no probs

The new bats didn’t deter Mississippi’s Big 4 Division I schools from generating enough offense to win on opening day Friday. Far from it, in fact. To wit: Ole Miss scored 15 runs on 17 hits, Mississippi State 11 on 14, Southern Miss six on 11 and Jackson State 13 on 15. (The Tigers, perhaps tired or bored, scored just one run on five hits in a loss in their second game of the day.) Home runs are expected to be down with the new bats, but there were six hit by Big 4 players on Friday. MSU’s Nick Vickerson led off with a bomb. JSU’s Charles Epperson hit a pair of homers. Only USM didn’t hit one out. Bottom line: Power can still be a factor in the college game; there’s nothing like a three-run homer to turn a game on its ear. But power won’t be THE determining factor every day. Hitters will have to earn their homers. And the games sound better, too. The only pings seem to come on mis-hits.