Monthly Archives: March 2018

15 Mar

conference calls

Conference play starts this weekend for the state’s Big 3 Division I schools. Each is playing at home, and there should be an upbeat vibe for all three. Southern Miss is nationally ranked, sports a 12-4 record and just blasted Tulane 12-3 on Wednesday night in New Orleans. And there’s even more good news for Golden Eagles fans: Matt Wallner is heating up. The 2017 national freshman of the year homered against the Green Wave, just his second of the year but second in the last three games. Wallner, a .336 hitter with 19 bombs in 2017, is batting .298. USM opens Conference USA play against Texas-San Antonio in Hattiesburg. Ole Miss, which welcomes Tennessee to Oxford to launch SEC play, is on an even steeper roll. The Rebels, a top 10 team, bashed Georgia State 16-2 on Wednesday in Atlanta to move to 17-1. Who’s hot? Cole Zabowski, to pick just one. He went 3-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs vs. the Panthers and is at .310 with three homers and 13 RBIs on the season. Mississippi State stumbled on Wednesday, losing to Southeastern Louisiana 11-5 in Biloxi. Jake Mangum continued to swing a hot bat, however, going 2-for-5. He is hitting .351 with 11 runs and seven steals. The Bulldogs take a 10-7 record into their SEC series against Vanderbilt in Starkville, but note they are 4-1 at renovated Dudy Noble Field, where the home-field edge is palpable. P.S. Jackson State, 5-1 in the SWAC, takes on Alabama State (4-2) this weekend in Montgomery in a key league series. JSU is 12-4 overall after a twinbill split at Morehead (Ky.) State. In a 4-0 win that was halted by snow on Tuesday and completed Wednesday, Jesus Santana hit his fourth homer of the year. Jarvis Warner has boosted his average to .364.

14 Mar

clear a spot

A rookie outfielder appears poised to crack Atlanta’s opening day roster, but it’s not top prospect Ronald Acuna. Dustin Peterson, who had a huge year for the Mississippi Braves in 2016, has had an outstanding spring for the Braves and is in the mix for playing time in left field. Peterson, 23, is batting .318 with two homers and six RBIs. The 6-foot-2, 210-pound right-handed hitter, acquired from San Diego in 2014, was a Southern League MVP candidate two years ago when he batted .282 with 12 homers, 88 RBIs and 38 doubles for an M-Braves team that played for the league title. Peterson played well in big league camp last year but suffered a broken hand that pretty much wrecked his 2017 season. “It’s a shame he got hurt because who knows what his story would be right now, the way he was swinging the bat last year,” Braves manager Brian Snitker told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Peterson batted .248 with one homer in 87 games at Triple-A Gwinnett, but indications are he’s got his power back this spring. P.S. Seven other M-Braves alums are currently projected by mlb.com to make the initial 25-man roster: Freddie Freeman, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson, Johan Camargo, Julio Teheran, Arodys Vizcaino and A.J. Minter.

14 Mar

spotlight on …

MGM Park in Biloxi would be a nice place to post up today. The home of the Southern League’s Shuckers is hosting a college doubleheader: Mississippi College-William Carey University at 1 p.m., Mississippi State-Southeastern Louisiana at 6:35. The Bulldogs are 10-6, having recovered – apparently – from their 0-3 start at Southern Miss and the dismissal of their head coach for off-field issues. This will be their final tuneup for SEC play, which starts Friday against Vanderbilt in Starkville. Unsung Southeastern Louisiana, which always seems to have a good team, is 11-6. The Lions’ roster includes several Mississippians, notably Trey Shaffer, last year’s state Gatorade Player of the Year at Biloxi High, and ex-Hinds Community College star Kyle Schimpf. No less intriguing is the MC-Carey game, which could evolve into an annual rivalry. Both are nationally ranked, MC (15-3) in NCAA Division II, Carey (18-5) in NAIA. The resurgent Choctaws claimed two walk-off wins last weekend, one on a homer by Blaine Crim. Crim, at .351, is one of six regulars batting .350 or better, topped by Billy Cameron, a former Mendenhall High and East Central CC standout, at .464. He has four homers and 17 RBIs. This will be just the fourth game away from home for Carey, which went to the NAIA World Series in 2017. Christian Smith, from Carriere, has been the Crusaders’ sparkplug, batting .329 with 21 runs and 20 steals, leading a team that has 55 bags. David Pimentel adds pop with three homers and 16 RBIs.

13 Mar

poll positions

Jones County Junior College slipped out of the top spot in the new NJCAA Division II poll, replaced by LSU-Eunice, which beat the Bobcats 3-2 last week. Jones is 13-3. Rising on the chart was East Central CC, up to No. 5 from 10th in the previous poll. The 11-1 Warriors have won seven straight. Wyatt Ball has led the charge, batting .500 with two homers, 14 RBIs and 14 runs. George Farid is hitting .441, and Southern Miss signee Jacob Edwards is at .390 with 16 RBIs. On the bump, Delta State-bound Payton Griffin is 2-0 with a 2.93 ERA, and Kolby Crowley has a 0.84 in six appearances. Four other MACJC schools are ranked, though each slipped a bit from last week. Itawamba (12-2) is eighth, Hinds (11-2) 13th, Gulf Coast (16-2) 16th and Pearl River (9-3) 19th. Holmes, at 11-2, isn’t in the Top 20, nor is Copiah-Lincoln (10-2). Only two of the 15 teams in the league are under .500. Conference play, which starts this weekend, will sort a lot of this out.

13 Mar

ins and outs

Lance Lynn is slated to make his spring debut today with Minnesota, pitching against Baltimore in a Grapefruit League game. The Ole Miss product formally signed a one-year deal with the Twins on Monday. He is among several free agents inked by a Minnesota club which has its sights on a playoff berth in 2018. “People want to win and be part of a good atmosphere,” said ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier, the Twins’ best player (and a pending free agent). Lynn went 11-8 with a 3.43 ERA in 33 starts for St. Louis in 2017. With ace Ervin Santana currently out with a finger injury, Lynn is penciled in as the Twins’ No. 2 starter behind 23-year-old Jose Berrios. … Mississippi State alum Brandon Woodruff, vying for a spot as a starting pitcher for Milwaukee, also goes out today against Texas in the Cactus League. In three appearances, Woodruff has yielded five earned runs over 3 2/3 innings. He may be ticketed to start the season in the minors. … Former Petal High standout Anthony Alford, not expected to make Toronto’s opening day roster, is batting .323 after a 1-for-4 on Monday. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, the ex-Jackson Mets catcher, raved recently on MLB Network about the progress Alford has made since he began playing baseball fulltime in the fall of 2014. “The sky’s the limit,” Gibbons said. Alford will get another shot with the Jays sometime this season. … Mississippi State alum Chris Stratton appears on track to earn a spot in San Francisco’s rotation. The Tupelo native allowed two hits and one run with three strikeouts in four innings on Monday, cutting his spring ERA to 2.25. … Ex-Bulldogs star Hunter Renfroe has hit three homers for San Diego this spring but is batting just .216 with nine strikeouts in 37 at-bats. The team’s regular right fielder much of 2017, he isn’t currently projected to start. … Ole Miss product Alex Presley, in Baltimore’s camp on a minor league deal, has hit well (.323) but is probably a longshot to make the 25-man roster. … Ex-State standout Jonathan Holder has had a good spring with the New York Yankees, posting a 1.42 ERA in five appearances, but is far down the pecking order in the team’s stacked bullpen. USM product Cody Carroll, in New York’s camp as a non-roster invitee, has also impressed: 3-0, 1.80 ERA in four games. … Tony Sipp, the veteran out of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, has a 7.71 ERA in five spring outings but likely will stick in Houston’s bullpen again, possibly as the lone left-hander. …Meanwhile, veteran big leaguers Seth Smith, Tyler Moore and Chris Coghlan remain unsigned.

12 Mar

monster show

There was no Baseball America jinx evident in Oxford over the weekend. Ole Miss’ three starting pitchers – touted as a “three-headed monster” in a BA feature that posted last Friday – fared just fine in the Rebels’ sweep of Eastern Illinois at Oxford-University Stadium. Ryan Rolison, Brady Feigl and James McArthur devoured the Panthers, allowing just five runs all told as UM improved to 15-1. Feigl, a junior right-hander, had the best outing, tossing seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts. He is 4-0 with a 1.03 ERA. Rolison, a draft-eligible sophomore lefty, went seven in the first game of the Friday twinbill, yielding two runs and fanning eight. Rated the top prospect in the June draft by Perfect Game, Rolison is 3-1, 2.28. McArthur, a 6-foot-7 junior right-hander, worked 5 1/3 on Sunday, allowing three solo homers but nothing else, and improved to 2-0 with a 1.74. “The thing that we lacked last year (in a disappointing 32-25 season) was we didn’t have the star power, we didn’t have the Friday night ace,” Rebels coach Mike Bianco said in the BA story. “They’re all a year better, a year more experienced.” The Rebels, now ranked No. 11 in BA’s latest poll, have a staff ERA of 2.27. Veteran closer Dallas Woolfolk (five saves) hasn’t allowed a run in 6 2/3 innings. After a two-game midweek trip to Georgia State, Ole Miss starts conference play next weekend against Tennessee. The three-headed monster will be summoned again.

10 Mar

beefing up

Minnesota just became a much more serious player in the American League Central with the reported signing of ex-Ole Miss standout Lance Lynn. The free agent right-hander reportedly has agreed to a 1-year deal in the $12 million range. Lynn is a warrior and a winner. In his time with St. Louis, he went 72-47 with a 3.38 ERA. He joins a Twins rotation that also includes Ervin Santana, Jose Berrios and Jake Odorizzi, who was jettisoned by Tampa Bay. Led primarily by the hitting of Southern Miss alum Brian Dozier, Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton, the surprising Twins won 85 games and earned a wild card berth in 2017, a year after winning just 59 games. Many projections had them contending for the postseason again this season, and that was before adding Lynn. He didn’t get the big money he was hoping for after making $7.5M last year, so it figures he’ll be motivated.

10 Mar

spring flings

The Detroit Tigers apparently like JaCoby Jones’ defense in the outfield. What the former Richton High star probably needs are more days like Friday with the bat to stick with the club out of spring training. Jones belted a three-run homer – his first in the Grapefruit League – against the New York Mets, going deep against big leaguer Hansel Robles. Jones is batting .412 (.706 slugging) with six RBIs in 17 spring at-bats. He was the Tigers’ opening day center fielder in 2017 but was hit in the face by a pitch early on and spent much of the rest of the season in the minors. The Tigers signed Leonys Martin to play center field in the off-season. Jones is now among the candidates to play left – or serve as a fourth outfielder. The ex-LSU standout, 25, has played in 69 MLB games over the last two years and batted .178 with three homers, 15 RBIs and six steals. Jones lists at 6 feet 2, 205 pounds and runs and throws well (he’s a former shortstop). But he’s gotta hit. P.S. Mississippi State product Mitch Moreland, whose at-bats may be limited in Boston this season now that J.D. Martinez is in the fold, took an 0-for-3 on Friday and is hitting .143 this spring. … Former Taylorsville High star Billy Hamilton went 0-for-2 for Cincinnati and is 0-for-18 on the spring. That’s got to be concerning for the Reds. … Ole Miss alum Mike Mayers, trying to nail down a bullpen job with St. Louis, threw two perfect innings with four strikeouts. He hasn’t allowed a run in seven innings and has fanned nine. He pitched very well in winter ball, as well.

08 Mar

let’s get some runs

As much as baseball aficionados love to throw around statistics, there’s only one that really matters. Runs. Score more than the other guy and you’ll never lose. Delta State has done a pretty good job of that and has a 13-1 record to show for it. The Statesmen, currently ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division II, have scored 128 runs (9.1 per game, which is tough to beat) to their opponents’ 71. Zack Shannon, the highly decorated senior slugger, has impressive Triple Crown numbers: .431 average, eight homers, 23 RBIs. He also leads the team in runs with 20. He is one of seven DSU players with double-digit runs. They get on and they get in. DSU’s D-II rival Mississippi College also gets around the bases at a good clip: 124 runs in 15 games. The Choctaws are 13-2. They have eight double-figure scorers, led by Kyle Smith with 19. William Carey has scored enough (114 runs to its opponents’ 74) to post a 16-4 record. Ranked No. 8 in NAIA, the Crusaders are led by Christian Smith, who has 20 runs – plus a .354 average and 20 steals. Interesting note: Tyler Reid, a .220 hitter for WCU, has reached base safely 18 times (11 hits, six walks, one HBP) and has scored 17 runs. That’s efficiency. D-III Millsaps, averaging 7.2 runs per game in an 11-5 start, has three players with 16 runs: Chase Callaway, Andy Page and Connor Woodall. The Majors’ top hitter, Brennan Ducote (.431, four homers, 22 RBIs) has scored 14 times. Among the D-I schools, nationally ranked Ole Miss, off to a 12-1 start, has scored 93 times (a healthy 7.2 runs per game), led by Thomas Dillard with 13. The red-hot Grae Kessinger (.353) has tallied 12 runs. Scoring alone isn’t enough, of course. You’ve also got to hold down the other team. Southern Miss, also nationally ranked, has been a prolific scoring club, averaging 9.6 runs a game even after Wednesday’s 3-0 loss at Alabama. Newcomer Luke Reynolds, batting .426 with four homers and 18 RBIs, leads the team with 19 runs. But the Golden Eagles have lost four times (against eight wins) and in three of those losses, they’ve allowed nine or more runs, losing by scores of 10-9, 13-10 and 9-6.

06 Mar

heating up

Don’t look now, but Austin Riley – who has been getting advice from Chipper Jones this spring – is starting to hit. The ex-DeSoto Central High star went 2-for-3 with a homer today in Atlanta’s 5-1 Grapefruit League win over Toronto. After an 0-for-8 start in Florida, the 20-year-old third baseman is now 4-for-19 with two bombs, four RBIs and four runs. Riley graciously gives some credit to Jones. “It’s been an honor to be around that type of player and pick his brain about, really, the mental side of hitting and the importance of trying to get inside the pitcher’s head,” Riley told mlb.com. Riley, a top 10 Braves prospect, is in camp as a non-roster invitee. He’ll likely play at Triple-A Gwinnett this season and could make the majors in 2019. He hit .275 with 20 homers and 74 RBIs overall last season at high Class A Florida and Double-A Mississippi. For what it’s worth, he looks the part of a third baseman: 6 feet 3, 220 pounds. And he has the arm to play there.