12 Feb

an anniversary to celebrate

In recognition of Black History Month, here’s a tip of the cap to the 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes, who won the Negro League World Series with three Mississippi natives on the roster. Reference works differ on the Buckeyes’ overall record, but according to baseballreference.com, the team went 63-17-1. The Buckeyes won both halves of the split season in the Negro American League and then swept the National League champion Homestead Grays 4-0 in the Series. Lowndes County/Columbus native Sam Jethroe and Jackson’s Buddy Armour played center and left field, respectively, for the ’45 Buckeyes, and Lauderdale native Lovell Harden pitched out of the bullpen. A seven-time All-Star in the Negro Leagues, Jethroe, nicknamed “The Jet,” would go on to win rookie of the year honors in the majors in 1950 with the Boston Braves. According to the available stats from Baseball Reference, he batted .333 with 20 RBIs and five steals in 21 official games for the ’45 Buckeyes. Armour — a four-time All-Star and .285 career hitter — hit .254 with six RBIs and nine runs in 17 games that season. Harden made just two appearances. In the World Series against Homestead — which suited up Mississippians Cool Papa Bell and Dave Hoskins — Armour was 4-for-13 with two runs and three RBIs and Jethroe 4-for-15 with two RBIs and a run. Other members of that championship team celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2025 included player/manager Quincy “Big Train” Trouppe, pitching brothers George and Willie Jefferson, Cuban shortstop Avelino Canizares and third baseman Parnell Woods. P.S. Other anniversaries of note in 2025: It was 50 years ago — 50 years! — that the Jackson Mets made their debut at brand new Smith-Wills Stadium with a team that included Craig Cacek, Angel Cantres and Hattiesburg native Bobby Myrick. In 2000, the independent Jackson DiamondKats played their lone season at Smith-Wills, and 20 years ago, the Mississippi Braves — with Brian McCann, Jeff Francoeur and Blaine Boyer — debuted at Pearl’s Trustmark Park, while the indy Senators — managed by Hill Denson — began their final season at Smith-Wills. The Kansas City Royals will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their 2015 World Series winner, a team managed by former JaxMets catcher Ned Yost and featuring McComb native Jarrod Dyson as a reserve outfielder.

11 Feb

taking up arms

The Mississippi Mud Monsters have signed a quintet of right-handed pitchers, including a 7-foot-2 Australian and two Mississippi natives who pitched at state colleges. The signings were announced on the Frontier League transactions page. James Boeree, the tall Aussie, pitched at Salt Lake (Utah) Community College from 2021-23 and in the Australian Baseball League before that. He reportedly throws 93 mph. Aubrey Gillentine, a mere 6-3, 220, is an Amory native who pitched at Southern Miss for three seasons before finishing at North Carolina-Charlotte in 2023. Jackson Smith is a Raymond native who pitched at Mississippi College in 2023 and at Northwest Mississippi CC before that. He pitched briefly in independent ball in 2023. Also added to the Mud Monsters’ inaugural roster are Josh Lanham, an alum of NCAA Division II Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.), and Josh Paulina, who pitched at D-II West Chester (Pa.) and at the rookie level in San Diego’s minor league system. … The Mud-sters’ roster now totals 10 players, per reports. The independent team will begin its inaugural season on May 8 at Trustmark Park in Pearl.

11 Feb

small world

Home cooking was just what Delta State seemed to need. After a 1-3 start on the road, the NCAA Division II Statesmen returned to Ferriss Field in Cleveland and outscored Spring Hill 37-17 in a three-game sweep last weekend. Preseason All-Gulf South Conference pick Dylan Coleman has lived up to that billing, batting .467 with a homer, 10 RBIs and nine runs as DSU’s offensive leader. Jacob Hill is at .409 and Dylan Bundy at .346. More good news for the Statesmen: They start GSC play at home this weekend against Lee University. Lee is 5-2, having played only home games. … Mississippi College climbed over .500 on Monday with a 13-1 rout of Blue Mountain Christian in a small-college matchup at Frierson Field in Clinton. Jordan Evans went 3-for-5 with two doubles and four RBIs for the Choctaws (4-3). Six MC pitchers combined on an eight-hitter and hung an 0-for-4 collar on BMC’s Hayden Redding, who came in batting .444 with three homers, eight RBIs and 10 runs for the now 5-4 Toppers. MC starts GSC play at home this weekend against West Georgia. … In a D-III matchup, Millsaps College beat MUW 14-1 on Monday in Jackson as E.J. Ousley drove in five runs for the Majors (1-0). … Bridley Thomas of William Carey University is 12-for-12 on steal attempts and is batting .381 with 13 runs. Carey (5-2) is ranked ninth in NAIA. … In the junior college ranks, Copiah-Lincoln Community College is 8-1 with eight straight wins, including a walk-off (on a Trey Davidson knock) on Sunday against St. Charles CC. Caleb Brooks is hitting .483 for the Wolves. … Hunter Azemar has belted four homers and driven in 13 runs to pace Holmes CC to a 7-1 start. … Meridian, ranked 20th in the NJCAA D-II preseason poll, is also 7-1. Brayden Martin is batting .360 with nine steals for the Eagles, and Connor Gehr is 2-0 with a 1.00 ERA and 11 strikeouts in nine innings. P.S. Joe Gray Jr.’s long and winding road in pro ball has led the former Hattiesburg High star to Lake Country (Wisc.) in the independent American Association. Drafted in the second round by Milwaukee in 2018, Gray reached Double-A in the Brewers’ system in 2023 and again with Kansas City last year before being released. He played for three different Atlantic League teams after that, batting a combined .211.

10 Feb

spring is in the air

Spring training has officially sprung. Pitchers and catchers are reporting this week and starting workouts in Arizona and Florida. Position players soon will follow. The first Cactus League game is Feb. 20; Grapefruit League play starts the next day. Here’s a list of players with Mississippi ties currently slated to be in big league camps:

40-man roster
Hitters
Nick Fortes (Ole Miss), Miami;
Justin Foscue (Mississippi State), Texas;
Adam Frazier (MSU), Pittsburgh;
Colt Keith (Biloxi HS), Detroit;
Grae Kessinger (UM), Arizona;
Nathaniel Lowe (MSU), Washington;
Jake Mangum (MSU), Tampa Bay;
Hunter Renfroe (MSU), Kansas City;
Austin Riley (DeSoto Central HS), Atlanta;
Chuckie Robinson (Southern Miss), Los Angeles Angels;
Brent Rooker (MSU), A’s;
Matt Wallner (USM), Minnesota;
Jordan Westburg (MSU), Baltimore

Pitchers
Eric Cerantola (MSU), Kansas City;
Garrett Crochet (Ocean Springs), Boston;
J.P. France (MSU), Houston;
J.T. Ginn (MSU), A’s;
Gunnar Hoglund (UM), A’s;
James McArthur (UM), Kansas City;
Doug Nikhazy (UM), Cleveland;
Nick Sandlin (USM), Toronto;
Justin Steele (Lucedale/George County HS), Chicago Cubs;
Chris Stratton (MSU), Kansas City;
Jacob Waguespack (UM), Tampa Bay;
Hurston Waldrep (USM), Atlanta;
Will Warren (Jackson Prep), NY Yankees;
Brandon Woodruff (MSU), Milwaukee

Free agents of note
Kendall Graveman (MSU);
Lance Lynn (UM);
Spencer Turnbull (Madison Central)

Non-roster invitees
Tim Anderson (East Central CC), Los Angeles Angels;
Gavin Collins (MSU), St. Louis;
Blaine Crim (Miss. College), Texas;
Tim Elko (UM), Chicago White Sox;
Matthew Etzel (USM), Tampa Bay;
Jacob Gonzalez (UM), White Sox;
Konnor Griffin (Jackson Prep), Pittsburgh;
Dakota Hudson (MSU), Angels;
Cooper Johnson (UM), Texas;
David Mershon (MSU), Angels;
Braden Montgomery (Madison Central), White Sox;
Ryan Och (USM), San Diego;
Konnor Pilkington (MSU), Washington;
Drew Pomeranz (UM), Seattle;
Cooper Pratt (Magnolia Heights), Milwaukee;
Ethan Small (MSU), San Francisco;
Tyler Stuart (USM), Washington;
R.J. Yeager (MSU), St. Louis

09 Feb

left to wonder

Chances are A.J. Brown will do something impactful in today’s Super Bowl. The Starkville native and ex-Ole Miss star — now an All-Pro receiver for Philadelphia — has 261 catches with 24 touchdowns in his three seasons with the Eagles, nine catches for 120 yards and a score in the current postseason. Baseball fans will watch and wonder how impactful Brown might have been on a major league diamond had he chosen that path. The 6-foot-1, 226-pound Brown was a two-sport star at Starkville High and played in both the Under Armour Football and Baseball All-America Games in 2015. “He was elite at both sports,” Stephen Moritz, a San Diego Padres scout, said in an mlb.com story. Already committed to football at Ole Miss, Brown was drafted out of Starkville by the Padres in the 19th round in 2016 and was signed by Moritz. “You might have an All-Star center fielder on a championship team,” the scout said in the mlb.com article. “So that was the thought process: Hey, there’s way high upside here. It’s going to be relatively cheap. Why not take a chance?” Brown worked out for the Padres in extended spring training in Arizona several times while at Ole Miss but never actually played a pro game. An All-SEC pick and Conerly Trophy winner for the Rebels, Brown was a second-round pick by Tennessee in the 2019 NFL draft and football became his focus. Sorta. Brown, now 27, has said several times over the years that he might give baseball another crack. In the summer of 2023, he took batting practice at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park and impressed Phillies players with his powerful swing. (For the record, Moritz doesn’t want Brown to be too impactful in the Super Bowl: He’s a big Kansas City Chiefs fan.) P.S. Former Southern Miss standout Ryan Och has received a non-roster invite to San Diego’s big league camp. Drafted in the seventh round in 2021, the left-hander has a 3.61 career ERA, reaching Double-A last season. … Billy Hamilton, the ex-big leaguer from Taylorsville, made the All-Caribbean Series team. The speedy outfielder helped Mexico reach the CS title game before losing to the Dominican Republic team 1-0 on Friday. Hamilton went 3-for-14 with six walks (.450 OBP), three runs, an RBI and five steals in five games in Mexicali, Mexico.

07 Feb

preseason poll-pourri

A dose of perspective is necessary when digesting the SEC coaches preseason poll released on Wednesday. Mississippi State is ranked ninth, in the bottom half of the 16-team league. Seems a bit disrespectful for a Bulldogs team that won 40 games and made the NCAA Tournament in 2024 and is a consensus top 20 in the national polls, of which there are many. Such is life in the dog-eat-dog SEC, which has the top four teams and seven of the first 10 in Baseball America’s national Top 25. MSU is No. 18 in the BA poll as well as the d1baseball.com rankings plus No. 19 in the NCBWA and USA Today polls. Ole Miss, which has one of the best newcomer classes in the nation (per BA), is pegged to finish 15th in the SEC but still got votes in the NCBWA and USA Today national polls. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Rebels in a regional this spring. Southern Miss was picked as the preseason No. 1 in the Sun Belt coaches poll. The Golden Eagles, an NCAA Tournament team as the SBC champion in 2024, show up in only one national poll, ranked 27th (in a Top 30) by the NCBWA. USM got votes in the USA Today poll. Jackson State also got some votes in the NCBWA poll and is ranked third among large school HBCUs by Black College Nines. The Nos. 1 and 2 teams are also SWAC schools: Grambling State and Bethune-Cookman. All of this will start shaking out a week from today when the NCAA Division I season launches. … Of note: MaxPreps named Sumrall High, the defending MHSAA Class 4A champion, as the “best team” in Mississippi heading into the 2025 campaign. East Union’s Landon Harmon and Purvis’ Jacob Parker are on MaxPreps’ preseason All-America squad. P.S. Itawamba Community College’s Madden Butler (Corinth) was named the NJCAA Division II player of the week after batting .545 with two homers, six RBIs and seven runs in the Indians’ 3-1 start last week. … East Central CC, ranked No. 2 in the juco D-II preseason poll, opened its season on Thursday with a 14-4 win over South Arkansas.

05 Feb

in the spotlight

Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College is off to a 6-1 start under first-year coach Zach Allen. The Bulldogs swept Reid State Technical College 18-8 and 4-2 on Tuesday in Perkinston as Kaden Irving banged out four hits, including a homer and a triple, drove in three runs and scored five. Irving, a 6-foot-2, 235-pound first baseman from Gautier, is batting .579 with nine steals, nine RBIs and 13 runs. Dom Jackson, who hit 13 homers last season, already has three in 2025. Six different pitchers have recorded a win, including Samuel Marsh and Tyler West in Tuesday’s sweep. The Bulldogs have missed the NJCAA Division II Region 23 postseason the past two years. … Holmes CC is 4-0, led by former Brandon High star Xavier Myles, who is hitting .571 (8-for-14) with a homer and seven RBIs. … Northwest is also 4-0, fueled by Rob Hayes (Southaven), who is 7-for-12 with two homers and eight RBIs. … Second-ranked East Central, coming off a juco World Series appearance, opens Thursday against South Arkansas in Decatur. … Pearl River’s Max Miller (Vancleave) was named the MACCC pitcher of the week after working 3 1/3 hitless innings with seven strikeouts while recording a save and a win for the No. 5 Wildcats (3-1). P.S. Former Jackson Prep standout Konnor Griffin, yet to make his pro debut, has been given a non-roster invite to Pittsburgh’s major league spring camp. Griffin was the ninth overall pick in the 2024 draft. David Mershon, drafted out of Mississippi State by the Los Angeles Angels last summer, is going to that club’s big camp; he batted .254 in 29 games in Double-A last summer.

04 Feb

dual threat

If you’re familiar with Dave Clark, the baseball player, you know he could hit. Over a 13-year big league career, the Tupelo native — now the Houston Astros’ first-base coach — batted .264 with 62 home runs and 284 RBIs. Before that, he was an MVP at Jackson State, and before that, he set a Mississippi high school record with 23 home runs as a senior at Shannon High in 1980. You might not know that in addition to packing a punch at the plate, Clark also packed a wallop as an amateur boxer during his high school days. In a great story on mlb.com, Brian McTaggart details Clark’s boxing exploits, noting that he went 26-0 with 13 knockouts in his career, won two Golden Gloves tournaments as a light heavyweight and was in line for a trip to Moscow for the 1980 Olympics before the U.S. boycott. “I didn’t really know how good I could possibly be,” Clark told McTaggart. “I thought I was pretty good.” But baseball was and is Clark’s true love, and he blossomed at Jackson State, ultimately being drafted 11th overall in 1983 by Cleveland. A 6-foot-2, 200-pound outfielder, he belted 53 homers in his first four minor league seasons, reached the majors in 1986 and played until ’98 before becoming a coach and manager, in both the minors and MLB. He managed Houston as an interim for 13 games in 2009.

03 Feb

buying local

The Mississippi Mud Monsters’ latest signing has a true homecoming feel. Davis Bradshaw, a Florence native who played at McLaurin High just down the road from Trustmark Park, has been added to the new independent team’s roster, per the Frontier League transactions page. Bradshaw, 26, can flat-out hit. He batted .303 over six seasons in the Miami system, reaching the Double-A level in 2022, when he visited Trustmark as a member of the Southern League’s Pensacola club. The left-handed hitting outfielder batted a crazy .756 as a senior at McLaurin High in 2017 and followed that with a .442 season at Meridian Community College. He is primarily a singles hitter — five homers in 1,308 at-bats in pro ball — who swiped 55 bases in the minors. He played just 21 games in the Marlins’ system during an injury-tinged 2024 and was released last summer. … The Mud Monsters added to their on-field staff last Friday when they announced Jamie McOwen as hitting coach. McOwen, a Florida native, is a longtime minor league and indy league player who once had a 45-game hitting streak in A-ball. He joins pitching coach Robert Carson III, a Hattiesburg native, on manager Jay Pecci’s staff. … The team also has signed catcher Victor Diaz. Diaz, 23, from the Dominican Republic, played in the Houston system in 2024, batting .197 with five homers in 41 games at the rookie and Low-Class A levels. The 5-foot-10, 235-pound Diaz has been in pro ball since 2019. Bradshaw and Diaz join ex-DeSoto Central star Kyle Booker, former Mississippi State standout Brayland Skinner and Ryan Cash on the “Mud-sters” roster. The team will begin its inaugural season on May 8 at the Pearl ballpark. P.S. Kudos to Mississippi College. The Choctaws were three outs from going 0-3 in their weekend trip to Houston before rallying for seven runs in the ninth inning on Sunday to pull out a 13-10 win against Arkansas Tech. MC pounded out 15 hits and drew eight walks in the game at Daikin Park. Bryce Capobianco (2-for-5 on the day) led off the ninth with a triple, Bryce LaRocca (3-for-6) hit a two-run single, J.T. Vance (2-for-5) had a go-ahead double and Korey Cooper (3-for-5) capped the rally with a two-run home run. NCAA Division II MC has had four straight losing seasons under coach Jeremy Haworth, now in his 10th campaign. He won a Gulf South Conference title in 2018, his third season.

01 Feb

fast starts

Names to know from Friday, the first day of college games:
Eli Collins (from Laurel via Southern Miss) went 4-for-4 with a home run and five RBIs to pace NAIA No. 9 William Carey to a 13-3 win against visiting Pikeville (Ky.).
Austin Garrison (East Mississippi CC transfer from Gulfport) got six hits in eight at-bats with a pair of homers and seven RBIs as Blue Mountain Christian swept William Woods (Mo.) 12-8 and 9-1 at Millington, Tenn.
Wes Warnock (from Vicksburg via Mississippi Delta CC) went 3-for-6 with two RBIs and a run to lead Delta State to a 6-5 win over Palm Beach Atlantic at West Palm Beach, Fla.
Jordan Evans homered in a 2-for-5 game for Mississippi College in a 3-2 loss to Arkansas-Monticello at Houston.
Kyrent Cole was 2-for-3 with an RBI, four runs and two steals as Rust College fell to Miles (Ala.) 12-11 in New Orleans.
Jaxon Milam was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a steal for fifth-ranked Pearl River Community College in a 6-4 victory vs. Northwest Florida State at Panama City, Fla.
P.S. In the Caribbean Series, former Taylorsville High star Billy Hamilton went 1-for-3 with two walks, two runs, two steals and an RBI as Mexico beat Puerto Rico 8-1 in the opening round at Mexicali, Mexico. Hamilton, 34, an 11-year big league veteran, is a free agent who played in the Mexican League last summer and in the Mexican Pacific League this winter.