Monthly Archives: June 2025

03 Jun

something to celebrate

There is no joy in Hattiesburg or Oxford today, but, hey, there should be a festive mood in Biloxi at Keesler Federal Park. The Double-A Shuckers, celebrating their 10th anniversary season, are in first place with the best record in the Southern League as they open a six-game homestand against Montgomery. The 10th anniversary of the franchise’s first home game is Friday. The Shuckers are 30-21, 2 games ahead of Montgomery in the SL South, and lead the league in scoring. Four of Milwaukee’s Top 30 prospects (per MLB Pipeline) are on the Biloxi roster, led by Cooper Pratt, the former Gatorade player of the year from Magnolia Heights. In his first Double-A season, shortstop Pratt is batting .229 with four homers, 27 RBIs and 28 runs. Ex-Mississippi State standout K.C. Hunt, the system’s No. 24 prospect, is in the Shuckers’ rotation and is 3-4 with a 4.61 ERA. No. 8 prospect Luke Adams leads the team with 34 runs, and No. 12 Brock Wilken has 12 homers and 27 RBIs. Zavier Warren has seven homers, 29 RBIs and 25 runs. On the mound, Nate Peterson is 5-4, 3.06; Tate Kuehner 4-4, 2.77; and Justin Yeager has eight saves. The Shuckers — formerly the Huntsville Stars — played their inaugural home game at what was then called MGM Park on June 6, 2015, winning 4-3 against Mobile. That Shuckers team, featuring Orlando Arcia and Tyrone Taylor among others, won a first-half championship despite playing the bulk of its games on the road. They actually clinched the title in mid-June vs. the Mississippi Braves at Trustmark Park in Pearl. … Montgomery, a Tampa Bay affiliate, comes to Biloxi with a crew of Mississippi products in tow: Ex-MSU stars Colton Ledbetter, Kamren James and Hunter Stovall and Southern Miss alum Matthew Etzel. Ledbetter and Etzel are ranked prospects for the Rays. P.S. In MLB moves, the (Sacramento) A’s have placed Gunnar Hoglund, the rookie righty out of Ole Miss, on the injured list (hip injury), and the Los Angeles Dodgers have DFA’d former MSU star Chris Stratton, who made two appearances for them.

02 Jun

worth noting

Arkansas-Little Rock, which stunned LSU — and pretty much everybody else — 10-4 on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium, is coached by Mississippi State and Meridian Community College alum Chris Curry and lists five state products on its roster. The upstart Trojans, 27-33 and No. 243 in RPI but champs of the Ohio Valley Conference, play the top-seeded Tigers again tonight for the Baton Rouge Regional title. Cooper Chaplain, a St. Joseph High product and MCC transfer, is UALR’s top hitter at .317 with seven homers, 38 RBIs, 52 runs and 12 steals. He went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs in Sunday’s game. Gage Haley, an MSU transfer from Southaven, has pitched in 21 games (7.38 ERA) for the Trojans. Seth Cooper (Star, MCC), Wayne Sebren (Puckett) and Eli Huebner (Meridian, MCC) also suit up for UALR. … Former Ocean Springs High star Garrett Crochet struck out a season-high 12 in Boston’s 3-1 win Sunday against Atlanta at Truist Park. Left-hander Crochet, in his first season with the Red Sox and armed with a fat contract, is 5-4 with a 1.98 ERA in 13 starts and is tied for the MLB lead with 101 K’s over 82 innings. … Andrew McCutchen is being feted for matching Roberto Clemente on Pittsburgh’s all-time homer list with 240; they’re tied for third. Sixth on that list is Mississippi native — and 2025 Hall of Famer — Dave Parker with 166 and 11th is Southern Miss product Kevin Young with 136. … Bobby Bradley, the ex-Harrison Central standout, has moved from the Atlantic League to the Mexican League and is batting .292 with four homers and 16 RBIs in 12 games for Saltillo. The former big leaguer was at .219 with two homers in 20 games for Charleston in the Atlantic. Bradley has smacked 245 homers overall in pro ball (including winter leagues), 17 in MLB. … Mississippi State alum and 2024 Ferriss Trophy winner Dakota Jordan hit his third homer for San Jose on Sunday and is batting .309 with 37 RBIs and 18 steals for San Francisco’s Low-Class A club. Jordan was a fourth-round pick last summer. … Out of nowhere it seemed, Mississippi Mud Monsters right-hander Luis Devers threw a seven-hit shutout in the independent team’s 2-0 win Sunday against Joliet at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Devers was 1-2 with a 12.66 ERA entering the game. The 25-year-old Dominican Republic native was 30-27, 3.30, in six years in the Chicago Cubs’ minor league system. The Mud Monsters are 8-11 with a three-game road trip to Evansville (Ind.) ahead. … MUW’s Landon Clark, a two-way standout, has been named a second-team NCAA Division III All-American by the ABCA. Clark went 7-2 with a 3.19 ERA and hit .385 with five homers and 29 RBIs this season for the Owls. … The Parker brothers of Purvis High — twins JoJo and Jacob — have been named co-players of the year in the state by MaxPreps. The Gatorade player of the year announcement is coming soon. … Eight players at Mississippi schools are listed among the top 115 MLB draft prospects in MLB Pipeline’s latest rankings. Shortstop JoJo Parker is No. 10, Southern Miss pitcher J.B. Middleton 34, East Union High pitcher Landon Harmon 47, Lewisburg pitcher Talon Haley 90, Ole Miss infielder Luke Hill 96, outfielder Jacob Parker 107, Mississippi State pitcher Piko Kohn 112 and Ole Miss pitcher Mason Morris 115.

02 Jun

bombs away

On a chaotic Sunday in the NCAA Tournament — when regional 1-seeds Vanderbilt, Texas, Georgia, Clemson and Oregon all bit the dust — Ole Miss and Southern Miss are still standing. Weary, but still standing. In winning two elimination games each, they got some clutch pitching from some unsung players, but what carried them both into today’s championship showdowns were home runs. Ole Miss, which blasted six bombs in an elimination game on Saturday, hit eight more in its two Sunday wins. Isaac Humphrey’s three-run shot in the first inning was the first — and perhaps biggest — of three in the 11-6 victory over Georgia Tech. In the 19-8 bashing of Murray State, Will Furniss — in a 4-for-6, four-RBI effort — went yard twice and his teammates added three more homers. Humphrey homered again, tripled, doubled and walked twice. The Rebels get Murray State again tonight at Swayze Field. For USM, which got three huge bombs in a must-win game against Alabama on Saturday, Ben Higdon’s three-run eighth-inning homer was the key hit in Sunday’s 8-1 victory vs. Columbia. In the 17-6 mauling of Miami that followed, the Golden Eagles crushed four homers, two by Joey Urban, whose three-run shot highlighted a nine-run first inning. Kudos also to Eagles pitcher Camden Sunstrom, who pitched the last 4 2/3 and allowed a lone unearned run. USM gets a rematch with the Hurricanes tonight at Taylor Park. … Ole Miss has hit 121 home runs all told, with six players in double digits, topped by Judd Utermark’s 21 and Austin Fawley’s 20. USM has 102 homers on the season, 21 by Nick Monistere, 17 by Matthew Russo and 15 from Carson Paetow. Both schools rank in the national top 20 for bombs. P.S. It was a tough day for Mississippi State on the field in the Tallahassee Regional, where the Bulldogs beat Northeastern 3-2 behind the pitching of Evan Siary and Stone Simmons but then lost to Florida State 5-2 in a contentious elimination game. The Bulldogs, with 103 homers in 2025, hit two vs. FSU but that was all they got against sophomore Wes Mercedes, an Ole Miss transfer who worked eight strong for the victory, fanning nine. That hurts. MSU fans did get to cheer a bit on Sunday, however, when it was revealed that they have a new coach for 2026 — Brian O’Connor, a veteran who brings a great track record, including a national title, from Virginia.

01 Jun

on the bump

A host of starting pitchers with Mississippi ties took the bump on Saturday in games of significance all over the map. As might be expected, there was some good, some bad and even some ugly. To wit:
Start in the Oxford Regional, where Ole Miss ace Hunter Elliott, from Tupelo, was a little wobbly early but settled in to go six innings and get his 10th win in an elimination game against Western Kentucky. The Rebels hit six homers in the 8-6 victory.
In the Hattiesburg Regional, Southern Miss ace J.B. Middleton, from Yazoo City, gave up three bombs over seven innings against Alabama and stood to get the loss before the Golden Eagles rallied for a 6-5 win in an elimination game.
In the Tallahassee Regional, in an MLB scouts’ delight, Mississippi State’s Pico Kohn went against Florida State’s Jamie Arnold in a matchup of highly rated draft prospects. Kohn got roughed up: seven earned runs, including a see-ya-later grand slam, in 3 2/3 innings. Arnold battled through seven, struck out 13 and notched the W in the Seminoles’ 10-3 winners bracket victory.
In the NJCAA Division II World Series title game, Jacob Johnson, a 12-game winner from Carriere, went to the bump for the 18th time for Pearl River Community College but lasted just 2 2/3, allowing three runs on two hits and four walks. PRCC, which finishes 53-10, actually led late before a bullpen implosion gave Pasco-Hernando State an 11-7 victory and the national crown at Enid, Okla.
At Wrigley Field in Chicago, ex-Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz opened for the Cubs — his first start since 2019 — and threw a perfect frame, his 15th scoreless appearance. The first-place Cubs rolled on to a 2-0 win against Cincinnati.
At Dodger Stadium, former Jackson Prep star Will Warren, a rookie with the New York Yankees, struggled from the jump against Los Angeles’ array of mashers. He lasted just 1 1/3 innings, allowing seven runs in the 18-2 slaughter and saw his record dip to 3-3, his ERA rise to 5.19.
At Toronto, Ole Miss product Gunnar Hoglund, an A’s rookie, got roughed up by the Blue Jays, allowing four homers and eight runs in six innings in an 8-7 loss. He is 1-3 with a 6.40 ERA.
In Atlanta, Spencer Schwellenbach, who toiled for the Mississippi Braves just last year, pitched a gem for the big Braves: 6 1/3, five hits, no walks, 11 punchouts in a 5-0 win against Boston. Schwellenbach is 4-4, 3.13, in 12 starts. (Today in Atlanta, we get Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet, the Red Sox’s flame-throwing ace, vs. M-Braves alum Bryce Elder.)
P.S. MSU and Jackson Prep alum Jake Mangum hit his first big league homer Saturday for Tampa Bay in the 23rd game of his rookie season. He hit just 24 bombs in five minor league seasons. … Ex-USM standout Matt Wallner, just off the injured list, homered for Minnesota in his first at-bat since April 15. He has 31 career homers. … Former MSU star Chris Stratton made his Dodgers debut as a reliever and gave up one run — an Aaron Judge homer — in one inning of work. … The Dodgers claimed USM alum Chuckie Robinson off waivers from the Angels and assigned the veteran catcher to Triple-A Oklahoma City.