collecting hardware

It’s been quite a summer — and fall — for Desmond Jennings, the former Itawamba Community College star. Jennings was named the Southern League’s player of the year and the Tampa Bay Rays’ minor league player of the year and, on Thursday night, helped the Triple-A Durham Bulls win the International League championship. Jennings hit just .188 in the Bulls’ three-game sweep of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but he delivered a key two-run single in the clinching game, won by Durham 3-2 in 12 innings. Durham will play either Chris Maloney’s Memphis Redbirds or Sacramento in the Triple-A title game next Tuesday. Injured most of last season, Jennings has shot up the prospect charts — to No. 18 in Baseball America’s midseason ranking. It looks like Jennings’ decision to pick baseball over football (he was an Alabama recruit) was a good one. He’ll be in the big leagues next season.