June 17, 2021 - All Mississippi Baseball

awards season

The awards keep rolling in for Mississippi college products in what has been another banner year in the Magnolia State. Mississippi State’s Tanner Allen and Landon Sims and Ole Miss’ Doug Nikhazy have been named to Baseball America’s first-team All-America squad. Those three are also semifinalists for the Golden Spikes Award, which will be announced in July. Ole Miss’ Taylor Broadway was a second-team All-America pick by BA. A boatload of other honors already have come down. To wit: Allen, the SEC’s player of the year (and Ferriss Trophy winner), and Nikhazy were also first-team A-A picks by Collegiate Baseball Magazine. Southern Miss’ Reed Trimble was a first-team Freshman All-America choice by the NCBWA, and Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez was a second-teamer. Those two along with Jackson State’s Chenar Brown made Collegiate Baseball’s freshman honor roll. Delta State’s Jake Barlow was named a D2CCA first-team All-America, in addition to several other national accolades. Mississippi College’s Caleb Reese was a D2CCA All-South Region first-teamer; William Carey’s Sloan Dieter was a second-team NAIA All-America pick; and Belhaven’s Brett Sanchez made first-team All-West Region in NCAA Division III. Pearl River Community College’s Landon Gartman and Tate Parker made the NJCAA Division II first-team All-America list. They were the MACCC’s pitcher and player of the year. Walker Powell of USM was the C-USA pitcher of the year, and JSU swept the SWAC’s honors: Ty Hill was player of the year, hitter of the year and newcomer of the year, Anthony Becerra was pitcher of the year, Steven Davila relief pitcher of the year and Brown the freshman of the year.

stop thief!

You wouldn’t necessarily go to a Mississippi Braves game to watch Shea Langeliers play catcher, but you’d probably come away impressed. Take Wednesday night’s game, for instance. Langeliers, Atlanta’s No. 3-rated prospect, threw out two would-be base stealers in the Double-A team’s 2-1 win against Birmingham at Trustmark Park. (For the record, before throwing out Laz Rivera for the second time, Langeliers appeared to pick him off first base; the umpire called Rivera safe.) Langeliers has thrown out 17 of 29 attempted base thieves. That’s 59 percent. A 30-percent rate is considered good. The 2019 first-round pick has just two passed balls and two errors over 29 games. From MLB Pipeline’s scouting report: “His athleticism and agility allow him to be a plus blocker and receiver and he perhaps has the best arm of any catcher in the Minor Leagues, one that allowed him to throw out 41 percent of potential basestealers in 2019.” Oh, and he is also the M-Braves’ best hitter. … No. 4 prospect Braden Shewmake, hitting just .127, did drive in one of the M-Braves’ runs, his 11th RBI. No. 25 prospect Justin Dean (.242) picked up the other, his 14th RBI. Elsewhere in the Atlanta system: No. 5 prospect Kyle Muller became the latest M-Braves alum to advance to the big leagues, working an inning for the Braves in their 10-8 loss to Boston. Muller allowed four hits and two runs in relief of former M-Braves star Ian Anderson, who gave up four runs in four innings. All of that was before M-Braves alum A.J. Minter yielded a game-turning grand slam to Christian Arroyo. Such is the state of the big Braves’ pitching staff. … At Triple-A Gwinnett, No. 1 prospect – and erstwhile Atlanta center fielder – Cristian Pache is hitting .300 since being sent down on May 29. No. 2 prospect Drew Waters, the 2019 Southern League MVP who has yet to get a big league look, is batting .279 with three homers and eight steals. … At High-A Rome, No. 6 prospect Jared Shuster threw four shutout innings Wednesday in a 5-0 win. The left-hander out of Wake Forest is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA in five games. … At Low-A Augusta, two Mississippi products, both 2019 draft picks, are feeling their way in pro ball. Brandon Parker, a Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College standout from Saucier, is batting .160 with five bombs and 19 RBIs in 30 games. Right-hander Jared Johnson, the No. 29 prospect out of Smithville High, allowed three runs with four strikeouts in 2 2/3 innings in his only appearance to date.