June 12, 2025 - All Mississippi Baseball

juco stars come out

Individual honors continue to roll in for Pearl River Community College’s 2025 team, which finished as national runner-up this season in NJCAA Division II. Five Wildcats were named to the NJCAA All-America teams, including first-team pick K.K. Clark. Jacob Keys and Caston Thompson made second-team A-A, Topher Jones the third team and Jacob Johnson honorable mention. Itawamba CC’s Jud Files and East Central’s Pablo Roque made the third team. Clark, a Brandon High product, went 12-2 with a 1.84 ERA in his lone season with PRCC after transferring from Mississippi State. He was previously named the MACCC’s pitcher of the year and the outstanding pitcher in the juco World Series. Clark is bound for Louisiana Tech, where he’ll play for Mississippian Lane Burroughs. All told, PRCC has seen 16 players from the ’25 squad sign with four-year schools. Pearl River’s Michael Avalon was the MACCC coach of the year after guiding the Wildcats to a 53-10 record with state and Region 23 titles. … A number of MACCC players finished among the national leaders in various statistical categories. PRCC’s Clark and Johnson, both 12-game winners, tied for second in the nation in that category, and Clark ranked fourth in strikeouts with 116. Jones College’s Caden Freeman and Copiah-Lincoln’s Nash Sturdivant tied for the D-II lead in saves with nine each. Jake Meilstrup of Southwest was third in the nation in steals with a school-record 56. (The previous record was held by Maleke Fowler — not, surprisingly enough, by former MLB star Jarrod Dyson.) PRCC’s Jones led the state with 72 RBIs, a figure that ranked 10th nationally, and teammate Keegan Giger, a .349 hitter, topped the state with 82 hits, tied for 16th in the national stats. Holmes’ Hunter Azemar led the state in home runs with 15, tied for 17th-most in the nation. PRCC’s Thompson, the MACCC player of the year and a Nicholls State signee, and Jackson Hood tied for 14th in homers with 14. The MACCC’s leading hitter was Hinds’ Dawson Muenzenmay, who batted .400, with Meridian’s Brennon Wright at .381. The national ranking of batting average leaders is not available.

hey now …

Brent Rooker was an All-Star for the Oakland A’s in 2023 and might be on that path again this season. The former Mississippi State standout had a star-spangled day at the plate on Wednesday, going 4-for-5 with two home runs, a double, three RBIs and three runs. In his final at-bat, he hit a drive that was caught at the warning track. (Not surprisingly, the lowly A’s lost the game to the Los Angeles Angels 6-5.) Rooker is hitting .276 with 15 bombs and 41 RBIs on the year; he ranks in the top 10 in the American League in homers, RBIs and slugging percentage. Over his last 20 games, he is at .380 with five homers and 17 runs knocked in. But it hasn’t been a streaky kind of season. “I’ve been able to maintain a level of consistency that maybe I haven’t in the past,” Rooker said in an mlb.com article. He batted .293 with 39 homers and 112 RBIs in 2024, winning a Silver Slugger but not making the All-Star Game. He hit .246 with 30 homers in 2023, his first season with the A’s. All-Star Game voting is under way on mlb.com; the game is July 15 in Atlanta. … Elsewhere in The Show, in his season debut with Toronto, Madison Central High alum Spencer Turnbull pitched two scoreless innings in middle relief and picked up the win as the surging Blue Jays beat St. Louis 5-2. It was his first MLB game since June of last year (see previous posts). P.S. Kudos to six players from Mississippi schools who made the NCBWA Division I All-America teams. Southern Miss’ Nick Monistere and J.B. Middleton (the state’s Ferriss Trophy winner) and MSU’s Ace Reese and Noah Sullivan were named to the first team, USM’s Colby Allen and Ole Miss’ Hunter Elliott to the third team.