Tag Archives: Cotton States League

01 Jul

clearing the bases

Ex-Mississippi State standout Colton Ledbetter was named the Southern League’s player of the week on Monday and was also honored as a member of MLB Pipeline’s Prospect Team of the Week. He went 12-for-23 last week with a homer, four RBIs and eight runs for Montgomery, Tampa Bay’s Double-A club. He is batting .280 on the year. … Mississippi Mud Monsters right-hander Brian Williams was named the Frontier League pitcher of the week. He threw seven shutout innings (two hits, no walks, seven strikeouts) vs. Down East last week at Trustmark Park. A former Texas Southern star, Williams is 3-2 with a 2.49 ERA this season for the independent club. … MSU’s Ace Reese went 2-for-6 with two walks, an RBI and three runs in the Collegiate National Team’s Stars v. Stripes doubleheader on Monday at Cary, N.C. Reese played for the Stars, who won Game 1 18-4. MSU’s Ryan McPherson threw a scoreless inning for the Stripes in that game. … Ole Miss’ Patrick Galle and Taylorsville native Aiden Moffett participated in Monday’s Cape Cod League vs. MLB Draft League All-Star Game at CitiField in New York. Galle, with Wareham in the Cape, allowed a run in 2/3 innings of work, while Moffett, who pitched at Texas this past season, struck out the only batter he faced. Galle is 1-1, two saves, 1.93 ERA, in the Cape. Moffett is 1-1, one save, 4.26, in the Draft League, a prospect showcase. … Houston Green, an Itawamba Community College alum, is batting .423 with nine RBIs and 10 runs for the Tallahatchie Rascals, who lead the Cotton States League with a 9-1-1 record. The top pitcher in the New Albany-based summer circuit is Delta State’s Eli Akins, 3-0 with a 1.66 for North Delta, which is 5-5. … Andrew Gipson, the former Belhaven University coach recently hired at New Orleans, was named a regional coach of the year in NCAA Division III by ABCA/ATEC. Gipson took the Blazers to the Super Regional round in the NCAAs. East Central Community College’s Neal Holliman and Pearl River CC’s Michael Avalon shared the NJCAA D-II regional award, and Mississippi native Butch Thompson of Auburn won an NCAA D-I regional award. … Incidentally, Gipson will be UNO’s third coach in three seasons. His replacement at BU, ex-Madison Central coach Patrick Robey, will be the Blazers’ third coach in four years. … Bidding for another MLB All-Star Game invite, Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet struck out nine batters in six innings for Boston on Monday night, running his MLB-leading K total to 144. After beating Cincinnati, Crochet is 8-4 with a 2.26 ERA. … Former MSU star J.T. Ginn, coming off a couple of wobbly outings, retired all 11 batters he faced for the A’s against Tampa Bay. Ginn entered in the fourth inning and shut down a Rays rally, struck out the side in the fifth and retired former Bulldogs teammate Jake Mangum on a grounder in the sixth. The A’s won the game late, 6-4. … The Los Angeles Angels are 5-4 under interim manager Ray Montgomery, the former Jackson Generals star who will be filling in for Ron Washington, sidelined with a medical issue, the rest of the season. The Angels are in Atlanta today to start a three-game set.

09 Jun

in local news

At Pearl, the Mississippi Mud Monsters wrapped up a 4-1 homestand with a twinbill split Sunday against Florence (Ky.) at Trustmark Park. In the 11-2 win in Game 2, Kyle Booker homered and drove in three runs to back the strong start of Rodney Theopile. Nick Hassan went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run for the independent Mud Monsters. Booker, a former DeSoto Central High star who spent three years at Tennessee, is batting .327 with three homers and 18 RBIs on the year. He had two of the Mud-sters’ three hits in a 4-0 loss in Sunday’s opener. Mississippi is 13-14 in its inaugural Frontier League season. After a 12-game road trip, the next homestand starts June 24.
At Biloxi, the Double-A Shuckers whipped Montgomery 6-4 at Keesler Federal Park to win the Southern League series 5 games to 1. The first-place Shuckers are 35-22. Brock Wilken, a highly rated Milwaukee prospect, hit a grand slam, and former Magnolia Heights standout Cooper Pratt, another top prospect, went 3-for-4 with an RBI, a run and two steals. Wilken leads the SL with 15 homers and 35 RBIs. The Shuckers are celebrating their 10th anniversary season as an SL club.
At New Albany, the college boys of the Cotton States League played a pair of doubleheaders in BNA Bank Park with league-leader Tallahatchie going 1-0-1 vs. Tippah County and North Delta taking two from Hill Country. Houston Green, an Itawamba Community College alum, drove in two runs for Tallahatchie to back the three-hit pitching of Jake Thomas and Sam Brumbaugh in their 5-1 win. The Rascals are 4-0-1. Green is 6-for-12 on the young season, and Thomas is 2-0 with a 1.12 ERA. For North Delta, Eli Akins, a Delta State alum, threw a one-hitter in a 2-0 win against Hill Country after Connor Edge (ICC) tossed a three-hitter and Hayden Short knocked in three runs in the Dealers’ 10-1 victory in the opener.
P.S. Madison Central High product Spencer Turnbull has been added to Toronto’s active roster. The veteran right-hander, a recent free agent signee, had a 2.65 ERA in 17 games for Philadelphia before a lat injury in June ended his 2024 season. He has a 4.26 career ERA over 78 games. … Braden Montgomery, another Madison Central alum, had a four-hit game Sunday for High-Class A Winston-Salem and boosted his average there to .263. Montgomery is a highly rated prospect in the Chicago White Sox’s chain.

31 May

good news and …

Good day for Mississippi State and Pearl River Community College. While rumors percolate about who’ll be coaching them in 2026, the ’25 MSU team upended Northeastern 11-2 Friday in the opener of the Tallahassee Regional. Joe Powell and Noah Sullivan hit home runs and Ben Davis and Ryan McPherson combined on a five-hitter as the Bulldogs set up a winners bracket meeting today with Florida State, the top seed in the regional. Pearl River got a brilliant two-hitter from K.K. Clark — an MSU transfer — and beat East Central CC 10-0 in five innings to advance to the championship game of the NJCAA Division II World Series. Second-seeded PRCC, which won the title in 2022, faces No. 1 Pasco-Hernando State (Fla.) today in Enid, Okla., for the crown. ECCC ends its season at 46-16. … Bad day for Ole Miss and Southern Miss. Pitching let both of the regional hosts down. The Rebels were shocked by Murray State 9-6 in Oxford, while the Golden Eagles got pummeled 11-4 by Columbia in Hattiesburg. Ole Miss gets 3-seed Western Kentucky today. Former Hinds CC star Thomas Marsala is on the Hilltoppers’ roster. USM plays an elimination game against 2-seed Alabama, upset by Miami on Friday. There are several familiar names on the Crimson Tide roster: Bryce Fowler, who played at USM two years ago before transferring to Pearl River CC; Will Hodo, a former Wayne Academy star; Beau Bryans, a Madison Central and Jones College alum; and Jack Ketchum, a freshman out of Heritage Academy. P.S. Jake Mangum, out since April 24, returned to Tampa Bay’s roster on Friday. The rookie out of MSU, batting .338 when he was hurt, went 0-for-3 in a 2-1 loss to Houston. (Fun fact: Yainer Diaz, who hit the walk-off homer for the Astros, is the older brother of the Mississippi Mud Monsters’ Victor Diaz. Both are catchers.) … Rick Collier, who won more than 700 games in 23 years at Itawamba Community College, has retired. A three-time coach of the year in the state, his teams were a regular in the NJCAA national rankings and made the postseason 18 times. Under Delta State alum Collier, the program had more than 20 players drafted by MLB clubs, among them Tim Dillard and Desmond Jennings. … Happy trails, also, to Bill Blackwell, who has retired as executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, where he had served since 2016. Blackwell, who played baseball at Southern Illinois, was a longtime general manager of the Double-A Jackson Mets and Generals at Smith-Wills Stadium. … Today is opening day for the Cotton States League, the New Albany-based college summer loop that’s been around since 2009. The league will field four teams, stocked mostly with small college and juco players.

05 Aug

patience, patience …

Two months into this season, Kansas City Royals fans had to be wondering if their team had made a mistake in signing Hunter Renfroe as a free agent in the off-season. The ex-Mississippi State star from Crystal Springs was batting .178 with four home runs on May 31. But a little patience on the part of Royals management appears to have paid off. Renfroe hit .333 in June, .297 in July and is currently riding a 10-game hit streak that has raised his average to .246. He has 11 homers, 44 RBIs and 36 runs and has been a good complementary piece in a KC lineup that features Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez. Renfroe is also an excellent right fielder, with six assists and one error in 92 games. On Sunday at Detroit, the nine-year MLB veteran singled to lead off the ninth inning and came around to score on M.J. Melendez’s clutch three-run homer as the Royals won 3-2, their seventh win in 10 games. They are 63-50 and currently hold the third wild card in the American League. Renfroe, who entered this season with 177 career homers, signed with the Royals for $6.5 million; he has played for seven different teams the past seven years. He was a first-round draft pick by San Diego in 2013 after an All-America career at State. P.S. Southern Miss alum Landon Harper extended his streak of scoreless innings to 25 1/3 for the Mississippi Braves, who nonetheless lost — again — to Tennessee on Sunday at Trustmark Park. Harper, a third-year pro from Meridian, has a 0.95 ERA in 14 games for the Double-A M-Braves. He has fanned 25 and walked just two in 28 1/3 innings. … Brody Breithaupt, a former Lafayette High standout, delivered a two-run walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh to give the North Delta Dealers a 10-9 win over the HillCountry Generals in the Cotton States League championship game in New Albany.

04 Aug

that sinking feeling

Garrett Crochet, the All-Star from Ocean Springs, took the mound for the Chicago White Sox on Saturday and pitched well over his four innings, allowing just a single run. The good start did not matter. The hapless ChiSox lost for the 19th straight time, 6-2 at Minnesota. Chicago (27-86) hasn’t won since July 10. Crochet (6-8, 3.19 ERA, after a no-decision Saturday) hasn’t won since June 7. Converted from reliever to starter this spring, the left-hander is having his innings limited. He hasn’t thrown more than four in his last five starts. He is at 118 1/3 innings in 23 starts on the season. Saturday’s start was his first since the trade deadline, when the constraints he placed on his availability the rest of the way likely kept him from being dealt to a contender. So he is stuck with one of the worst teams in history, a team that is threatening the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies’ record for consecutive losses (23). The White Sox rank last in MLB in runs, batting and OPS and are 19th in homers and walks. (Though he hasn’t had much to work with this year, hitting coach Marcus Thames, the ex-East Central Community College slugger, probably won’t be back in 2025.) P.S. On a more positive note: Cheers for the late Red Barber, the Columbus native who was formally inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday. Barber, the legendary voice of the old Brooklyn Dodgers (among others from 1934-66), is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame as one of the first recipients of the Ford C. Frick Award. … Biloxi High product Colt Keith of the Detroit Tigers was named the American League’s rookie of the month for July. He hit .322 (.404 on-base percentage) with seven homers and 17 RBIs. … The North Delta Dealers and HillCountry Generals will meet today for the Cotton States League title at Legion Field in New Albany. Avery Benson, an MUW alum, homered and drove in three runs and Sam Roy (Holmes CC) delivered the walk-off knock as the Dealers beat Tallahatchie 8-7 on Saturday. Benji Webb (Blue Mountain Christian) pitched a complete game, fanning 12 over the seven innings, and Joseph Rollins (Eupora High) drove in three runs for the Generals in a 5-2 win against Tupelo. … Davis Bradshaw, former McLaurin High and Meridian CC star, was released by Miami. In six pro seasons, he had a .303 career average with five homers in 379 games, only 45 above A-ball.

02 Jul

whatever happened to …

Reed Trimble, the oft-injured ex-Southern Miss star, is having a terrific season at High-Class A Aberdeen in the Baltimore system. The switch-hitting outfielder, 24, is batting .296 with two homers, seven doubles, three triples, 16 RBIs, 16 runs and 13 steals in 40 games. On Monday, he flashed his all-around skills against Greensboro, going 2-for-4 with a homer, a double, a steal, two RBIs and three runs. Drafted 65th overall by the Orioles in 2021 — after hitting .345 with 17 homers for USM — Trimble has been on and off the injured list many times over four pro seasons. He has played in just 104 games, hitting .245 overall, but may be finding his stride this summer. … Drafted 570th overall by San Diego in 2022, former Tishomingo County High standout Spence Coffman is blossoming in his third tour of the Arizona Complex League. Coffman, 20, a shortstop, ranks among the league leaders with a .326 average and 14 steals. He has driven in 21 runs and scored 22 for the Padres’ rookie-level club. … Drafted 60th overall in 2018 (by Milwaukee) and released last month (by Kansas City), Joe Gray Jr. has landed in the independent Atlantic League, where he is batting .250 in nine games for Gastonia. P.S. Ole Miss alum Andrew Fischer — who reportedly has entered the transfer portal (again) — is among the top sluggers in the Cape Cod League with three homers and 12 RBIs for Brewster. Fischer hit 20 homers for the Rebels in 2024 after transferring in from Duke. Other notables in the Cape: Southern Miss’ Davis Gillespie is hitting .276 with four runs for Bourne; Ole Miss’ Campbell Smithwick is batting .304 for Chatham; and Mississippi State’s Gavin Black has a 0.00 ERA with 10 strikeouts over 8 1/3 innings for Wareham. … The Tupelo Thunder has bolted to a 9-2 start in the Cotton States League, led by two-way standout Hayden Roberts. The Itawamba Community College product from Belden leads the New Albany-based college summer league in hitting at .545 and has 12 RBIs and 12 runs. He also has a 2-0 record and 2.33 ERA in four starts on the mound. Left-hander Chris Robinson, a former Eupora High star, is 3-0, 2.21, in four starts for the Thunder.

08 Jun

white knight

Mired in a franchise-record 14-game losing streak and coming off a woeful performance on Thursday, the lowly Chicago White Sox sent Garrett Crochet out to ride to their rescue on Friday night. The 6-foot-6 left-hander from Ocean Springs delivered the W — with a little help from his posse. In a 7-2 win over Boston at Guaranteed Rate Field, Crochet pitched six innings, allowing three hits and two runs with two walks and 10 strikeouts. “That guy is a (expletive) stud,” Boston’s Jarren Duran told mlb.com. Crochet, converted to starter this spring, now owns six of the White Sox’s 16 wins. He is 6-5 with a 3.33 ERA and ranks second in MLB with 103 K’s. Crochet was also the winning pitcher in the team’s previous victory — back on May 21. One of the runs he allowed Friday was the result of his own bad throw and the other came on a bizarre steal of home by Duran. Rookie Jonathan Cannon pitched the final three innings for his first save. Luis Robert Jr., Gavin Sheets and Andrew Vaughn homered for the ChiSox — a welcome sight for hitting coach Marcus Thames, the ex-East Central Community College star whose charges entered Friday’s game last in MLB in hitting and runs and tied for last in homers. (Crochet notwithstanding, the pitching ain’t so good either: The staff ranks next-to-last in ERA and runs allowed.) P.S. Nacho Alvarez, Atlanta’s top-rated position player prospect, returned to the Double-A Mississippi Braves’ lineup at shortstop and went 1-for-5 with an RBI in a 2-1 loss at Pensacola. Alvarez had been out since May 30 with a minor injury. … Zach Allen has been elevated to head coach at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. Pascagoula native Allen, who played at Jones JC and William Carey, was an assistant to Bob Keller the last three years. The Bulldogs went 26-22 in 2024 and missed the MACCC postseason. … The New Albany-based Cotton States League is scheduled to begin its 16th season today. The wood-bat college summer league has four teams this year, comprised mainly of players from small colleges and jucos around the state. … The Cape Cod League’s season begins next Saturday, and there is a smattering of Mississippi alums in what is regarded as the premier summer loop for collegians. Southern Miss’ Davis Gillespie, Nick Monistere and Kros Sivley are among those on the preliminary rosters, along with Ole Miss’ Andrew Fischer, Luke Hill, Campbell Smithwick and Patrick Galle and Mississippi State’s Luke Dotson, Cam Schuelke and Dylan Cupp. The rosters will change frequently as the season progresses.

05 Sep

touch ’em all

Take pause today from the MLB division and wild card races to honor the life of Doug Shanks, who had a far-reaching impact in baseball — and politics — in the Magnolia State. Jackson native and Provine High alum Shanks, who died Monday at 76, was instrumental as a City Commissioner in the 1970s in getting the New York Mets to move their Double-A team to Jackson and getting Smith-Wills Stadium built as their home. Three different pro teams that played there won six league titles from 1975-2005. Shanks coached youth baseball, including the Jackson 96ers, for many years; won state championships at University Christian School (now Hartfield Academy); and coached 14 seasons at Mississippi Valley State, where he won five division titles, reached the SWAC Tournament championship game and famously hosted Notre Dame for a three-game series in 2010. After retiring from Valley in 2015 — and being honored by the state Legislature — he took the coaching job at Central Hinds Academy. Shanks also launched the Cotton States League, a collegiate summer league that played its games at Smith-Wills in 2001, when the city didn’t have a pro team. The league still operates in New Albany. And he played a key role in getting the Dizzy Dean Museum built in Jackson in the mid-’70s; it is now housed in the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum adjacent to Smith-Wills. Shanks’ son Fred, a state Representative, said this in a Facebook post: “He lived a full life and was a bit of a Forrest Gump.”

02 Aug

cape crusaders

A handful of Mississippians are on playoff-bound teams in the Cape Cod League, which concludes its regular season today. The playoffs in the elite college summer league begin on Friday. Mississippi State’s Hunter Hines, the league home run and RBI leader, and former Madison Central High star Braden Montgomery play for Yarmouth-Dennis, which currently sits second in the East Division. Ole Miss’ Mason Nichols and Southern Miss’ Kros Sivley, J.B. Middleton and Will Armistead are on the Hyannis roster, second in the West. Hines is batting .262 with 12 homers and 43 RBIs. Teammate Montgomery, a current Stanford standout who played for Team USA earlier this summer, is hitting .319 with one homer and nine RBIs. He has pitched in three games, yielding three runs, all in a relief appearance on Tuesday. Nichols, who started Tuesday for Hyannis, is 1-1 with a 3.46 ERA in eight games. Sivley, who picked up the win on Tuesday, is 2-1 with a 4.35 in 11 games; Middleton has a 3.24 with a win and a save in six appearances; and Armistead has a 7.20 in six games. P.S. Ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn went seven innings Tuesday night to get the win against Oakland in his Los Angeles Dodgers debut. Lynn gave up three homers — including ex-MSU standout Brent Rooker’s 18th — and leads MLB with 31 bombs allowed. … George County High product Justin Steele notched his 12th win — tied for the MLB lead — for the Chicago Cubs in a beatdown against Cincinnati. … Alec Barger, who had a 3.29 ERA in 30 appearances for the Double-A Mississippi Braves, was dealt by Atlanta to Colorado for big league left-hander Brad Hand. … UM alum James McArthur (4.28 ERA at Triple-A Omaha) was recalled to the majors by Kansas City. … Ex-USM star Matthew Etzel went 1-for-3 with an RBI in his pro debut Tuesday for Baltimore’s Florida Complex League team, and ex-Golden Eagles standout Justin Storm threw a scoreless inning for Miami’s FCL team in his debut. … USM slugger Slade Wilks, who is not playing summer ball, is working as a hitting instructor at Alpha Academy in Columbia, his hometown, per a report by Hattiesburg TV station WDAM. Wilks hit .289 with 20 homers and was a Ferriss Trophy finalist in 2023. … The semi-pro Hattiesburg Black Sox, who won the Mississippi Baseball Congress championship, will begin play Thursday in the NABF Major Division World Series at Battle Creek, Mich. The Black Sox swept the individual honors in the MBC tournament, with Jake Lycette winning MVP, Ervin Simmons the top pitcher award and Marcus Ragan the batting title. … The Tupelo Thunder, with a roster stocked with Mississippi juco players, won the Cotton States League championship last weekend.

11 Jul

summer stock

Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez is 1-for-7 for Team USA and teammate Hunter Elliott worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings in one of the team’s two games in a tournament in The Netherlands. UM coach Mike Bianco is managing the Collegiate National Team, 1-1 in the tournament with a win against Italy and a loss to Japan. They play Cuba today. … With five hits over his last three games, Kellum Clark has boosted his average to .270 in the Cape Cod League. The Brandon native, who batted .254 with 14 homers at Mississippi State last season, has driven in six runs and scored seven for Wareham. His MSU teammate Jackson Fristoe has a 11.11 ERA in four games for the Gatemen, and Southern Miss’ Niko Mazza, a Madison native, is 1-1 with a 3.37 for that team. Ole Miss catcher Calvin Harris is 5-for-13 since joining the Cotuit club. USM’s Isaiah Rhodes has a 2.07 ERA in three appearances for Hyannis, and UM’s Wes Burton is 1-0, 5.06 for the Harbor Hawks. … William Carey’s Patrick Lee is second in the Texas Collegiate League with a .361 average and tops the league in runs with 30. He is one of several Mississippians playing for the Acadiana Cane Cutters. … In the New Albany-based Cotton States League, the HillCountry Generals are off to a 14-3 start, far and away best in the five-team college summer loop. Evan Radford, a former USM player now listed with East Mississippi Community College, is batting .500 with three homers and 15 RBIs for the Generals. Also for the Generals: EMCC’s Zac Butler is batting .429 with 17 runs; Northwest CC’s Peeko Townsend leads the league with five homers; Pontotoc native Caleb Hobson has scored 22 runs; and Amory’s Brody Bickerstaff is 4-0 with a 3.01 ERA.