faded green

This is officially a drought for Delta State. The Statesmen, national champions in 2004, have now missed the NCAA Division II postseason for three straight years. The South Regional field was announced late Sunday night and it included seven of the top eight teams ranked in the midweek region poll. DSU (30-19), ranked No. 8, was bumped from the regional field by Stillman College, which earned an automatic bid as the SIAC champion. The Statesmen beat Stillman twice back in March, but that hardly matters. DSU can’t really cry foul here. The Statesmen won four fewer games than they did in 2010. They made a nice run at season’s end, sweeping Arkansas Tech, taking two of three from Harding and going 1-1 against Henderson State. But DSU went just 1-2 in the Gulf South Conference Tournament, which carries an automatic bid. The Statesmen were 14-6 in the GSC regular season, finishing third in a strong Western Division. The four GSC teams that got in the South Regional all had better conference records. A season that saw coach Mike Kinnison become the school’s all-time leader in victories thus ends on a somber note. The start of fall ball must feel like it’s a long ways off.
P.S. High five to Jones County Junior College, which went undefeated in the MACJC Tournament to claim its first state title since 2002. And a high five to Jonathan Papelbon, the Mississippi State alumnus who retired Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez in the ninth on Sunday to notch his seventh save and secure a three-game sweep for Boston over New York. And yet another high five to Jarrod Saltalamacchia, the ex-Mississippi Braves catcher who homered for the Red Sox on Sunday, his first big-league bomb in almost two years.