power surge?

The All-Mississippi Home Run Derby, major league division, might be starting to heat up after a chilly start. JaCoby Jones, the Richton High alumnus, got on the board on Thursday, hitting his first home run of the season for Detroit in a 4-2 loss to Pittsburgh. Austin Riley, the DeSoto Central product, got his first bomb for Atlanta on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. Ex-Mississippi State – and Amory High – star Mitch Moreland hit his first two of 2021 on Tuesday, going deep for Oakland against Minnesota. There is a new, supposedly “deader,” ball in play this season, but it doesn’t seem to have affected former Bulldogs slugger Nate Lowe. He homered on Wednesday for Texas and leads the Magnolia State pack with five. He’s on pace for about 40. East Central Community College product Tim Anderson, not a pure slugger, has three homers in just nine games. (Mississippi Braves alum Ronald Acuna also seems to love the new ball: He leads all of MLB with seven homers.) And yet, some Mississippians seem stuck in a power outage. MSU alum Hunter Renfroe, who entered this season with 97 homers over his five MLB campaigns, has hit one to date in his first season in Boston. Ex-Meridian CC standout Corey Dickerson hasn’t gone yard yet for Miami, nor has MSU product Brent Rooker for Minnesota. Adam Frazier, another ex-Bulldogs star who averaged nine homers over the last three seasons, hasn’t cranked one out yet for Pittsburgh, though he is batting .329.