opening acts

Just a quick review, complete with grades, of how Mississippi’s Big 3 Division I schools fared in their openers over the weekend.
Southern Miss: A+. They pitched, they hit, they fielded. You can’t do much better than what the Golden Eagles did in their 3-game sweep of Lehigh. Granted, USM was at home. Perhaps the competition wasn’t great. But still, USM won 18-1, 13-0 and 12-2. That’s pretty darned impressive.
Mississippi State: B. The Bulldogs went 3-1, beating North Florida twice and splitting with Northern Illinois, all at Dudy Noble Field. They won new coach John Cohen’s debut, which was very important. And they capped the weekend with Jet Butler’s walk-off homer. But they gave up 11 runs in one game and seven in another. That’s an indication that Cohen has some work to do in building a pitching staff.
Ole Miss: C. And that’s a generous C. The nationally ranked Rebels went 1-2 in a tournament at Mobile. They lost 3-2 to South Alabama and 13-11 to Mercer. In the one win, Ole Miss blew an early 4-0 lead and a 5-4 lead before beating Liberty 6-5. Yes, it’s a marathon not a sprint, but that’s not the kind of start the Rebels wanted.
P.S. Give Jackson State a B for winning two of three at Florida A&M.; It’s just so hard to gauge JSU baseball; the Tigers program would be better served in many ways if it played more early season games outside the ranks of historically black schools.