Tag Archives: allmississippibaseball

19 Feb

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.

17 Feb

prime position

College baseball aficionados, please direct your attention to the patch of dirt behind home plate, more specifically to the masked man squatting in front of the ump. This promises to be the year of the catcher on the Mississippi major college scene. Mississippi State’s Logan Tanner and Ole Miss’ Hayden Dunhurst, highly skilled backstops who can also hit a little, are among the top-rated MLB draft prospects in the state. Both are on the Golden Spikes Award watch list. And for the record, Southern Miss has a fine catcher, too, in Blake Johnson, and Jackson State features a pair of returnees from its dominant 2021 team: Marshal Luiz and Jefrey Rodriguez. Tanner, a junior out of George County High, drew raves from scouts and analysts for his arm strength last season while helping the Bulldogs charge to the national championship. MLB Pipeline rates Tanner the 19th-best prospect in the 2022 draft, a solid first-rounder. He batted .287 with 15 home runs and 53 RBIs last year. Dunhurst, a junior from Pearl River Central, won a college Gold Glove in 2021 and is rated No. 41 among ’22 draft prospects. He hit .280 with seven bombs and 43 RBIs for an Ole Miss team that reached a Super Regional. The Bulldogs and Rebels, both highly ranked in various polls, are rebuilding their pitching staffs for 2022 and are fortunate to have experienced players behind the dish. At USM, Johnson, from Gulfport via Jones College, had a strong debut season and showed out in the Oxford Regional, going 5-for-14 with two homers and a double as the Golden Eagles reached the final. He was a .300 hitter in two seasons at Jones and hit .246 with three homers and 20 RBIs in 47 games for USM in 2021. At JSU, Luiz, from Canada, and Rodriguez, from Miami, shared catching duties last year, with each batting .259. They’ll be counted on again as the Tigers shoot for the SWAC title that so cruelly eluded them in 2021. P.S. NCAA Division I schools open Friday. State hosts Long Beach State, Ole Miss welcomes Charleston Southern, USM brings in North Alabama and JSU takes on Grambling State in the Andre Dawson Classic in New Orleans.

16 Feb

juco jottings

Based on the linescore, some wacky stuff happened in Fulton on Tuesday. Itawamba Community College put up a 10-run inning for an 11-3 lead after three, then surrendered 11 runs in the seventh and lost to Snead State (Ala.) 23-16 in Game 1 of a doubleheader. Perhaps in a state of shock, the Indians lost Game 2 6-1. The Indians (3-3) are ranked No. 17 in the NJCAA Division II preseason poll; they figure to tumble when the first regular season poll is released. … Jones College, under new coach Wes Thigpen, moved to 3-1 with a sweep of Coastal Alabama-East on Tuesday, winning both games 10-0. Kade Keeton, from Brandon, got the win with six shutout innings and went 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI in the opener at Ellisville. … Preston Ratliff had a day, hitting two home runs and notching the victory on the mound in Mississippi Gulf Coast CC’s split with Baton Rouge. The Bulldogs, under new coach Bob Keller, are off to a 2-4 start. … Led by Brock Butler (.667, a homer, seven RBIs), seventh-ranked Meridian CC is 5-1 heading into a Saturday twinbill against visiting Hinds, which is 4-2 in Dan Rives’ first season as Eagles head coach. … No. 4 Pearl River, the defending state champion, and No. 14 East Central are off to 4-0 starts. The Wildcats have been paced by John Griffin Bell (.500) and Tate Parker (.467, two homers, seven RBIs). Coleton Smith has two homers and four RBIs for the Warriors.

14 Feb

changing of guard

The Mississippi Braves will defend their Double-A South championship with a new manager this season. Atlanta announced today that Bruce Crabbe, a longtime manager and coach in the Boston system, will take the reins in Pearl. Dan Meyer, who replaced Wyatt Toregas in midseason in 2021 and was named the league’s manager of the year, took a job as a pitching coach in another organization. Bo Henning is the M-Braves’ new pitching coach and Mike Bard the hitting coach. Angel Flores also was named to the staff. Crabbe will be the 10th manager of the M-Braves, who have played at Trustmark Park since 2005. The team has won two pennants, the other coming in 2008 under Phillip Wellman. The 2022 season starts April 8. … Mike Guerrero returns for a sixth season as skipper of the Biloxi Shuckers, who also play in the Double-A South’s South Division.

14 Feb

small world

Catching up on the small colleges while bemoaning the state of affairs in the big leagues: Delta State went 2-1 on its swing through Florida, completing the trip on Sunday with a 7-5 win against Palm Beach Atlantic. The Statesmen (3-2 overall) got key home runs from Hayden Cooper and Blayke Dendy in Sunday’s win; they scored 32 runs in the three games. … William Carey went 4-0 in the Carey Classic over the weekend and is 6-1 on the season. R.J. Stinson is batting .519 for the Crusaders, and Pascagoula native Patrick Lee is at .520. Both have driven in nine runs and scored nine. … Millsaps went 2-1 in its big weekend event, notching a 5-4 win over Huntingdon on Sunday behind the pitching of Ryan Erwin (2-0) and the bat of Bradley Pelle, who is hitting .545 for the Majors (4-2). MUW opened its season in the Millsaps tournament and went 0-3. … Mississippi College dropped the rubber game of a series at Young Harris (Ga.) 6-5 on Sunday and slipped to 2-5 on the year. Caleb Reese is batting .370 for MC. … Blue Mountain split four games at Texas A&M-Texarkana over the weekend and is now 4-2. Anthony Lipsey leads the Toppers with a .412 average. … Belhaven went 0-3 in its season-opening series at East Texas Baptist, scoring just five runs all told. … Rust is off to a 2-3-1 start and Tougaloo stands 2-7, including two losses last week to Blue Mountain. … Pearl River Community College, the highest ranked state juco at No. 4 in the NJCAA Division II poll, is 4-0 and averaging over 10 runs a game.

11 Feb

on bright side

Former Southern Miss standout and onetime big leaguer Cody Carroll signed a minor league contract with San Francisco on Thursday, which means the 29-year-old right-hander knows what he’ll be doing later this month. Reporting to the Giants’ minor league spring training camp in Arizona. While major league players — 40-man roster members — remain in limbo during the lockout that threatens to stall the opening of big league camps and possibly even the 2022 season, it’ll be business as usual for minor leaguers, a small chunk of good news for baseball fans. There will be minor league exhibition games in March and regular season games in April. (The Mississippi Braves and Biloxi Shuckers both open on April 8.) There are 24 Mississippians on MLB 40-man rosters, including three who made the list for the first time this off-season: Ryan Rolison, Konnor Pilkington and James McArthur. The shutdown, if it drags on, is most unfortunate for them, as well as free agents seeking major league jobs such as Corey Dickerson and Mitch Moreland. Minor league deals might be the way to go for some free agents. Erstwhile big leaguers JaCoby Jones (signed with Kansas City) and Jonathan Holder (Chicago Cubs) have, like Carroll, gone that route. Others such as Billy Hamilton, Jarrod Dyson and Chris Ellis might follow suit, especially if Saturday’s negotiations don’t produce anything substantive. P.S. The Atlanta Braves’ World Champions Trophy Tour will hit Trustmark Park in Pearl on May 6; the M-Braves play that night. The tour will visit Dudy Noble Field in Starkville on May 7.

05 Feb

and they’re off

In what might have been a good omen for the 2022 season, William Carey University rallied for four runs in the ninth inning to beat Lindsey Wilson 6-5 Friday in a frigid opener at Wheeler Field in Hattiesburg. Sophomore Caleb Laird got the walk-off knock, and Chris Williams, a transfer from Chipola Junior College in Florida, went 2-for-5 with a homer for the Crusaders, slated to play Lindsey Wilson again today in a doubleheader. Mississippi College launched its season with a 12-4 loss to North Greenville in the cold at Frierson Field in Clinton. The Choctaws were out-hit 15-4. The teams meet again today for a pair. Delta State’s slated opener was pushed back to today at Hot Springs, Ark., where the Statesmen will take on Harding in a three-day tournament. Millsaps, Blue Mountain and Tougaloo are scheduled to open today. P.S. Props to former Mississippi State star Will Clark, whose No. 22 will be retired by the San Francisco Giants on July 30 at Oracle Park, and to Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco, who has been named the head coach of USA Baseball’s Collegiate National Team for this summer. … Congrats to Piney Woods; the school’s baseball field will be renovated through the Atlanta Braves Foundation’s Henry Louis Aaron Fund.

02 Feb

on the docket

It’s Groundhog Day. And National Signing Day. It’s also Opening Day. The new college season begins today for Magnolia State schools when a new head coach, John Bates, takes his Rust College Bearcats to Tuskegee University in Alabama. Rust (13-20 last season under Stanley Stubbs, now the new coach at Mississippi Valley State) will lift the lid on a busy opening week for the state’s small schools. Other openers on the docket:
Friday: William Carey launches coach Bobby Halford’s 37th season in a doubleheader against visiting Lindsey Wilson. The Crusaders went 36-12 in 2021, won the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament and made the NAIA playoffs. … At Clinton, Mississippi College, coming off a disappointing 16-20 campaign, hosts North Greenville for a twinbill. … Delta State, 28-20 and an NCAA Division II regional participant last year, travels to Hot Springs, Ark., to play Henderson State in a tournament.
Saturday: Blue Mountain, where former associate head coach Taylor Clark has taken the reins from program founder Curt Fowler, opens at home with a pair against Williams Baptist. … Millsaps is at LeTourneau (Texas) for a doubleheader to begin coach Jim Page’s 31st season with the Majors, an uncharacteristic 10-24 in 2021. (Millsaps will host an eight-team tournament Feb. 11-13 with games at both Twenty Field and Smith-Wills Stadium.) … Tougaloo (4-21 last year) opens at Xavier (La.).
P.S. Belhaven (20-18 last season) opens Feb. 11 on the road at East Texas Baptist, and MUW (23-11) will play that day vs. Rhodes College in the Millsaps tournament. The NCAA Division I schools start Feb. 18, with the exception of Alcorn State, slated to begin the Reggie Williams era on Feb. 25 at McNeese State.

01 Feb

fitting tribute

MLB Network did a nice tribute to former big leaguer Jeff Innis, who died Sunday at 59 from cancer. Old Jackson Mets fans will remember Innis, a skinny, sidearming right-hander who served two stints at Smith-Wills Stadium, in 1984 and again in ’86. He was humble and witty in those days — and an effective reliever for two good teams. MLBN’s Tom Verducci, who also wrote a piece for si.com about Innis, called him a “calm port in a busy storm” with the New York Mets of the late ’80s and hailed his “humility and kindness.” Other tributes from former teammates echoed those sentiments. Innis said in a 1986 interview that he was buried in the bullpen at Illinois when he decided to start throwing sidearm. Despite a low-80s fastball, he showed enough potential that the Mets drafted him in the 13th round in 1983. Innis put up a 4.25 ERA and eight saves for the Texas League champion JaxMets in 1984 and, after being bumped back to A-ball in 1985, became the closer (2.45 ERA, 25 saves) for the ’86 team that reached the TL title series. Innis was never a star during seven seasons with the big Mets, but he was a good pitcher: 3.05 ERA in 288 games. He was also a good guy who evidently touched a lot of lives.

25 Jan

looking ahead

There is perhaps no Mississippian in the minors who’ll be more compelling to watch in 2022 than Blaze Jordan. The 19-year-old Southaven native, who just completed his first season of pro ball in 2021, is one of the top prospects in Boston’s Winter Warm-Up program, underway this week in Fort Myers, Fla. A power-hitting prodigy, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Jordan was drafted in 2020 out of DeSoto Central High and debuted last summer, batting .324 with six homers and 26 RBIs in 28 games between the rookie Florida Complex League and Low-A Salem. The Red Sox were pleased with Jordan’s adjustment to the pro life. “It’s a lot to handle for a young player, and I think Blaze showed the ability to do all those things,” Red Sox farm director Brian Abraham told Boston-based eagletribune.com. Jordan, the Red Sox’s No 9 prospect per mlb.com, played mostly third base in 2021 but also saw time at first. The club reportedly wants him to continue to get fitter and faster. He’ll likely stay in A-ball this season. P.S. Curious to see how much support Jonathan Papelbon gets in the Hall of Fame voting, which will be revealed today. The Mississippi State alum, eligible for the first time, has 368 saves, a 2.44 ERA, six All-Star Game nods and a World Series ring. But it’s a very crowded and complicated ballot. … How would Deion Sanders’ career have played out had he devoted all of his time and energy to baseball? It would have been fun to see. Ex-MSU star Buck Showalter managed Sanders in the minors and told mlb.com’s Mike Lupica that Sanders had “a level of speed unlike I ever saw on a ballfield.” Sanders, a Pro Football Hall of Fame member and currently Jackson State’s football coach, batted .263 with 39 homers, 186 stolen bases and 43 triples in nine years (641 games) in the majors, rarely playing regularly. He “could impact a game in so many different ways, people would’ve lost count,” said Showalter, the veteran big league skipper recently hired by the New York Mets.