Tag Archives: college baseball

02 Mar

road trippin’

If you had the means, which is to say a lot of free time, some disposable income and a dependable car (or, better yet, a helicopter), you could see some pretty good baseball (teams and/or players) around the state this week. … Start today in Hattiesburg, where Southern Miss is hosting Troy. The Golden Eagles are scuffling along at 5-6, but Mason Robbins is swinging a hot bat at .304 with a homer and 10 RBIs. On Monday, zip up to Jackson and catch Belhaven-Millsaps in a Maloney Trophy Series game at Twenty Field. The Blazers are 15-4, led by Paul Pickerrell, who’s hitting .373 with 15 RBIs and 16 runs. The Majors are 7-5, and their lineup features the red-hot Isaac Glenn (.455). Head for Cleveland on Tuesday for Delta State’s game against Harding. The Statesmen are 6-5 as of today, and Dex Herrington is rocking along with a .381 average. On Wednesday, in Starkville, surging Mississippi State (9-4 with five straight wins as of Sunday morning) takes on South Alabama. Wes Rea has been a power source for the Bulldogs, with three homers and 19 RBIs. Wheel over to Senatobia on Thursday to see nationally ranked Northwest Mississippi Community College (8-4 heading into a Wednesday doubleheader with unbeaten Jones County JC) play Arkansas Baptist CC. Luke Latham has belted five homers for the Rangers. Over in Oxford on Friday, Ole Miss hosts Arkansas-Little Rock. As of Sunday a.m., the Rebels were 10-1 with four straight one-run wins, all walk-offs. Luke Allen (.391, three homers, 17 RBIs) was responsible for two of those. Wind up the whirlwind week on Saturday in Clinton, where Mississippi College plays American Southwest Conference foe East Texas Baptist in a twinbill. The Choctaws were 2-6 at the start of the week, though Mississippi Gulf Coast CC transfer Marty Stringfellow has contributed a .462 average. … If you had the means, it would be a heckuva road trip.

14 Feb

blue skies ahead?

Weather has come out swinging this week, knocking out home openers at Millsaps (Tuesday), Delta State (Wednesday) and Southern Miss (today) and forcing Mississippi State to find a new opponent (Western Carolina replaces Hofstra). While USM will have to go on the road (Lake Charles, La.) to start its season on Saturday, there are some big games on state campuses this weekend. MSU, ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation, will play a three-day, three-game set at Dudy Noble Field. Jackson State plays Texas Southern and South Dakota State (two games with each) at Braddy Field starting today, and Alcorn State hosts Bradley for a three-game series at McGowan Stadium in Lorman. Millsaps, off to a 3-0 start, plays Trinity (Texas) in a doubleheader Saturday and single game Sunday at Twenty Field. Blue Mountain hosts a three-game set in New Albany with NAIA No. 1 Faulkner. Belhaven, 7-1 after a 9-2 win over St. Francis on Thursday, hosts Campbellsville today and Missouri Baptist on Saturday at Smith-Wills Stadium. William Carey has a three-game set at Wheeler Field in Hattiesburg against Spring Hill (single game today, twinbill Saturday). Delta State (1-2) hosts West Alabama for three games (two Saturday, one Sunday) in Cleveland. DSU went 25-3 at Ferriss Field last year and has a .772 winning percentage there all-time. But even the Statesmen can’t beat bad weather. Fingers are crossed all over the state, hoping the skies stay sunny.

13 Feb

4 for 4

Aspirations are high, as they always are, at Mississippi’s Big 4 NCAA Division I schools. Three of the four earned NCAA regional bids in 2013, and Southern Miss was one victory short. It would be sweet to see all four make it this season. And with that in mind, here are four players who could be key in making such a grand slam a reality. At Mississippi State, which won 51 games and reached the finals of the College World Series, there will be pressure to replace Hunter Renfroe’s thunderous bat. But pitching is more important in college baseball these days, and it would serve the Bulldogs well to get another season from Ross Mitchell like the one he had in 2013. The slightly built left-hander was brilliant in the middle relief role State’s coaches prize, posting a 13-0 record, two saves and a 1.53 ERA in 34 appearances (94 innings). At Ole Miss, which went 38-24 last season, keep a sharp eye on newcomer Braxton Lee, a left-handed hitting outfielder who transferred from Pearl River Community College. Lee hit .406 last year and .365 with 29 steals in 2012. He is penciled in as the Rebels’ leadoff batter and left fielder. “He’ll cause havoc out there,” UM coach Mike Bianco said. At USM, which went 30-27 and got to the final of the C-USA Tournament in 2013, Golden Eagles fans would love to see — but can’t really expect — a big year from highly touted, oft-injured ex-Sumrall High star Connor Barron. However, those fans likely can count on another solid year from Mason Robbins, the state’s 2011 Mr. Baseball from George County. The lefty-hitting outfielder, who can also take the mound, batted .317 with 40 RBIs as a sophomore and .330 as a freshman. He’s a gamer. At Jackson State, 34-22 and Southwestern Athletic Conference champion in 2013, much attention will be focused on conference preseason player of the year Charles Tillery, a senior outfielder from Starkville who batted .352 last year. Yet you can’t overlook junior right-hander Alexander Juday, who put up a 7-5 record with a 3.51 ERA. Juday is the kind of workhorse (115 1/3 innings in 22 games, 10 starts) that every successful staff must have. P.S. The Big 4 start Friday: State hosts Hofstra, Ole Miss is at Stetson, USM is home vs. Stony Brook and JSU hosts Texas Southern.

01 Feb

opening acts

And so it begins. Belhaven University got the college baseball season started on Friday with a 6-1 loss to LSU-Alexandria at Smith-Wills Stadium. The Blazers, anticipating a big year, didn’t look sharp, managing just four hits, committing three errors and getting an uneven start from Southern Miss transfer Boomer Scarborough (seven hits and four earned runs in five innings). The Blazers and Generals play a twinbill today. William Carey, ranked No. 24 in NAIA, was rained out Friday in its scheduled opener at Webber International in Florida. The Crusaders had a pair of games slated for today at Babson Park, Fla: Embry-Riddle and then Webber International again.
Other Magnolia State lid-lifters:
Blue Mountain, now in the Southern States Athletic Conference with BU and Carey, opens today at home against Union University.
Tougaloo starts Feb. 4 against Belhaven at Smith-Wills.
Millsaps plays Feb. 7 against Randolph-Macon in Huntingdon, Ala.
Delta State, ranked as high as sixth in NCAA Division II, opens Feb. 7 against Palm Beach Atlantic in Florida.
Mississippi College rolls out on Feb. 18 at Belhaven.
The NCAA Division I schools start on Feb. 14: Mississippi State, ranked as high as No. 2, hosts Hofstra; Southern Miss hosts Stony Brook; Ole Miss is at Stetson in Florida; Jackson State hosts Texas Southern; Alcorn State hosts Bradley; at Mississippi Valley State is at Dallas Baptist.

23 Oct

the fall guys

A fall intrasquad scrimmage may sound like a lackluster affair, and many tend to be just that. However, this was not the case at Dudy Noble Field on Tuesday. Redshirt freshman Cody Brown robbed Wes Rea of a walk-off home run with a leaping catch at the left-field wall, preserving a wild and wooly 9-8 win for the Gray over the Black. Mississippi State’s fall scrimmages continue with a Thursday afternoon game. The Bulldogs are coming off a 51-20 season that ended in the College World Series finals. … Southern Miss, coming off a 30-27 season that ended in the Conference USA title game, starts its Fall World Series on Thursday at Taylor Park. The pitching matchup is a dandy: Jay Myrick (4-0, 2.79 as a reliever in 2013) vs. Conor Fisk (4-3, 3.23 in 12 starts). … Scrimmages are ongoing at Ole Miss, with the Rebels’ Fall World Series set to begin Oct. 30 at Oxford-University Stadium. UM has 22 players back from a team that won 38 games and earned an NCAA regional bid plus a recruiting class ranked as high as No. 8 in the country.