Tag Archives: Cotton States League

23 Jun

heat check

Brian Dozier appears to be over his slump. The former Southern Miss standout, whose average had dipped below .200 in late May, has hit .375 over his last 15 games with two homers, six RBIs and 12 runs. The Minnesota Twins second baseman is at. 244 for the season with eight homers and 28 RBIs, a little off his All-Star production from 2015 but trending in the right direction. … A number of other Mississippians are producing some hot stuff with the bat: At Triple-A El Paso, ex-Mississippi State star Hunter Renfroe hit his 17th homer on Wednesday and has three in his last six games. He is batting .314 for San Diego’s top farm team. … MSU alum Adam Frazier, at Triple-A Indianapolis (Pittsburgh), is batting .393 in June with 14 runs and 10 RBIs. He is at .333 for the year. … At Double-A Arkansas (Los Angeles Angels), Ole Miss product Alex Yarbrough is batting .357 over his last 10 games, boosting his average to .272. He is bidding to get back to Triple-A, where he began the season. … Southwest Mississippi Community College alum Kade Scivicque has hit .359 over his last 10 games for Class A Lakeland in Detroit’s system. The second-year pro, a catcher, is batting .276. … Miciah Heard, a Blue Mountain College player from Thaxton, is off to an 11-for-22 start in the Cotton States League, the New Albany-based college summer circuit. Heard, a .314 hitter for BMC, has 13 steals, nine runs and five RBIs in six games for the Tallahatchie Rascals. … Not exactly hot but glad to be back on the field is Anthony Alford, the former Petal High star. Alford, who suffered a concussion on June 10, played Wednesday for Class A Dunedin, going 0-for-3. The highly regarded Toronto prospect is batting .200 in an injury-wracked campaign.

03 Aug

here and there

The list of Mississippians to play for the Mississippi Braves will grow tonight when Jackson native Zack Bird makes his Double-A debut at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Former Murrah High star Bird joins a group that includes Jay Powell, Michael Rosamond, John Thomson, Van Pope and Brent Leach. Powell (West Lauderdale High), Rosamond (Madison Central), Pope (Terry) and Leach (Brandon) were prep and college stars in the state. Thomson, a Vicksburg native who appeared with the M-Braves on two different major league rehab assignments, went to high school in Sulphur, La. A number of Mississippi natives also played for Jackson’s old Texas League franchise, including Murrah product Fletcher Thompson, the second baseman for the 1993 pennant-winning Generals. Bird, acquired last week from the Los Angeles Dodgers, was 5-7 with a 4.75 ERA in 19 games (17 starts) at the high Class A level this season. … The Tippah Tribe beat the Tupelo Thunder 5-1 on Sunday in New Albany to claim the Cotton States League championship. Northwest Mississippi Community College alum Stephen Sexton and Bryan Ray Jr. homered for the Tribe. … Former Southern Miss star Brian Dozier matched his career-high for homers with No. 23 for Minnesota on Sunday; the Tupelo native, now in his fourth MLB season, has 70 career homers. … Taylorsville High product Billy Hamilton is 51-for-58 on steal attempts this season for Cincinnati, an 88 percent success rate. His 2014 rate was 71 percent; he was thrown out an MLB-high 23 times while stealing 56 bases. … McComb native and Meridian CC alum Corey Dickerson is back on Colorado’s disabled list, his third trip of the year, this time due to broken ribs. He has played just 43 games, hitting .315 with five homers. … Former Itawamba CC standout Desmond Jennings is 1-for-5 in two rehab games at Triple-A Durham. Out since April with a knee problem, he figures to rejoin the Tampa Bay club sometime soon. … Last but hardly least, ex-Richton High star JaCoby Jones hit three homers for Erie on Sunday, his third game with Detroit’s Double-A club since he was traded last week (for Joakim Soria) by Pittsburgh. Jones, a shortstop, had 10 homers in A-ball this season and 23 in 2014.

13 Jul

cotton pickin’

With about two weeks left in the season, the Tippah Tribe has emerged as the best team in the Cotton States League. The Tribe is 12-3 with five straight wins in the New Albany-based college summer league. Luke Stanley, a Delta State alum, went 2-for-4 with an RBI, a run and a steal to spark the Tribe to a 6-5 win over Tallahatchie on Sunday. Tallahatchie, 9-7 and tops in the Delta Division, gets another crack at the Deep South Division-leading Tribe on Tuesday. The Tribe’s Jerry Tatum has a 0.86 ERA and two saves over 21 innings. The Rascals’ Zach Phillips leads the CSBL in homers (four) and RBIs (20), and Payton Cain is 4-1. In other games on Sunday: Tyler Dowdy and Drew Carter combined on a one-hitter to lead Hill Country past Tupelo 1-0. Dowdy, a Mississippi Delta Community College product, earned his third win, Carter – an Itawamba CC alum — the save. Jordan Lambert, batting .524, scored the game’s only run. And Jon Marc Girardeau and Zachary Quillian combined for six hits, six RBIs and four runs to pace Golden Triangle over North Delta 13-1. Matthew Mills notched his fourth win for the Jets, who are 9-8 in the Delta Division.

22 Jun

touching the bases

Hunter Renfroe, the ex-Mississippi State standout, hit a pair of home runs in a game for Double-A San Antonio on Sunday. San Diego’s 2013 first-round pick, Renfroe is batting .343 over his last 10 games and is at .244 with five homers and 26 RBIs on the season. This is his first full year in the Texas League. … JaCoby Jones, the former Richton High star, had a two-run triple in Saturday’s Florida State League All-Star Game. The Pittsburgh shortstop prospect is in his first full year at high Class A Bradenton. … Jacob Lindgren’s season may be over. The State product, who made his big league debut for the New York Yankees this season, is having elbow surgery and is expected to be down about 12 weeks. The left-hander had a 5.14 ERA in seven MLB innings. … Ole Miss alum Lance Lynn is slated to come off the DL and start Thursday for St. Louis at Miami. Lynn, out two weeks with a forearm strain, is 4-4 with a 3.07 ERA. … The Mississippi Braves lost 12 of their last 15 to finish 33-35 in the first half of the Southern League season. Following the SL All-Star break, the M-Braves begin the second half at home on Thursday. … Ole Miss’ Errol Robinson is among the Cape Cod League batting leaders with a .322 average over nine games; he has scored 10 runs and stolen five bags. His Hyannis team is 8-3. Robinson hit .297 as a sophomore for the Rebels this year. … Blue Mountain College’s Dylan Earnest threw a five-hitter with six strikeouts to lead the Tupelo Thunder to a 4-1 win over the Tallahatchie Rascals on Sunday in Cotton States League play. Tupelo is 5-3, a half-game back of the Tippa Tribe (6-3) in the Deep South Division of the New Albany-based college summer circuit. The Golden Triangle Jets (6-4) lead the Rascals (5-3) in the Delta Division. … Zach Penprase, the onetime Mississippi Valley State star, is now playing his eighth season for Fargo-Moorhead in the independent American Association and hitting .292. Shortstop Penprase, 30, had a brief fling in affiliated ball; he was drafted by Philadelphia in 2006.

06 May

something new — sorta

The first of presumably many Mississippi Braves-Biloxi Shuckers games will go down tonight at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Perhaps a rivalry will develop, who knows? The teams are in the same division – the South – in the Southern League, and the Shuckers (a Milwaukee Brewers affiliate) are tied for first with a 16-9 record despite playing only road games. (This five-game series was supposed to be played on the Coast, but MGM Park isn’t finished yet.) The M-Braves are 11-12 and in the midst of a 15-game homestand. Intra-state battles among professional clubs were once a common thing in Mississippi. The last time Biloxi had a minor league team was in 1908, when the Gulfport-Biloxi Sand Crabs played in the Cotton States League, which included the Jackson Senators, as well as teams in Vicksburg, Columbus and Meridian. The Cotton States League, a low-level minor league which operated off and on from 1902-55, also had teams at various times in Cleveland, Clarksdale, Greenville, Greenwood, Hattiesburg, Natchez, Yazoo City, Laurel and Brookhaven. In 1921, the Mississippi State League consisted of four Magnolia State cities: Jackson, Clarksdale, Greenwood and Meridian. Jackson, Meridian and Vicksburg also had teams at times in the Southeastern League, which operated in the early to mid-1900s. As recently as 2000, the independent Texas-Louisiana League included the Jackson DiamondKats and the Greenville Bluesmen. In 1997, the indy Big South League featured teams in Meridian, Greenville and Tupelo. Still, Game 1 of the Mississippi-Biloxi series is something special. The pitching matchup tonight could be a good one: Jason Hursh (0-1, 8.50 ERA), an Atlanta prospect, against Brooks Hall (3-0, 0.96). The Shuckers’ Orlando Arcia, rated the Brewers’ No. 1 prospect by mlb.com, is second in the SL in hitting at .381, and Nick Ramirez is tied for the league lead with six home runs. P.S. Former M-Braves star Jose Peraza, Atlanta’s top prospect, is on a roll at Triple-A Gwinnett. The second baseman is batting .394 over his last 10 games and is at .320 for the year, with two triples, nine steals and 12 runs in 25 games.

01 Aug

summer stock

Keith Shumaker, a rising senior at Millsaps, is having a good summer in the Prospect League. The Brandon native is batting .294 with a homer, 29 RBIs and 20 runs in 50 games for Danville (Ill.) and made the collegiate summer league’s all-star game as a third baseman. He has also made four pitching appearances, posting an uncharacteristic 6.96 ERA in 10 1/3 innings. Shumaker batted .354 with three homers and 33 RBIs and went 6-1 with a 2.82 ERA on the mound for the 2014 Majors, who finished 23-19. He’ll again be the team’s centerpiece next spring. … Congratulations to the Tallahatchie Rascals, who won the New Albany-based Cotton States Baseball League title with a 14-6 record. The Rascals were coached by former Delta State All-American Andy Dillard, son of former big leaguer Steve Dillard. … Cooper Farris’ Wareham Gatemen will miss the Cape Cod League postseason for the second straight year after winning the title in 2012. Farris, the former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College coach, is in his 14th season in the Cape and has won three pennants. … DeSoto Central High star Austin Riley, a third baseman/pitcher, is slated to play in the Perfect Game All-American Classic on Aug. 10 in San Diego and in the Under Armour All-American Game in Chicago on Aug. 16. Riley, a Mississippi State commit, batted .465 with nine homers and went 8-3, 1.51 as a pitcher for DoSoto Central this past season.

09 Jul

summer stock

Ben Hellums, a Northeast Mississippi Community College alumnus from Ripley, put up an interesting pitching line Tuesday in the Cotton States League. The 6-foot-8 right-hander worked seven innings (a complete game) for the Tallahatchie Rascals, allowed two hits, one run and eight walks with three strikeouts. He also hit two batters and had two errors committed behind him. But he got the win — he is 3-1 with a 2.43 ERA — in a 5-1 victory against the Tupelo Thunder. The Rascals are 10-5, best record in the New Albany-based CSL, a college summer league now in its sixth season. … Southern Miss senior-to-be Connor Barron and incoming junior Taylor Walker were selected to the Texas Collegiate League All-Star Game, which was played Tuesday night. Barron, from Sumrall, is batting .333 and Walker .284 for Acadiana. … Rising sophomore Zac Houston of Mississippi State was named the New England Collegiate Baseball League pitcher of the week on Monday. The Poplarville product worked five hitless innings with 10 strikeouts in three appearances for Plymouth. … Ole Miss rising sophomore Errol Robinson is batting .231 for Wareham in the Cape Cod League, and rising junior lefty Matt Denny, a Jackson Academy product, has a 1.17 ERA in three games for Hyannis.