clearing the bases

Ex-Mississippi State standout Colton Ledbetter was named the Southern League’s player of the week on Monday and was also honored as a member of MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Week. He went 12-for-23 last week with a homer, four RBIs and eight runs for Montgomery, Tampa Bay’s Double-A club. He is batting .280 on the year. … Mississippi Mud Monsters right-hander Brian Williams was named the Frontier League pitcher of the week. He threw seven shutout innings (two hits, no walks, seven strikeouts) vs. Down East last week at Trustmark Park. A former Texas Southern star, Williams is 3-2 with a 2.49 ERA this season for the independent club. … MSU’s Ace Reese went 2-for-6 with two walks, an RBI and three runs in the Collegiate National Team’s Stars v. Stripes doubleheader on Monday at Cary, N.C. Reese played for the Stars, who won Game 1 18-4. MSU’s Ryan McPherson threw a scoreless inning for the Stripes in that game. … Ole Miss’ Patrick Galle and Taylorsville native Aiden Moffett participated in Monday’s Cape Cod League vs. MLB Draft League All-Star Game at CitiField in New York. Galle, with Wareham in the Cape, allowed a run in 2/3 innings of work, while Moffett, who pitched at Texas this past season, struck out the only batter he faced. Galle is 1-1, two saves, 1.93 ERA, in the Cape. Moffett is 1-1, one save, 4.26, in the Draft League, a prospect showcase. … Houston Green, an Itawamba Community College alum, is batting .423 with nine RBIs and 10 runs for the Tallahatchie Rascals, who lead the Cotton States League with a 9-1-1 record. The top pitcher in the New Albany-based summer circuit is Delta State’s Eli Akins, 3-0 with a 1.66 for North Delta, which is 5-5. … Andrew Gipson, the former Belhaven University coach recently hired at New Orleans, was named a regional coach of the year in NCAA Division III by ABCA/ATEC. Gipson took the Blazers to the Super Regional round in the NCAAs. East Central Community College’s Neal Holliman and Pearl River CC’s Michael Avalon shared the NJCAA D-II regional award, and Mississippi native Butch Thompson of Auburn won an NCAA D-I regional award. … Incidentally, Gipson will be UNO’s third coach in three seasons. His replacement at BU, ex-Madison Central coach Patrick Robey, will be the Blazers’ third coach in four years. … Bidding for another MLB All-Star Game invite, Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet struck out nine batters in six innings for Boston on Monday night, running his MLB-leading K total to 144. After beating Cincinnati, Crochet is 8-4 with a 2.26 ERA. … Former MSU star J.T. Ginn, coming off a couple of wobbly outings, retired all 11 batters he faced for the A’s against Tampa Bay. Ginn entered in the fourth inning and shut down a Rays rally, struck out the side in the fifth and retired former Bulldogs teammate Jake Mangum on a grounder in the sixth. The A’s won the game late, 6-4. … The Los Angeles Angels are 5-4 under interim manager Ray Montgomery, the former Jackson Generals star who will be filling in for Ron Washington, sidelined with a medical issue, the rest of the season. The Angels are in Atlanta today to start a three-game set.