highs and lows

Opening Day for the state’s big schools produced a mixed bag. Ole Miss and Southern Miss notched comfy wins Friday, but there was no joy in Starkville, where defending national champ Mississippi State got blanked, or for Jackson State, which took one on the chin in New Orleans against Grambling State. Tim Elko homered, Jacob Gonzalez drove in two runs and Derek Diamond sparkled over five innings in Ole Miss’ 9-3 win against Charleston Southern. Ben Ethridge allowed a lone, unearned run in six innings and Dustin Dickerson picked up three RBIs as USM whipped North Alabama 8-1. At State, where an announced crowd of 10,000-plus turned out in the cold, Long Beach State limited the Bulldogs to one hit in a 3-0 win. Landon Sims struck out 13 in seven innings but gave up a home run and was a tough-luck loser for the Bulldogs; in his first college game, Hunter Hines, out of Madison Central High, got the Dogs’ lone knock. JSU lost 10-1 in the Andre Dawson Classic, shut down by former Pearl River Community College ace Shemar Page, a grad transfer from Louisiana Tech. Chenar Brown drove in JSU’s run with one of its two hits. JSU plays Southern University today in a game to be televised (1 p.m.) by MLB Network. Worth noting: Madison Central product Braden Montgomery, the top high school player in the state last season, got a save for Stanford in a 1-0 win against Cal State Fullerton, fanning two in a clean inning.