Monthly Archives: April 2017

14 Apr

bruised okra

Here’s an interesting tidbit culled from the notes package on Delta State’s website: Statesmen batters have been hit by a pitch 85 times this season. That leads NCAA Division II. Is there an explanation? Well, maybe opposing pitchers are just mad about getting knocked around with such regularity. DSU, which is ranked as high as fifth in the nation, leads the Gulf South Conference in nine offensive categories, including batting average, slugging and runs. The team is second in homers. And they lead the league standings at 19-5, 29-8 overall. DSU is at West Florida (23-15, 15-9) this weekend (doubleheader today, single game Saturday), looking to extend a streak of four straight GSC series sweeps. DSU’s pitching has been solid, but the offense stirs the drink for the Fighting Okra. Zack Shannon, one of several newcomers in the DSU lineup, is batting .436 with 10 homers and 57 RBIs, a Ferriss Trophy candidate for sure. Jason Popovich is batting .363 with 39 runs. Clay Casey is at .333 with nine homers and 32 RBIs. Casey leads the team in HBPs with 14. Hurts so good. P.S. Here and there: The Barna brothers, Brandon and Justin out of Harrison Central High, combined for three homers as Alcorn State blasted Mississippi Valley State 10-3 on Thursday in a SWAC series opener at Itta Bena. … Belhaven University wraps up its home schedule today against Ozarks at Smith-Wills Stadium and will honor its 10 seniors, including Terrell Hodges, Tanner Cable, J.G. Miley, Daniel Ammirati and Stephen Sexton. After sweeping two from Ozarks on Thursday, the Blazers are 21-14, 10-10 American Southwest Conference. They are not eligible for the ASC Tournament or the NCAA Division III postseason. … Millsaps welcomes D-III No. 3 Birmingham-Southern to Twenty Field this weekend (single today, doubleheader Saturday). Birmingham-Southern is 27-5 and 14-1 in the Southern Athletic Association. The Majors, on a three-game win streak, are 15-18, 6-8 SAA (tied for fourth). … Jackson State (26-11, 12-3 SWAC) is in Montgomery, Ala., for a SWAC East showdown against Alabama State (17-16, 13-2). JSU has four of the top seven hitters in the SWAC: leader Bryce Brown (.394), Lamar Briggs (.381), C.J. Newsome (.369) and Sam Campbell (.347).

14 Apr

congratulations

Kudos to Phillip Wellman, the former Mississippi Braves manager, on notching his 1,000th win as a minor league skipper. Wellman’s San Antonio Missions went 14 innings to beat Northwest Arkansas 5-4 in a Texas League game on Thursday. Ole Miss alum Auston Bousfield got the game-winning hit. This is Wellman’s second year with the Missions, a San Diego Padres affiliate. He spent four years with the M-Braves, including the Southern League championship season of 2008, and was the club’s winningest manager until Aaron Holbert passed him in 2015.

13 Apr

rolling doubles

The Boston Red Sox have been around a long time. Since 1901, to be exact. They’ve never had a player – not Ted Williams or Carl Yastrzemski or David Ortiz — do what Mitch Moreland has done nine games into his BoSox career. The former Mississippi State star doubled for the seventh straight game today at Fenway Park. Moreland, signed as a free agent this past off-season, leads the majors in doubles with eight, and he is hitting .324 with one RBI and five runs for a Boston club that is off to a 5-4 start. The Red Sox defeated Pittsburgh 4-3 today.

13 Apr

red-hot start

Break up the Reds? The surprise team of the early season in MLB, Cincinnati – fueled by Mississippi connections – is 7-2 going into a 10-game homestand that starts with today’s game against Milwaukee. This is the Reds’ best start since 1990, when they opened 9-0 and made their last World Series trip. Former Taylorsville High standout Billy Hamilton is hitting (.306), stealing bags (four) and scoring runs (five). Ole Miss product Zack Cozart is batting .417 with four RBIs in seven games. Northwest Mississippi Community College alum Cody Reed has worked five scoreless innings out of the bullpen – and is a candidate to take injured Rookie Davis’ rotation spot. Ex-UM star Stuart Turner, who made the club as a Rule 5 draftee, has a hit and an RBI in three games. The Reds have lost 90-plus games each of the last two seasons and certainly weren’t expected to contend in 2017. “There’s a much stronger sense of community on our team and some young guys that are seizing the opportunity,” Reds manager Bryan Price told mlb.com in explaining the hot start. One of those young guys is former Mississippi Braves star Jose Peraza, batting .297 with four steals and five runs.

13 Apr

monster weekend

The fun starts tonight at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. Ole Miss faces LSU in the opener of an SEC series, James McArthur vs. Alex Lange in a battle of aces. On Friday, at Founders Park in Columbia, S.C., Mississippi State opens its SEC series against South Carolina and, at Reckling Park in Houston, Southern Miss begins its C-USA series against Rice. These are captivating series for the Magnolia State’s Big 3 for a variety of reasons. Rankings, ratings, standings, pride … take your pick. Pitching-rich Ole Miss is 21-12 (6-6 SEC) with five straight wins but is currently unranked by Baseball America and not among the magazine’s picks for the NCAA Tournament field. LSU, ever the powerhouse, is 23-11 (7-5) and ranked ninth. USM, coming off a home loss to Ole Miss, is ranked 21st and projected to make a regional. The power-hitting Golden Eagles (46 homers) are 26-8 and lead C-USA with a 10-2 mark. Rice is having a rare down year: 12-23, 3-9. But the Owls, who just beat nationally ranked Houston, cannot be dismissed; USM has beaten them in only two of 11 series all-time. Mississippi State is ranked 13th by BA and takes a 23-12 (8-4 SEC) record into Columbia. The No. 17 Gamecocks are 21-11 (7-4), though perhaps a bit rattled by a 20-5 loss to North Carolina on Tuesday. Led by Brent Rooker’s video game numbers, the Bulldogs have been something of a surprise team, pegged – at the moment — to get a regional bid by Baseball America. “It’s going to be really hard for Mississippi State to keep this up, I think,” BA’s Teddy Cahill wrote in a chat this week. Sounds like bulletin board material, not that any is really needed for this particular monster weekend.

12 Apr

ups and downs

The headline in the Boston Globe reads: “Finally, something the Red Sox can feel good about.” Finally? Well, former Ole Miss standout Drew Pomeranz had something to do with that. A sterling start by Pomeranz helped the Red Sox, hounded by injuries and illness of late, beat Baltimore 8-1 on Tuesday at Fenway Park. Pomeranz, who started the season on the disabled list, threw six innings, allowing just four hits and the one run and recording six strikeouts. It was the first win at Fenway for the left-hander who was acquired from San Diego last July. “I was letting it fly out there a little bit. I was trying to be aggressive,” Pomeranz told The Associated Press. Mississippi State alum Mitch Moreland contributed a double to the cause as the Red Sox improved to 4-3. … They are not feeling so good about things in the St. Louis clubhouse these days. The Cardinals (2-6) lost at Washington 8-3 on Tuesday, and ex-UM star Lance Lynn had something to do with that. Lynn worked five innings and allowed six runs (four earned) on four walks and five hits, three of them home runs. “When you see that (Nationals) lineup you know that they’re capable of that. I made three mistakes and it cost me three home runs,” he told the AP. Lynn, who missed 2016 after Tommy John surgery, is 0-1 with a 5.23 ERA in two starts this year. P.S. Johan Camargo became the latest Mississippi Braves alumnus — No. 119 by one count — to make the big leagues on Tuesday. He struck out in his lone at-bat for Atlanta.

11 Apr

making the jump

Splash some water on Anthony Alford. He’s that hot. The former Petal High star is 9-for-12 with four walks through his first four games at the Double-A level. He has scored three runs, driven in two and stolen a base for New Hampshire in the Toronto system. Alford, 22, was drafted in the third round out of Petal in 2012 but this will be only his third full season in the minors since he gave up football at Ole Miss. The outfielder, rated the Blue Jays’ No. 2 prospect by Baseball America, made the 40-man roster in the off-season and drew praise for his progress from Toronto manager John Gibbons in spring training. Alford’s time is coming. … Gulfport native Bobby Bradley’s first taste of Double-A hasn’t been as sweet. The ex-Harrison Central standout is 3-for-16 in five games for Akron, Cleveland’s Eastern League club. On a positive note, the 20-year-old Bradley, the Indians’ No. 5 prospect, slugged his first homer on Monday; he now has 65 in 285 minor league games. P.S. Itawamba Community College alum Desmond Jennings is 3-for-13 through four games for Triple-A Las Vegas in the New York Mets’ system. The 30-year-old MLB veteran was released by Tampa Bay last summer and by Cincinnati this spring. Injuries have plagued Jennings the past couple of years.

11 Apr

a major incident

A bunch of attention-grabbing stuff went down last week among the state colleges. There was Brent Rooker’s three-homer game for Mississippi State, which helped him earn SEC player of the week honors. William Carey’s James Land also won a player of the week award, getting the SSAC nod after batting .455 with seven RBIs in a hard-fought series win against Blue Mountain. Ole Miss swept Alabama. Jackson State swept Mississippi Valley State. Delta State took three games from Shorter, its fourth straight GSC series sweep. Southern Miss took two of three from Florida International to remain atop the C-USA standings. Jones County Junior College, now 31-1, won four more MACJC games by a cumulative 52-11. As impressive as any of that, however, was Millsaps’ sweep of Oglethorpe at Twenty Field. Three straight walk-off wins. Logan Patterson had a big series, going 6-for-14 with three runs and two RBIs, including a game-winner on Saturday. Wes Lasserre hit a walk-off grand slam in the first game on Saturday. But the play of the week came on Sunday, a squeeze bunt by Cavan Breland that scored two runs and gave the Majors a 7-6 win. Patrick Grumbley, a 5-foot-9, 165-pound junior inserted as a pinch runner, made a mad dash all the way from second base to score the game-winner. In 16 games, Grumbley is 1-for-5 with five walks and eight runs for the Majors, now 15-18 and 6-8 in the Southern Athletic Association.

09 Apr

fields of dreams

You can imagine the conversation when a father takes his son – or a mother takes her daughter — to Trustmark Park in Pearl for the first time. “This is where Freddie Freeman used to play.” Or, “This is where Craig Kimbrel pitched before he made the major leagues.” Trustmark Park, in 12 seemingly short years, has established a tremendous legacy as the place where well over a hundred future big leaguers once starred in Double-A as Mississippi Braves. MGM Park in Biloxi, which opened in 2015, has only just begun to create a history as the Shuckers funnel players to Milwaukee. It has been 11 years since they played professional baseball at Jackson’s Smith-Wills Stadium, and none who called that park home are still playing in the major leagues. But the stadium still stands proudly out on Lakeland Drive, now used by Belhaven University as its home field. There are plenty of folks around who fondly recall the days of the Jackson Mets and Generals and the future MLB stars who played for them. “This is where Lance Berkman used to play.” But Mississippi’s minor league tradition goes back well beyond the opening of Smith-Wills in 1975. Nineteen different cities in the state have hosted minor league clubs since 1900, which makes you wonder: Whatever happened to the ballparks where those teams played? Jackson’s Legion Field, where a number of future major leaguers toiled, sat on what is now the Fairgrounds; it was destroyed by a tornado in 1953. In Gulfport, they had the Base Ball Grounds, where, according to baseball-reference.com, a team called the Tarpons played from 1926-28. Cleveland had Boyle Field. Meridian had Buckwalter Stadium. There was City Park in Vicksburg, Ginners Park in Clarksdale, Legion Field in Greenwood and Sportsman Park in Greenville. And there were others, in places like Tupelo and Hattiesburg and Brookhaven. Those ballparks certainly weren’t anything like the multi-million dollar stadiums in Pearl and Biloxi, but they were the fields of dreams in their time. Big league players passed through those old ballparks. … Makes you wish you had a time machine. And a scorecard. And some popcorn.

08 Apr

that’s the ticket

Jackson native Seth Smith’s first home run for Baltimore was one to remember. His two-run shot in the seventh inning at Camden Yards on Friday capped the Orioles’ rally from a four-run deficit and led to a 6-5 win over the New York Yankees. Smith, an Ole Miss alum, is 3-for-8 for his new team, the fifth he has played for in the majors. Baltimore traded for Smith to boost its on-base efficiency; his power could be a bonus. After being limited by a hamstring issue in spring training, the left-handed hitting Smith appears healthy now. “It’s just fun to be a part of a lineup like this,” he told the Baltimore Sun.