bottom nine

So here we are with only two teams still standing in the college season. Ole Miss is in the SEC Tournament that starts Wednesday (and will also play in an NCAA regional down the road) and Southern Miss is in the C-USA tourney that also begins Wednesday. The Golden Eagles, playing at home, will have to win their event to get in the NCAAs. We arrived at this point, sort of a bottom of the ninth for the Magnolia State, in an abrupt fashion. Millsaps, which looked like a team capable of a nice run in the NCAA Division III Tournament, was sailing along in the winners bracket of its regional with a 2-0 record and a 5-4 lead in the eighth inning against Carthage on Saturday. Then came a disastrous eight-run inning fueled by three Majors errors. The Majors lost that one and were dismissed from the tournament the next day in a 10-4 loss to Wisconsin-Whitewater. Ding. The last junior college team still playing was surprising Holmes CC, which reached the title round of the Division II Region 23 Tournament but was spanked — and eliminated — by No. 1-ranked LSU-Eunice 19-5 on Monday. Ding. Holmes, which finished fourth in the MACJC North Division this season, had put out both Itawamba and Hinds, two powerhouse clubs with high expectations. Ding. Ding. Another juco with big dreams, Meridian, got bounced quickly from the D-I South Central District playoffs, losing 18-2 to Maple Woods (Mo.) and 6-4 to Seminole (Okla.) State over the weekend. Ding.
P.S. Kudos to Belhaven’s Craig Westcott for winning the Ferriss Trophy. The two-way star had a monster year for a championship team. The other finalists were Ole Miss’ Scott Bittle and USM’s Brian Dozier, both injured for several weeks. Yes, it seems odd they would be finalists at a time when they weren’t even playing. Among the overlooked in the voting, carried primarily by pro scouts: Ole Miss leadoff batter Jordan Henry, the catalyst for the Rebels’ attack, and Millsaps slugger Will Hawkins, who was the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference offensive player of the year.