23 Apr

better than most

In case you missed it, Laurel native Shemar Page, now pitching for Grambling State, threw a seven-inning perfect game Friday against visiting Alcorn State. It is reported to be just the 34th perfecto in NCAA Division I history going back to 1959. Page struck out 13 of the 21 batters he faced. The Tigers run-ruled the Braves 16-0. It’s been that kind of year for Alcorn, 2-24 after that loss. Right-hander Page has followed a long and winding road to Grambling. He was a two-way player at Raleigh High, an ace pitcher at Pearl River Community College — which won state and region titles while he was there — and primarily a hitter in two seasons at Louisiana Tech. As a grad transfer at Grambling, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Page has posted a 5-4, 2.67 ledger in 10 starts on the mound and is batting .359 in 78 at-bats.

20 Apr

random numbers of note

9 — Wins for Buck Showalter’s New York Mets, most in the majors. The former Mississippi State player and new Mets manager saw his club sweep a twinbill from San Francisco on Tuesday to improve to 9-3.
5 — Innings played in right field by former Mississippi Braves star Ronald Acuna on a rehab assignment in the Atlanta system. Acuna doubled in three at-bats for Triple-A Gwinnett and appears on track for an early May return to the Braves’ lineup.
129 — Career MLB home runs for Hunter Renfroe, the ex-State standout who hit his first as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday.
4 — Homers, in 36 at-bats, for MSU product Jordan Westburg at Double-A Bowie in the Baltimore organization. The 30th overall pick in the 2020 draft is batting .306.
10 — Active hitting streak for the M-Braves’ Michael Harris II, Atlanta’s top prospect who is batting .366 with nine RBIs and three steals in 10 games in his first Double-A campaign.
10 — Consecutive wins by Southern Miss, which beat Tulane 11-5 Tuesday to move to 28-8 on the season. The Golden Eagles are ranked in the top 10 in most of the polls.
6 and 7 — Where Mississippi State and Ole Miss sit in the SEC West standings heading into their series this week in Oxford. Both the Bulldogs (6-9, 22-16) and Rebels (5-10, 21-15) began the season as consensus Top 25 teams.
.308 — Batting average for Alcorn State’s Diego Lopez-Molina, a sophomore from Puerto Rico who leads the lowly Braves (2-23) in hits and RBIs and ranks second in runs, homers, OBP and slugging.
12 — Homers for Jake Barlow, who has helped nationally ranked Delta State climb to 25-11, 16-5 (and first) in the Gulf South Conference. He hit 19 bombs last year and 11 in 2019.
4 — Consecutive wins for William Carey University, which beat West Alabama 12-7 Tuesday behind Chris Williams’ three-hit, three-RBI, three-run effort and ran its record to 27-15. The Crusaders, 13-8 in the SSAC, host Tougaloo this weekend in a non-conference series.
42 — Runs scored by Chris Hart, who also has six homers, 23 RBIs and a .311 batting average for Millsaps, 18-18, 8-10 Southern Athletic Association with one conference series remaining — at home vs. Sewanee this weekend.
5 — Wins in six decisions for Brett Sanchez, who has helped Belhaven to a 20-12 mark, 16-9 in the American Southwest Conference. Sanchez, who has a 2.31 ERA in his eight starts, went 9-2 in 2021 for a 20-win team.
16-4 — Pearl River Community College’s MACCC record, which leads the league standings by 2 games over Hinds and East Mississippi. The Wildcats (28-8) are currently ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA Division II poll.
4 — Undefeated Sumrall High School’s spot in the latest MaxPreps Top 25. Northwest Rankin is No. 25. Sumrall is 25-0, NWR 25-2 after both posted wins on Tuesday.

28 Mar

let’s get some runs

The focus here is on runs. Not home runs. Not RBIs. Just runs, which, when you get down to it, is what baseball is all about. Alcorn State scored eight runs on Sunday, just enough to win for the first time this season after 16 consecutive losses in which the Braves rarely scored. (They actually scored nine times on Saturday but, curse their luck, managed to lose 10-9.) So give a shout-out to first-year Braves coach Reggie Williams, the ex-big leaguer, and to Jamil Betancourt and Garrett Palladino, who each scored twice in the 8-7 win at Prairie View A&M. Alcorn’s leading scorer this season is Clayvonje Wright, who scored once on Sunday and now has six of the Braves’ 37 runs on the season. Ole Miss could have used a few more runs against Tennessee, scoring just seven all told in losing three times in Oxford. Jacob Gonzalez leads the Rebels (16-7) in runs with 28, though he never touched home plate in the UT series. Leading scorers in baseball don’t get the attention that they do in basketball or soccer or hockey. Doesn’t seem right. Here’s a tip of the cap to Mississippi State’s runs leader, Hunter Hines, who has 30 as a freshman for the 15-10 Bulldogs and ranks second in the SEC. Southern Miss (17-7), which tallied 35 times in a sweep at Western Kentucky over the weekend, is led by Christopher Sargent and Slade Wilks with 22 runs apiece. Jackson State (12-12) is led by Ty Hill with 29 runs. Mississippi Valley State (6-9-1) is topped by Maury Weaver with 13 runs. Chad Ragland is the leading scorer at Delta State (16-8) with 28, and Mississippi College (11-19) is led by Caleb Reese and Markarius Lee with 22 each.

23 Mar

hot spots

Compelling college matchups today (weather permitting):
Twenty Field, Jackson: Millsaps College hosts fellow NCAA Division III foe Belhaven University in the first Maloney Trophy Series game of the season. The Majors are 13-8, led by Mark Petkovsek Jr., who is batting a robust .420. Belhaven is 10-8 and coming off a three-game sweep of Sul Ross State in which the Blazers put up 40 runs. Nathan Herron is the top hitter at .290. The series went on hiatus in 2021, and they played only once in 2020 before the pandemic halted the season. Belhaven won that game and all three contests in 2019.
Sports Force Parks, Vicksburg: William Carey, ranked 19th in the most recent NAIA poll, will test its mettle against No. 4 LSU-Shreveport in a non-conference, neutral-site game. The Crusaders are 17-9, just 4-5 away from home. LSU-S is 26-2 and has won 15 straight games. Carey won last year’s game at this same site 13-3.
Dub Herring Park, Poplarville: In a clash of juco titans, No. 3 Pearl River Community College hosts No. 5 East Central CC in an MACCC doubleheader. PRCC is 15-5, 3-1 conference. Tate Parker is having a monster season, batting .450 with seven homers and 30 RBIs. Turner Swistak is 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA in five starts. Trey Lewis is batting .521 and carries a 17-game hit streak for ECCC, which is 17-4, 4-2.
Braddy Field, Jackson: Jackson State, reeling from a three-game SWAC sweep at Bethune-Cookman over the weekend, looks to get back on track against Tougaloo in an HBCU matchup. JSU, preseason No. 1 in the Black College Nines poll, is 10-10 overall, including two blowout wins against the NAIA Bulldogs last month. Tougaloo is 5-20.
BMC Sportsplex, Blue Mountain: MUW (5-11) visits Blue Mountain (15-12) in a non-conference rivalry of sorts. MUW, which competes in the USCAA, has beaten D-III Millsaps this season but faces a taller order against the NAIA Toppers.
P.S. Delta State was scheduled to host Southern Arkansas, the No. 4 team in NCAA Division II, but the game at Ferriss Field in Cleveland was cancelled because of weather issues.

18 Mar

let’s get it started

There is no more emphatic way for a player to step up than to lead off a game with a home run. As the second season — conference play — got under way Thursday for the state’s NCAA Division I schools, Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez hit a game-opening bomb to start the Rebels on their way to a 13-6 SEC win at Auburn. Ole Miss, ranked No. 1 in one poll, is now 13-3 overall. Gonzalez, a freshman All-America shortstop in 2021, was just 2-for-12 over his previous four games and had seen his average drop to .234. He was due for a step-up performance, and he delivered, going 2-for-4 with two homers, a walk and three runs against the Tigers. “He was a superstar today,” UM coach Mike Bianco said in a postgame interview. Who’ll step up today when Mississippi State, Southern Miss and Jackson State begin league play? Here are some ones to watch: For the Bulldogs, who take an 11-7 record and four-game win streak into their opener at Georgia, Luke Hancock needs to supply some power. The Houston native, who hit 10 homers for the national champs a year ago, has one this season, that coming on Feb. 27. A 2-for-13 slide has dropped his average to .266, and he has just seven RBIs. He knocked in 63 last season. For the Golden Eagles, Christopher Sargent, the usual cleanup batter, is hitting .197 with three homers and eight RBIs. Heading into a C-USA series at home against Florida Atlantic, USM (11-6 and coming off a big win vs. Alabama) could use a step-up effort from Sargent. He produced 16 homers and 57 RBIs in 2021, second on the team in both categories to departed star Reed Trimble. For JSU’s Tigers (10-7), who open SWAC play at Bethune-Cookman, keep an eye on Jatavis Melton, their leadoff batter. Melton, from Natchez, is batting .293 with 14 stolen bases and 18 runs. He has stalled out a bit of late, 5-for-22 with four runs in the last six games. JSU needs Melton to get on base and spark its attack. … Mississippi Valley State (4-5-1) hosts Alabama A&M this weekend, and Alcorn State (0-11) hosts Texas Southern. The Delta Devils and Braves would welcome more production from any- and everyone in their lineups.

07 Mar

what’s going on …

It was quite a wild weekend for state college teams.
Here’s a quick summary: Ole Miss lost for the first time. Mississippi State lost two of three games and may have lost its ace. Southern Miss won a series at Louisiana-Lafayette with a rubber game rally. Jackson State pounded hapless Alcorn State three times at Braddy Field. Mississippi College beat the No. 1 team in NCAA Division II (see previous post). Delta State swept a conference series on the road. William Carey took two of three from Blue Mountain in an SSAC opening series. Belhaven, playing at Trustmark Park in Pearl, swept a conference series. Millsaps opened conference play by winning a home series. MUW, playing its first home games in Columbus, took two of three from Greenville University.
Here are some observations, not necessarily astute: Ole Miss, ranked as high as No. 2, hit 19 bombs — five by Tim Elko — in its first nine games before getting blanked at Central Florida on Saturday in a 1-0, 12-inning loss. The Rebels (10-1) showed they could win without a homer as they bounced back for a 9-1 victory in Game 3 on Sunday. … State (6-6) scored 33 runs at Tulane but lost two of three. The Bulldogs’ staff ERA is 4.49 due mainly to a leaky bullpen. Landon Sims’ arm injury, if serious, could be an even bigger problem. … Hunter Riggins won 27 games over a stellar career at Delta State and is now 3-0 with a 0.45 ERA for USM (8-3). The Hernando native threw a shutout on Saturday at ULL. … New Alcorn State coach Reginald Williams could be in a for a long year as he attempts to rebuild the program. The Braves fell to 0-7 after getting swept by Jackson State this weekend. The Tigers (8-5) outscored the Braves 39-5. Alcorn made eight errors in Sunday’s game, a 14-3 defeat. … Carey’s A.J. Stinson improved to 3-0 with a six-hitter against Blue Mountain on Saturday in the rubber game of their SSAC series at Hattiesburg. Stinson struck out 11 in a 128-pitch effort in the 10-2 win in the second game of a twinbill. The Crusaders are 14-4, the Toppers 10-7. … A three-run homer by Hunter White and some clutch relief work by Will Swift carried Belhaven (7-5) to a 4-2 win over Howard Payne on Saturday and a sweep of their American Southwest Conference series. … Sam Pitre homered and drove in four runs and Ryan Erwin picked up his fourth win in relief as Millsaps (11-5) whipped Centre College 15-5 on Sunday in the rubber game of a Southern Athletic Association series.

25 Feb

putting up numbers

Millsaps College is off to a hot start that reached its greatest intensity last Sunday, when the Majors routed the University of Dallas 22-1 at Twenty Field. The Majors are 7-3 heading into another three-game tournament at home this weekend that will conclude with an interesting game against MUW on Sunday. Mark Petkovsek Jr. and freshman Bradley Pelle are batting .372 each, and Ryan Erwin is 3-0 with a 2.25 ERA in four appearances.
Other numbers of note at the state’s small schools:
8.36: Delta State’s staff ERA through eight games. The Statesmen (3-5) surrendered 36 runs while getting swept in a three-game Gulf South series at Shorter last weekend. On the positive side, freshman transfer Hayden Cooper has three homers in 17 at-bats. DSU hosts GSC foe Montevallo at Ferriss Field this weekend.
16: Ken Scott’s RBI total through 11 games for Mississippi College. The senior outfielder from Meridian, by way of East Central Community College, is batting .341 with three homers and six stolen bases for the Choctaws (3-8, 1-2 GSC). They host league opponent Christian Brothers this weekend.
.301: William Carey’s team batting average. Led by R.J. Stinson at .467, the Crusaders are off to a 9-3 start (all home games) and play Bryant & Stratton-Albany at Wheeler Field this weekend. Note, too, that Carey pitchers have 111 strikeouts in 90 innings.
16: Runs by Blue Mountain in a 16-6 win against a good Freed-Hardeman team on Wednesday. Dylan Hale, a DeSoto Central product, went 3-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs for the Toppers (5-5), who host Culver-Stockton this weekend.
.140: Belhaven’s team batting average. Caleb Whittle, a senior from Fulton via Itawamba CC, is hitting .389; no other player is above .200. The Blazers (2-4 overall and in the American Southwest Conference) are at Concordia-Texas for a league series this weekend.
P.S. Reggie Williams, the ex-big leaguer, is slated to make his Alcorn State coaching debut this weekend at McNeese State. … Mississippi Valley State, which didn’t win a game in 2021, blasted Rust College twice on Sunday in Stanley Stubbs’ debut as coach but faces a sterner test this weekend at Nicholls State.

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.

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.