Tag Archives: Blue Mountain College

01 Jan

here and there

One month from today, the college season gets under way in the Magnolia State when William Carey University hosts Missouri Baptist and Blue Mountain Christian welcomes Lane College. Carey went 49-11 in 2023 and reached the NAIA World Series. Crusaders coach Bobby Halford will begin his 39th season at the helm with 1,300 career victories. Blue Mountain finished 26-25 last season, qualifying for the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament, where the 6-seed Toppers beat Carey before bowing out in a rematch. … Former big leaguer Bobby Bradley, the former Harrison Central High slugger, finished 2023 with a bang, getting four hits including a home run on Saturday in the Mexican Pacific League. Bradley is batting .281 with three homers and 19 RBIs for Monterrey. He hit 30 bombs for Charleston in the independent Atlantic League last summer. Bradley played in 97 MLB games for Cleveland from 2019-22. … On the topic of slugging, DeSoto Central alum Austin Riley made mlb.com’s list of the 10 longest home runs in 2023. Riley tied for ninth with a 473-footer on April 3 at St. Louis; it was the first of his 37 homers on the year for Atlanta. The longest homer of 2023 was belted by — who else? — Shohei Ohtani, a 493-footer in June. … Ex-Ole Miss standout Chad Smith recently signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets; the right-hander posted a 6.59 ERA in 10 games for Oakland in 2023.

04 Feb

cold open

Alex Frillman got a hot start despite the cold conditions for Blue Mountain College’s opener on Friday. Frillman belted a pair of homers and drove in five runs to lead the Toppers to an 11-3 win against visiting Bethel. Chris Smith had three hits for BMC, and Will Long got the win in relief. Frillman, a DeSoto Central High and Holmes Community College product, hit .387 with eight homers in 2022 for the NAIA Toppers. … Mississippi College was beaten 7-1 by Arkansas-Monticello in its chilly opener at Clinton. Beau Kirsch got two of the Choctaws’ six hits. Gavin LeBlanc allowed three runs in five innings and took the loss. … Rust’s opener at Tuskegee was cancelled on Friday with a twinbill now slated for today. Delta State’s scheduled opener at Harding has been pushed back to Sunday; they’ll play a doubleheader. The Statesmen’s home opener is set for Feb. 10.

06 May

winner, winner …

In a showdown of in-state rivals on foreign soil, William Carey University beat Blue Mountain College 12-8 Thursday in a winners bracket game of the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament. Carey (35-15), the defending tourney champion, now gets a day off in the double-elimination event at Columbus, Ga., while BMC (28-25) faces Loyola-New Orleans for the right to play Carey again on Saturday. BMC upset 2-seed Loyola in the first round. Wiley Cleland drove in three runs and Branson Sharpley and Jordan Szush hit home runs to power Carey on Thursday. … Game 1 winners in the MACCC best-of-3 series were East Mississippi, Hinds, Jones College and Meridian. Jones was the only road team to win, beating Northeast in Booneville. The Game 2’s are set for today. The four series winners advance to the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament starting May 16 in Poplarville. … Rust College received one of the four bids to the NAIA bracket of the Black College World Series. The Bearcats (16-13) will play Edward Waters on May 11 in their double-elimination pod. The pod winner will meet the Division II bracket champ in a title game. P.S. Delta State and Belhaven open today in their respective conference tournaments, with the Statesmen meeting Shorter in Oxford, Ala., in the Gulf South and the Blazers taking on Hardin-Simmons in Richardson, Texas, in the American Southwest.

16 Jan

lift the lid

Ready for some live baseball? Head for Blue Mountain on Jan. 30. The much-anticipated 2021 college season will commence in the Magnolia State two weeks from today, when Blue Mountain College hosts Rust College in a twinbill at the BMC SportsPlex. The Toppers are slated to play their first 19 games at home. BMC went 10-15 before play was abruptly halted in 2020, the NAIA program’s 11th season. … NCAA Division II members Mississippi College and Delta State are scheduled to open Feb. 6, as is NAIA Tougaloo. NAIA William Carey opens Feb. 12. Belhaven University’s schedule lists an invitational tournament, co-hosted with fellow NCAA Division III member Millsaps College, for Smith-Wills Stadium between Feb. 12-21. The NCAA Division I start date is Feb. 19, though the Big 3’s schedules have not been posted. Jackson State’s schedule lists the Tigers’ first game as Feb. 23 at Mississippi State.

03 Aug

high cotton

Outstanding pitching and some hot hitting from Chris Swanberg powered the DeSoto Xplorers to the Cotton States League championship in New Albany over the weekend. The Xplorers beat the HillCountry Generals 10-3 on Sunday in the title game of the college summer league, which featured 10 teams this year. Swanberg, who plays at Memphis, went 4-for-4 in the final, driving in two runs and scoring two. Zack Coon, a Blue Mountain College player, drove in three runs. Blue Mountain alums Adam Dill and Jackson Vance combined on a three-hitter for the Xplorers. In their first-round game, the Xplorers got a four-hit shutout and 14 strikeouts from Sam McMillin, and Alabama State product Austin King tossed a three-hit shutout with 13 K’s in their semifinal win. HillCountry beat the top-seeded North Delta Dealers in the semis as Eli Jackson, another Blue Mountain alum, homered and drove in five runs. … Team McCarty, managed by former Southern Miss and current pro pitcher Kirk McCarty, won the inaugural Deep South Collegiate League tournament over the weekend.