Tag Archives: college baseball

22 Feb

here and there

Delta State, pegged for a sixth-place finish in the Gulf South Conference this season, opens league play this weekend with a 6-5 record. The Statesmen will take on Union University for a three-game set (Friday-Saturday). DSU was the preseason favorite in the league poll in 2023 and finished eighth before reaching the championship round in the league tournament. Go figure. DSU is batting .323 as a team with a staff ERA of 6.00. The Statesmen are led by Brett Burrell, batting .444 with 11 RBIs, and Brendan McCauley, .391 with a homer and seven RBIs. … Mississippi College (8-3, 2-1 GSC) plays on the road for the first time this weekend, visiting league foe Auburn-Montgomery. … Blue Mountain Christian (11-3) has 19 home runs, seven by Arderrius Townsend, a former Northwest Mississippi Community College star. … Belhaven University is 3-3 heading into its first home games, a three-game set this weekend against St. Thomas at Trustmark Park in Pearl. … Mississippi Valley State will play its first games under new coach C.J. Bilbrey when the Delta Devils meet Jackson State (4-1) in a non-conference series, games at Braddy Field on Friday and Sunday and one in Itta Bena on Saturday. Joseph Eichelberger is batting a crazy .714 for JSU. … Southern Miss’ Nick Monistere was 0-for-10 heading into Wednesday’s game at New Orleans, then put up a 3-for-4 with a homer, five RBIs, four runs and two walks in the 4-1 Golden Eagles’ 15-10 victory. … Mississippi State is 13th and Ole Miss 14th in the Nashville Tennessean‘s latest SEC power rankings — and that was before both lost midweek games. MSU is 2-2, UM 2-3. The Rebels are batting .181 and have a 5.23 ERA. P.S. Pencil former East Central CC standout Tim Anderson in as Miami’s starting shortstop. The former All-Star and batting champ reportedly has signed a one-year, $5 million contract with the Marlins on the heels of a disappointing 2023 season (.245, one homer) with the Chicago White Sox. Jon Berti was in line for the Miami shortstop job.

15 Feb

here it comes

The wrapper comes off for NCAA Division I schools on Friday and there is great anticipation around the state as to what may be revealed in 2024. There is a new coach at Southern Miss and another at Mississippi Valley State. Star players are gone from every team, and the rosters at Ole Miss and Mississippi State, in particular, have been stocked with newcomers, many of them portal transfers. Here’s a quick look at some players to watch in the early going:
At USM, where Christian Ostrander takes over for Scott Berry as the man in charge, the key player might prove to be veteran Slade Wilks. The senior DH from Columbia hit .289 with 20 home runs and 58 RBIs for the 2023 Golden Eagles and was a Ferriss Trophy finalist. Ostrander calls him the “oak tree in that lineup.” USM, which went 46-20 last year and hosted a Super Regional (losing to Tennessee), opens at Taylor Park against Marist.
At State, where the Bulldogs return sluggers Hunter Hines (a Ferriss finalist) and Dakota Jordan, the emphasis has to be on improved pitching. Nate Dohm, 6-foot-4, 220-pound junior right-hander with strikeout stuff, figures to play a key role there. A transfer from Ball State in 2023, he went 6-4 with a 4.07 ERA in 17 appearances for a team that finished 27-26 and had an SEC-worst 7.01 ERA. Dohm and the Bulldogs start with Air Force at Dudy Noble.
At Ole Miss, where MLB draftees Jacob Gonzalez, Kemp Alderman (Ferriss Trophy winner) and Calvin Harris have moved on, the transfer portal brought in a host of newcomers. Notable among them is Luke Hill, a Baton Rouge native who played at Arizona State last season. Hill, who hit .314 with six homers and 42 RBIs as a freshman for the Sun Devils, takes over at shortstop, where Gonzalez was a three-year star. The Rebels, national champs in 2022, tumbled to 25-29 last year. They open at Hawaii.
At Jackson State, where last year’s 28-25 record and two-and-out finish in the SWAC Tournament was a disappointment, the Tigers must replace their best hitter, Ty Hill (a Ferriss finalist), and a top starter, Jesse Caver. Offensive spark could come from Myles White, a senior second baseman who batted .327 (.462 OBP), drove in 23 runs and scored 36 in 49 games. The Tigers open in the six-team Cactus Jack HBCU Classic in Houston, where they’ll play Texas Southern in their first game, Alcorn State in their second.
P.S. Alcorn, coming off an 8-40 season, opens against Southern University on Friday in the Cactus Jack event. Valley, 15-36 in 2023, will launch the C.J. Bilbrey era on Feb. 23 at Jackson State.

10 Feb

tagging up

Bradley Pelle and his Millsaps College teammates hit the ground swinging on Friday. The NCAA Division III Majors opened their season with an 8-7, 17-8 sweep at LeTourneau (Texas). Pelle went 6-for-8 with three RBIs and six runs to pace the Millsaps attack. Jim Page, a recent Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame inductee, now has 839 wins over his 36 seasons. … Elsewhere in the small college ranks: Mississippi College (4-2) blasted visiting Miles 6-0 and 21-5 Friday in Clinton. J.T. Vance drove in seven runs and Cole Drake six in Game 2. Vance, a transfer from state champion East Central Community College, leads the Division II Choctaws with a .409 average. … Delta State, which yielded 32 runs in a 1-2 start against Harding last weekend, beat host Spring Hill (Ala.) 6-0 behind Drake Fontenot’s pitching and homers by Hayden Cooper and Taylor Woodcock in the opener of a Friday twinbill. The D-II Statesmen lost Game 2 9-5. … William Carey University, ranked No. 4 in NAIA, improved to 3-2 with a 6-5 win over Talladega in Hattiesburg. Preston Ratliff’s eighth-inning sac fly was the game-winner. … NAIA Blue Mountain Christian is off to a 5-1 start, led by Chris Smith, who’s hitting .556 with eight RBIs and four runs. … Belhaven dropped a pair of one-run games (to Hendrix and Westminster) at Conway, Ark., in new coach Andrew Gipson’s debut. Noah Foster was 4-for-9 in the two games for the D-III Blazers. … Rust College, defending regular season champ in the GCAC, is 0-7 after a 17-0 loss to Jarvis Christian. Jalin Thomas, an NAIA honorable mention All-America pick last year, has not played for the Bearcats. … Tougaloo, also a GCAC member, is 0-3 heading into weekend games against Tuskegee. The Bulldogs visit Blue Mountain on Tuesday. … Southeastern Baptist (of Laurel) lost its first two games last week at Southern-New Orleans, which is playing its inaugural season. … MUW opens Feb. 16 at Huntingdon (Ala.). P.S. Third-ranked Pearl River Community College (6-1) swept Baton Rouge 10-0 and 3-0 on Friday and made ESPN’s Top 10 plays. The Wildcats’ highlighted double play was started by second baseman Jeff Ince, who made a diving stop, then fed shortstop Creek Robertson, who fired to first baseman Hollis Porter, who scooped a low throw. Ince also hit a homer Friday and Porter belted a pair.

01 Feb

winter’s classic

The star attraction in the Caribbean Series — the seven-team international event that begins today in Miami — is National League MVP Ronald Acuna Jr., who’ll play for his native Venezuela. Among the other current and former big leaguers dotting the rosters is Bobby Bradley, the ex-Harrison Central High star who’ll play for Mexico. Bradley hit .281 with three homers and 19 RBIs in a short stint with Monterrey in the Mexican Pacific League this season. The power-hitting first baseman has belted 216 homers in his nine-year pro career, including 17 in the big leagues with Cleveland. He hit 30 for Charleston in the independent Atlantic League last summer. Mexico opens round-robin play today against Curacao. Acuna, a former Mississippi Braves standout who hit .337 with 41 homers, 106 RBIs and 70 steals for Atlanta in 2023, will lead Venezuela against the Dominican Republic tonight in what ought to be a rousing affair. (ESPN-plus is carrying all the games.) On the D.R. roster is Jairo Asencio, who racked up 28 saves as the closer for the Southern League champion M-Braves in 2008, when he was known as Luis Valdez. Other notable M-Braves alumni on the rosters: Christian Bethancourt (now with the Miami Marlins) will play for Panama, Andrelton Simmons for Curacao and Jonathan Morales for Puerto Rico. P.S. On the home front today, William Carey University hosts Missouri Baptist; Blue Mountain Christian welcomes Lane College; and Southeastern Baptist (of Laurel) visits Southern-New Orleans to launch the season for the state’s four-year colleges.

12 Jan

looking ahead

There were some splashy pro debuts last summer from Mississippians taken in the 2023 draft — see Colton Ledbetter, Cooper Pratt, Matthew Etzel — but Tanner Hall, the fourth player chosen out of the state, did not make an official appearance. The most-decorated pitcher in Southern Miss history will make a much-anticipated debut sometime this season in Minnesota’s system. Hall, a 6-foot-1, 186-pound right-hander, was a two-time All-America pick, a two-time conference pitcher of the year and the 2022 Ferriss Trophy winner. He posted a 22-8 career record and 2.92 ERA in three seasons at USM. Not a hard thrower, Hall might best be described as a crafty right-hander who relies on a changeup and control. He averaged 10.9 strikeouts per nine innings at USM. The Twins drafted him in the fourth round ($510,000 bonus), and he is rated their No. 15 prospect by MLB Pipeline. … The ’24 MLB draft is roughly six months away, but when the high schools and colleges hit the field there are several players with local ties who’ll be getting lots of attention from pro scouts. Jackson Prep’s Konnor Griffin (No. 8), former Madison Central High star Braden Montgomery of Texas A&M (No. 10) and Mississippi State’s Dakota Jordan (No. 27) are ranked among the top 100 prospects by MLB Pipeline, and MSU’s Hunter Hines reportedly just missed that list. … Ole Miss’ Campbell Smithwick, former Oxford High catcher, made Baseball America’s short list of potential impact freshmen for the coming season, which starts for NCAA Division I schools on Feb. 16. … A well-maintained, 20-year-old, 5,500-seat ballpark in a metro area with a population of 400,000-plus might be attractive to an independent team owner. Pearl is losing its Double-A team after the 2024 season (see previous post), and there’s really no telling what the future might hold for Trustmark Park. But indy ball could be a possibility. Jackson has hosted indy teams before at Smith-Wills Stadium. There are slew of independent leagues out there, and four of them (American Association, Atlantic, Frontier and Pioneer) are designated as partners of Major League Baseball and collaborate with MLB on various initiatives. Both the AA and the FL have teams in the midwest. … Reports are that Garrett Crochet, the Ocean Springs High product now with the Chicago White Sox, is going to be moved to the team’s starting rotation this spring. A first-round pick out of Tennessee in 2020, the hard-throwing left-hander has a career ERA of 2.71 in 72 relief appearances. He missed the 2022 season following elbow surgery. P.S. On the transaction front: Ex-Ole Miss star Errol Robinson has signed a minor league deal with Baltimore. The 29-year-old shortstop, a minor league vet, played in the St. Louis chain in 2023. … Former Mississippi State and MLB pitcher Jonathan Holder has signed as a minor league free agent with Texas. He had a 5.40 ERA in Triple-A for the Los Angeles Angels last year. … Ex-MSU star Travis Chapman is returning to the New York Yankees’ staff as first base coach and infield instructor. … Ex-Delta State standout Barry Lyons, after a season of managing in the independent Atlantic League, recently announced he is returning to his ambassador role with the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers in his hometown.

08 Sep

campus news

Next year is already under way at Mississippi State, which has begun practice for the 2024 season, aiming to put the disappointments of 2023 in the rearview mirror. The first intrasquad game of fall ball for Chris Lemonis’ Bulldogs was scheduled for today. With a refurbished roster, including a highly rated 2024 recruiting class, following last season’s 27-26 finish, the 2021 national champions will play exhibition games at Louisiana Tech on Oct. 14 and against UAB at Dudy Noble Field on Oct. 21. The Fall World Series is set for Oct. 5-8 and a final scrimmage for Oct. 20. Southern Miss, under new coach Christian Ostrander, begins formal practice on Sept. 15. The Golden Eagles, 46-20 and an NCAA Super Regional participant in 2023, have some key players to replace from last year’s club. USM has not scheduled any outside exhibition games. Ole Miss has begun individual workouts and will play its first intrasquad game on Sept. 21. The 2022 national champs tumbled to 25-29 last season and also lost several standouts but reportedly have a strong class of recruits coming aboard. Mike Bianco’s team will play home exhibitions against Jacksonville State on Oct. 14 and Memphis on Oct. 29. (Memphis’ new coach is former Pearl River Community College star Matt Riser, a longtime coach at Southeastern Louisiana.) The Rebels’ annual Pizza Bowl intrasquad will be played on Oct. 31. P.S. Mississippi Valley State enters the fall with a new coach, CJ Bilbrey, and Jackson State has hired a new pitching coach: Justin Thomas, a former head man at NCAA Division III Bethany College. … Delta State will host an Alumni Weekend Sept. 22-23, with a scrimmage by the 2024 team set for Sept. 22 at Ferriss Field and an alumni game the next day. … D-III Belhaven University also has a new coach, Andrew Gipson, a former Blazers standout.

19 Aug

on quite a roll

Putting a cap on a remarkable year, Belhaven University pitcher Brett Sanchez got the win in the Northwoods League championship game on Friday night. Sanchez’s Green Bay Rockers beat St. Cloud 4-3 to win the college summer league title. Sanchez earned league pitcher of the year honors after posting a 6-2 record with a 3.23 ERA in 10 starts. The sidearming right-hander from Louisiana previously was named the NCAA Division III Collegiate Conference of the South’s pitcher of the year and d3baseball.com’s national pitcher of the year for 2023. He went 5-2 with a save and a CCS-best 1.91 ERA and 102 strikeouts. Sanchez has 26 wins over four years at BU and was a Ferriss Trophy finalist in 2022. He apparently has eligibility remaining with the Blazers, who will have a new coach for the 2024 season. Andrew Gipson, who played and coached for the Blazers under Hill Denson, has replaced Kyle Palmer. Gipson previously worked as an assistant at D-I Southeastern Louisiana.

27 Jun

that’s a wrap

Now that LSU has pummeled Florida in the College World Series finale to claim the national championship, the college season is officially over. It was not a banner year for Mississippi’s four-year schools, but there were gold medal performances from the two that made the postseason. In NCAA Division I, Southern Miss won a regional on the road and came within one win of a trip to the CWS. In NAIA, William Carey University won a regular season conference title, a regional and two games in the World Series. Bravo. Take a bow coaches Scott Berry and Bobby Halford. Alas, seven state schools had losing seasons, some falling under the category of Major Disappointment (see defending national champ Ole Miss, for example). Here’s a school-by-school look at the records and relevant numbers:
The best
USM — Record: 46-20. Number: 12, the Golden Eagles’ final ranking by Baseball America.
Carey — 49-11. 652 runs.
The rest
Mississippi State — 27-26. 7.01 ERA.
Ole Miss — 25-29. 6 SEC wins.
Jackson State — 28-25. 26 home runs.
Mississippi Valley State — 15-36. 407 strikeouts (by hitters).
Alcorn State — 8-40. 111 errors.
Delta State — 27-26. 12-11 at Ferriss Field.
Mississippi College — 16-33. .256 batting average.
Blue Mountain Christian — 26-25. 10 different starting pitchers.
Rust — 25-25. 14 GCAC wins.
Tougaloo — 11-34. 0-8 start, 1-9 finish.
Millsaps — 22-23. 238 walks (by pitchers).
Belhaven — 21-18. 4 different home-field sites.
MUW — 6-25-1. 27 road games.
P.S. Props to Seth Farni, an outfielder at St. Stanislaus High, for being named a second-team All-America by Baseball America. The Ole Miss commit, who goes 6 feet, 190 pounds, hit .370 with eight homers, 30 RBIs and 45 runs (per MaxPreps) for the MHSAA Class 3A runner-up.

22 Jun

gimme some glovin’

In one of the many great scenes in the movie “Moneyball,” the Scott Hatteberg character tells Billy Beane, the Oakland A’s GM, he’s never played first base. “It’s not that hard, Scott,” says Beane. “Tell him, Wash.” To which Ron Washington, the A’s infield coach, replies: “It’s incredibly hard.” Mississippi can proudly boast of two college players who mastered that underrated position this past season, both of whom anchored the infield for championship clubs: William Carey University’s Jake Lycette and East Central Community College’s Ramie Harrison. They are among the six state college products who received ABCA/Rawlings Gold Glove honors on Wednesday. Southern Miss pitcher Tanner Hall, who was error-free in 2023 while also winning 12 games, was named to the NCAA Division I Gold Glove team. He is the first Golden Eagles player to earn this award. Lycette, a former Northwest Rankin High star, made the NAIA team; he handled 412 chances without a boot for the SSAC regular season champions who reached the NAIA World Series. Harrison, a Neshoba Central product, made one error in 308 chances, a .997 fielding percentage, for state champion and NJCAA Division II World Series participant ECCC. Pearl River CC pitcher Luke Lyon, an Oak Grove alum, and second baseman Blaise Breerwood, out of Poplarville High, also made the juco D-II team, as did Southwest CC outfielder Jerod Williams, a Gulfport High product who did not commit an error in 2023. P.S. Tonight is Southern Miss Night at Pearl’s Trustmark Park, where the Mississippi Braves will host Birmingham at 6:35. Scheduled to appear in pregame ceremonies are retired coach Scott Berry and players Dustin Dickerson and Nick Monistere, who prepped at Northwest Rankin. Basketball coach Jay Ladner is also on the guest list. Fans in USM gear can get a $5 ticket. … The M-Braves, winding down the first half of the Southern League season, are 32-32 after a 7-2 win Wednesday in which Scott Blewett threw six shutout innings and Justin Dean celebrated his return from Triple-A with an inside-the-park home run.

19 Jun

college stuff

After winning 320 games and guiding four teams into the NCAA Tournament at Southeastern Louisiana, Matt Riser will tackle a new challenge at Memphis. The Picayune native and former Pearl River Community College standout was announced as the Tigers’ new coach on Sunday. Riser spent 15 years at SLU, the Hammond-based school that plays in the Southland Conference. Memphis plays in the American Athletic Conference. Riser was an All-State player at PRCC in 2003 and ’04, batting .376 as a sophomore on the Wildcats’ state title team. He finished his playing career at Tulane and began his coaching career as an assistant at SLU. Memphis finished 29-28 in 2023 under first-year coach Kerrick Jackson, who moved on to Missouri. Memphis had not had a winning full season since 2017. The current roster includes a handful of Mississippi connections, notably Dalton Kendrick (Hernando), who had 12 saves in 2023. … In the College World Series, Hurston Waldrep — former Southern Miss pitcher — got the win for Florida against Oral Roberts in a winners bracket game on Sunday. Waldrep worked six innings and allowed a lone run with 12 strikeouts in the Gators’ 5-4 victory. Today in Omaha, Madison Central alum Braden Montgomery and the Stanford Cardinal meet Tennessee in an elimination game. Montgomery, a DH/pitcher, was 0-for-2 with a walk in a loss to Wake Forest on Saturday. Ex-DeSoto Central star Kyle Booker is a reserve outfielder on Tennessee’s roster; he hit .236 in 28 games this season. … There are seven Mississippi college alumni on the rosters for the inaugural HBCU Swingman Classic. Jackson State’s Ty Hill — a Ferriss Trophy finalist this year — is joined by teammates Jatavis Melton, Jesse Caver and Erik Gonzalez. Narvin Booker and Victor Figueroa from Mississippi Valley State and Kewan Braziel from Alcorn State are also among the invitees for the event, which was initiated by Ken Griffey, Jr. Two squads will play a game on July 7 at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, site of MLB’s All-Star Game on July 11. P.S. Justin Parker, previously at South Carolina, will be hired as Mississippi State’s new pitching coach, according to various reports.