a. Very loud p.a. Walks and a hit batsman. Two runs in the first for USM. Wind picks up. Burger and boiled peanuts. Big hit for Connor Barron. Line drive homer to left by Matt Durst. Six-run fourth for the Golden Eagles. Base-running blunder by the visitors. Gritty five innings of work by USM right-hander Cody Carroll. More HBPs by ULM. Two more USM homers. Six-run seventh for the Eagles. P.S. Home runs by Durst, Dylan Burdeaux and Mason Robbins led a 17-hit attack as the Eagles beat the Warhawks 18-2. USM also benefited from five walks and eight HBPs. The Eagles are 10-11 heading into a home C-USA series with Texas-San Antonio this weekend.

17 Mar

going strong

Millsaps College swept a doubleheader at Centre over the weekend — the third game was rained out on Sunday — to climb to 12-7 overall and 3-2 in the Southern Athletic Association. While the team’s season has been defined by fits and spurts, sophomore outfielder Isaac Glenn has been a steady force. The former Madison Central High two-sport star (baseball/football) is batting .426 with eight doubles, 11 RBIs, 13 runs and five stolen bases. Glenn plays center field and usually hits third for the Majors. As a freshman, he batted .299 with 20 RBIs and 28 runs in 30 games. The Majors are at home on Tuesday for a non-conference game against Huntingdon. … Jones County Junior College, the No. 1 team in NJCAA Division II, opened its MACJC South Division schedule with a doubleheader sweep at Pearl River on Saturday. JCJC coach Christian Ostrander notched his 199th and 200th career wins. The Bobcats are 21-1 heading into a South twinbill on Tuesday at East Central, the defending state champion. PRCC, which started 11-3, has dropped eight in a row and is 0-4 in the division. … Ti’Quan Forbes, the highly rated draft prospect at Columbia High, is hitting .389 with two homers and 12 RBIs in 11 games. Columbia is 8-3.

16 Mar

box score browsing

It’s mid-March. MLB’s Opening Day approaches. Rosters are taking shape. A little box score scanning this morning reveals that no Mississippian in the majors is hotter than Jarrod Dyson. The ex-Southwest Mississippi Community College star is hitting .364 with a home run (on Saturday) and six steals. Surely the speedy outfielder has nailed down a role with Kansas City, which is starving to make the playoffs. On the subject of speedy outfielders, Cincinnati has to be pleased with what it has seen from Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton, expected to take over as leadoff batter and center fielder this season. Hamilton is hitting .276 with seven steals and nine runs … Others enjoying a good spring to date: Meridian CC product Corey Dickerson (.371, a homer, five RBIs for Colorado); Itawamba CC alumnus Desmond Jennings (.346, a homer, five RBIs, two steals for Tampa Bay); former Mississippi State star Tyler Moore (.306, a homer, six RBIs for Washington); Ole Miss product Seth Smith (.286 for San Diego); ex-Meridian CC standout Cliff Lee (1-1, 2.63 ERA in 13 2/3 innings for Philadelphia); and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC alum Tony Sipp (0.00 ERA in seven innings for the Padres). … Also of note: Southern Miss product Brian Dozier hit his first homer on Friday and is batting .269 for Minnesota; former MSU star Mitch Moreland has six RBIs and a .250 average for Texas; Ole Miss alum Drew Pomeranz has 11 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings for Oakland; and Pascagoula native Joey Butler, a longshot to make the St. Louis club, is hitting .235 with two RBIs in 17 at-bats. Former Rebels Alex Presley (.160 for the Twins) and Chris Coghlan (.211 for the Chicago Cubs) are struggling, as is MSU product Paul Maholm (7.04 ERA for the Los Angeles Dodgers). P.S. Former Mississippi Braves shortstop Brandon Hicks is having a terrific spring as a non-roster player with San Francisco. Hicks is batting .370 with a homer and six RBIs in 27 ABs. … Generally, it was a good weekend for the state’s Big 3 college teams in their conference openers. USM and State both took two of three, with the Bulldogs halting Georgia’s 11-game win streak with a Saturday sweep, and Ole Miss handed top-ranked South Carolina its first loss on Friday, though the Rebels lost the series.

14 Mar

the new season

Road tests are in order as conference play begins this weekend for the state’s Big 3. Ole Miss is at South Carolina, Mississippi State is at Georgia and Southern Miss is at Marshall. All three series are big in their own way, but it’s USM’s that seems most compelling. The Golden Eagles are scuffling at 7-10. They’re hitting .230 as a team, with a .301 slugging percentage. They aren’t running much either: 7-for-12 on steals. Keep in mind that USM started sluggishly in 2013 and wound up winning the Conference USA regular season title and making the tournament championship game. No need for panic at this stage. Note, too, that the pitching has been generally good. Cameron Giannini, slated to start Sunday, is 1-1 with a 1.42 ERA in four starts, and Bradley Roney (a .302 hitter) has five saves and a 0.96 ERA in seven relief appearances. Perhaps the bats will get going at Marshall, which is 5-10 overall — but 2-1 in the league. P.S. Two other key series are going on this weekend: Jackson State hosts Mississippi Valley State in the SWAC and Belhaven visits Faulkner in a Southern States Athletic Conference clash. JSU is 13-6 (2-1 SWAC) and has won six straight games, with Melvin Rodriguez (.317, 15 RBIs) swinging the hot bat. Valley is 0-15 and 0-4. … Belhaven is 22-4 with seven straight wins. Faulkner is 22-5 – and ranked No. 1 in NAIA. The teams are tied atop the SSAC at 7-2. The Blazers love to run; they’ve got 96 steals. The Eagles love to mash; they’ve got 17 home runs.

12 Mar

top of the world

Jones County Junior College takes the field in Ellisville today with a target on its back. The Bobcats are, for the first time in school history, the No. 1-ranked team in NJCAA Division II. The 17-1 Bobcats tangle today with Itawamba Community College in a twinbill at Community Bank Park and open MACJC South Division play on Saturday at Pearl River. JCJC coach Christian Ostrander appears to have a well-balanced club: Four regulars are batting above .350 and three frontline pitchers have ERAs under 1.40. Trent Giambrone leads the JCJC attack with a .452 average and 21 RBIs. Chase Hensley is hitting .375, Joshua Pankratz (from Taylorsville) .362 and Alex Shermer (Northwest Rankin) .352. Chris Morgan (Madison Central) has 22 runs and eight steals. Former Terry High star Wes Stringer is the Bobcats’ ace, with a 5-0 record and a 0.26 ERA. Lane Ratliff (Purvis) is 3-0, 1.35 and Hensley is 3-0, 1.38. P.S. Three other state schools are ranked in the latest juco D-II poll. East Mississippi is No. 6, Northwest (the only team to beat JCJC) is 13th and Northeast is 19th. … DeSoto Central High is No. 19 in Baseball America’s first in-season prep poll. Clay Casey, an Ole Miss commit, is 7-for-19 with seven RBIs for the Jaguars (5-2).

10 Mar

heat check

The Chicago Cubs’ cast of outfielders is not exactly star-studded, including the likes of Junior Lake, Justin Ruggiano, Nate Schierholtz and Ryan Sweeney. Also in the mix this spring — as a non-roster invitee — is former Ole Miss standout Chris Coghlan. The former National League rookie of the year went 1-for-3 with an RBI today, but with only two hits in 16 at-bats for the spring, he hasn’t made a great impression. Coghlan, 28, is a .270 career hitter (spent entirely with the Miami Marlins) who has had bad luck with injuries. He hit .256 in 70 games last year for the Marlins, who elected not to bring him back. Eli Whiteside, the former Delta State catcher, is also in Cubs camp as a non-roster player. Whiteside, 34, is hitless in seven at-bats this spring as he bids for the job backing up Wellington Castillo. Whiteside, a good receiver, is a .215 career hitter who spent 2013 in Triple-A with Texas and batted just .187. At this stage, it appears both Coghlan and Whiteside will be left out in the cold when Chicago sets its opening day roster.

09 Mar

sunday munchies

Mississippi Valley State, still winless through 14 games, was no-hit by Alabama on Saturday in Tuscaloosa. It was the Crimson Tide’s first nine-inning no-hitter since 1942. … Ross Mitchell, Mississippi State’s crafty lefty, suffered the first loss of his college career on Saturday as the Bulldogs fell to UC-Santa Barbara 7-6 in the Hi Corbett Classic in Tucson, Ariz. Mitchell had won his first 18 decisions. The Bulldogs are 0-3 in the desert tournament (11-7 overall) and face Arizona today. … Belhaven University won its 20th game on Saturday. The Blazers (20-4) swept Blue Mountain in a Friday-Saturday series at Smith-Wills Stadium and are now 7-2 in the Southern States Athletic Conference. BMC, in its first year in the tough NAIA league, fell to 2-14, 1-11. The Blazers have stolen 83 bags, led by Reagan Rutledge with 24, Paul Pickerrell with 15 (in 15 attempts) and Emilio DeSilva with 14. … Mississippi College took two of three from East Texas Baptist in Clinton this weekend to improve to 4-8 overall and 4-5 in the American Southwest Conference. Robbie Jernigan and Colton Mears combined for five RBIs in the Choctaws’ 7-2 win in Saturday’s rubber game. … Millsaps, behind a complete-game effort from Keith Shumaker in Game 2, split a twinbill at Birmingham-Southern on Saturday in its first Southern Athletic Association games of the season. The Majors (9-6) and the Panthers (10-2) play their rubber game today.

07 Mar

drought in itta bena

On the bright side, Arrington Smith is hitting .391, near the top of the Southwestern Athletic Conference leaders list, and has six doubles. Aside from that, it has been a gloomy season so far for Mississippi Valley State. Doug Shanks’ Delta Devils, two years removed from playing for the conference tournament championship, are 0-12. They started their season by losing a series at Dallas Baptist by the scores of 19-0, 19-3 and 14-2. They’ve also lost to Ball State 12-1, Northwestern 12-2 and Kansas 11-1. They’re 0-4 in the SWAC, having scored just 10 runs in that series against Alabama State and twice getting shut out. Valley isn’t playing any games in Itta Bena this season because of campus construction; the Devils are using Mississippi Delta Community College’s ballpark in Moorhead for “home” games. It’ll be interesting to see how long the winless drought lingers. Valley takes on Alabama tonight in Tuscaloosa. Don’t see it ending there.

06 Mar

number crunching

Delta State has won 33 straight games — yes, 33! — against Christian Brothers, which comes to Ferriss Field in Cleveland this weekend for a Gulf South Conference series. DSU is 79-11 all-time vs. CBU. The teams will play two on Saturday and a single game Sunday. The Statesmen, still nationally ranked in NCAA Division II, are 7-5 and 6-3 in the GSC. … Jackson State, which opens Southwestern Athletic Conference play this weekend at Braddy Field against Alabama A&M, is batting .211 as a team. And yet, the Tigers are 7-5 and coming off a 5-4 win over South Alabama. In addition to some solid pitching, JSU has 25 stolen bases, 21 sacrifice bunts and five sac flies. … Ole Miss and Mississippi State are 22-6 combined, and Memphis has wins over both of them. The Tigers (11-1) beat the Rebels (11-2) 4-1 on Wednesday. No longer in C-USA, Memphis doesn’t play Southern Miss this year but does take on Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State in addition to another game with UM. … In Wednesday’s big junior college showdown in Senatobia, Jones County and Northwest split the doubleheader. The Rangers (now 9-5) got a 5-for-5, two-homer performance from Chase Clark in handing the Bobcats (15-1) their first loss of the year, 7-1, in the opener. JCJC won Game 2 5-3 as Trent Giambrone hit the Bobcats’ first homer of the season and Cole Barlow notched his fifth save. … East Mississippi CC improved to 12-4 by taking two from Pearl River at Poplarville on Wednesday. The Lions have swept four doubleheaders already. Chase Reeves had four hits, including a homer, in the PRCC sweep, while Connor Burton got his third save in Game 1 and J’Daylin Jackson his third win in Game 2.