Tag Archives: Delta State

07 May

crunch time

There was one “upset” on the first day of the MACJC playoffs, and what a wild one it was. Hinds Community College, the fifth seed, beat fourth-seeded Northwest 12-11 in 10 innings over 4 hours and 20 minutes on Friday at Miles Field in Senatobia. They’ll finish the best-of-3 today. The teams combined for 21 hits and nine errors, seven by the Rangers. Hinds, the defending state champ, won it on a single by Donte Peters that scored Trey Jolly. Elsewhere, Mason Irby and Tanner Huddleston drove in three runs apiece and Mason Strickland notched his ninth win as No. 1 seed Jones County beat Delta 8-1 in Ellisville; Jaylon Keys hit a two-run triple and then scored the winning run in the ninth as host Meridian beat Itawamba 5-4 at Scaggs Field; and East Central topped Gulf Coast 11-9 in Decatur. P.S. William Carey bowed out of the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament with an 8-2 loss to top-seeded and NAIA No. 3 Faulkner on Friday. The No. 23 Crusaders (37-19), who beat Mobile earlier in the day to stay alive, remain a strong candidate for an NAIA postseason bid. … Delta State’s quest for a 13th Gulf South Conference Tournament championship starts today at Pensacola, Fla. The second-seeded Statesmen (34-15) would appear to have the weapons to pull it off. GSC pitcher of the year Tre Hobbs (12-1, 2.85 ERA) fronts the rotation, which also features Dalton Moats (9-3, 3.10), and Will Robertson, the GSC’s top hitter at .475, leads a potent offense.

03 May

’tis the postseason

William Carey and Delta State, both dreaming of a long and lustrous postseason, get started on that quest this week with conference tournament play. Carey, nationally ranked in NAIA, is the fourth seed in the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament and plays Mobile on Wednesday at Montgomery, Ala. Bobby Halford’s Crusaders are 35-17 and finished 17-8 in the SSAC. Carey’s split of two games with Loyola of New Orleans over the weekend cost Blue Mountain a berth in the SSAC tourney. BMC finished 7-19 in the league, ninth behind Loyola’s 7-18. The 23 wins were the most in a season for Curt Fowler’s still-young BMC program. Delta State (34-15), nationally ranked in NCAA Division II, heads into the Gulf South Conference Tournament as the No. 2 seed at 23-10. The event starts Saturday at Pensacola, Fla. Mike Kinnison’s Statesmen took two of three from Mississippi College over the weekend, clinching the No. 2 spot in the tournament with a 23-6 bashing of the Choctaws in Game 1 of a Sunday twinbill. MC finished 17-30 and 7-25 in its first year under Jeremy Haworth and second season back in the GSC.

29 Apr

watch for it

Mississippi College makes its first trip since 1996 to Ferriss Field in Cleveland this weekend. It might not be great fun. Waiting there for the Choctaws is a nationally ranked Delta State team that leads the Gulf South Conference in nine offensive categories. MC, improved this year under first-year coach Jeremy Haworth, is 16-28, 7-23 in the GSC (still ineligible for the championship), and has a staff ERA of 5.29. DSU is 32-14, 21-9 and pushing hard for an NCAA Division II Tournament bid. The Statesmen are ranked No. 6 in the latest South Region rankings. MC trails in the all-time series with DSU 104-28-1, though the Choctaws did win one of three last year in Clinton. The teams will play two games on Saturday and a single game Sunday. … Other series to watch this weekend: There’s Mississippi State-Alabama and LSU-Ole Miss, of course, and Southern Miss faces what could be a big test at Florida Atlantic. The Owls are 28-11, 12-6 C-USA, just 2 games back of the first-place Golden Eagles (30-12, 14-4). FAU’s C.J. Cheatham, the league’s preseason payer of the year, is batting .365. … Jackson State, which is hosting Alabama A&M, is treading water in the SWAC East at 8-8, good for second place in the standings behind Alabama State, 18-0 and visiting Alcorn State this weekend. JSU’s Cornelius Copeland leads the SWAC in hitting at .423 and Jesus Santana leads in homers with 13. … William Carey (34-16, 16-7 SSAC) finishes its regular season at Loyola of New Orleans. Carey is third in the league; Faulkner has clinched the title. … Blue Mountain (22-31, 5-18 SSAC) needs to win two of three at Martin Methodist (20-22, 7-14) to earn a league tournament berth, according to the Toppers’ web site. … In the jucos, NJCAA No. 8-ranked Meridian is at No. 20 Northwest on Saturday in a battle of MACJC second-place clubs. The Eagles will then host No. 2 Jones County on Monday to end the regular season. JCJC (40-4, 23-3) has clinched the regular season crown.

24 Apr

around the horn

It’s a day for letting baseball just flow over you. … Rubber game today in Hattiesburg with the Conference USA lead at stake. Kirk McCarty (3-0, 3.51 ERA) for Southern Miss vs. Ricardo Salinas (6-1, 3.60) for Rice in what has been a pitching-dominated series at Taylor Park. … Mississippi State goes for a sweep at LSU. Reid Humphreys, the ex-Northwest Rankin High star, got an RBI and the save in Saturday’s 2-1 win. For the year, he’s hitting .328 with 15 doubles, four homers and 31 RBIs and he has five saves. … Ole Miss, going for a sweep against Auburn in Oxford, now has won 30 games for 19 straight seasons. Impressive. … Delta State left-hander Tre Hobbs beat Valdosta State in Cleveland on Saturday to improve to 11-1 with a 2.46 ERA and eight complete games. Nationally ranked in NCAA Division II, DSU is 32-13, 21-8 Gulf South. … There was a celebration in Itta Bena on Saturday. By Alabama State, which clinched the SWAC East with a 10-0 win over hapless Mississippi Valley State. ASU (17-0 in the league) won Friday’s opener 12-0. … William Carey University improved to 34-15 and 16-7 in the Southern States Athletic Conference by sweeping Brewton-Parker in Hattiesburg. The NAIA nationally ranked Crusaders are hitting .327 with 390 runs. … Millsaps’ season ended with a 13-11 loss to Birmingham-Southern in the Southern Athletic Association tournament. The Majors finished 20-21. … Belhaven lost its home finale to McMurry at Smith-Wills Stadium on Saturday, saying goodbye to 11 seniors and paying special tribute to Devin McCann, who died in a car accident just before the season began. … Mississippi College stopped an 11-game GSC losing streak with a 3-2 win against Lee in Clinton on Saturday. The Choctaws go for the series win today at Frierson Field. … Former Ole Miss star Chris Ellis, bucking for a call-up to the big leagues, threw six brilliant innings for the Mississippi Braves against Biloxi at Trustmark Park on Saturday. He got a no-decision in a game the M-Braves would ultimately lose but is 2-0 with a 1.16 ERA in four Double-A starts. He got a long look with Atlanta in spring training. … Ex-State standout Chad Girodo’s stay in MLB was short but sweet. He threw two scoreless innings in his debut for Toronto against Oakland on Friday but was shipped back to the minors on Saturday. … UM product Zack Cozart went 3-for-5 in Cincinnati’s 13-5 win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday and is now batting .400 (20-for-50) on the year with a homer, five RBIs and 10 runs. … Anthony Alford, the former Mr. Baseball from Petal and a top-rated Toronto prospect, has not played since suffering a leg injury in his first game of the season at Class A Dunedin. The Blue Jays have been silent on his status.

20 Apr

campus notes

The Jones County Junior College express just keeps rolling on. The Bobcats, ranked fourth in the nation, beat Holmes Community College in Goodman 15-13 and 5-4 on Tuesday, improving to 18-2 in the MACJC and 35-3 overall under new coach Chris Kirtland. Over just its last 11 games, JCJC has won by scores of 11-1, 12-2, 13-3, 9-1, 13-3, 14-3, 20-1 and 8-3 before the sweep of Holmes. … Mississippi Gulf Coast CC’s Brian Lane was named MACJC player of the week after batting .571 with a homer and six RBIs and extending a hitting streak to 11 games in four contests last week. The Delta State signee is batting .411 on the year with 29 RBIs. … In Cleveland on Tuesday, DSU’s Will Robertson, having a monster season, went 4-for-6 with two doubles and a homer in a sweep of Ouachita Baptist. Robertson’s 26th double broke the school record held by, among others, Statesmen coach Mike Kinnison. Robertson, a redshirt senior from Falkner, is batting .451 with six homers and 59 RBIs for the 30-13 Statesmen, ranked 15th in NCAA Division II. … Logan Ferrell, Caleb Upton and Hunter Bolin combined for 10 hits as Mississippi College beat Belhaven University 13-9 on Tuesday at Smith-Wills Stadium in a game between Maloney Trophy Series combatants. MC went 2-0 against BU this season and beat Millsaps in their only meeting. … Millsaps (19-19), which wound up fourth in the Southern Athletic Association regular season, will play No. 5 seed Berry in the first round of tournament play on Friday at Birmingham-Southern. BSC, the regular season champ, opens with Sewanee in one of the two four-team, double-elimination pods. The winners from the two pods meet in a best-of-3 series for the SAA championship. … Here’s an interesting stat on Jackson State’s Jesus Santana. Of his 33 hits, 10 have left the park; he also has eight doubles. The Tigers (21-17) host the University of New Orleans tonight at Braddy Field. … Tate Blackman got a hit for Ole Miss on Tuesday, extending his streak of reaching base to 22 of 23 games as the Rebels whipped Memphis 7-0 at AutoZone Park. The nationally ranked Rebels (27-10) also blasted three homers in the minor league ballpark. … Southern Miss, also ranked in some polls, lost at Tulane 12-0 on Tuesday, perhaps looking ahead to the huge series against Rice this weekend in Hattiesburg. The Golden Eagles (27-11) and Owls are tied for first in C-USA at 12-3. … Mississippi State (24-12-1) takes its various national rankings to Biloxi tonight to play Louisiana-Monroe at MGM Park. ULM’s roster includes seven Mississippi juco products, among them ex-Hinds CC star Keller Bradford, son of former big leaguer Chad. Keller has a 2.78 ERA in 23 relief appearances for the Warhawks.

15 Apr

on the run

Funny, isn’t it, that leading scorers aren’t talked about in baseball the way they are in basketball, hockey or even football. Today, we fix that. Runs are the focus in previewing a weekend that’s practically overrun with big series. The leading scorer in the state among college players is Delta State’s Brandon Cummins, who has touched home plate 50 times in 38 games. The Drew native will lead the Statesmen into a key series in Cleveland this weekend, when DSU and West Florida, Gulf South Conference co-leaders at 18-6, meet at Ferriss Field. There’s another big series in Starkville, where Jacob Robson, with his 32 runs, will lead Mississippi State against Texas A&M in a battle of highly ranked SEC clubs. Nationally ranked Southern Miss — and leading scorer Dylan Burdeaux (34 runs) — takes its 11-1 C-USA record to Alabama-Birmingham. Will Golsan, who has 28 runs, leads nationally ranked Ole Miss (just 6-6 in the SEC) against Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Jackson State will count on a big weekend from leading scorer Jesus Santana (36 runs) when it plays a four-game SWAC set against Alcorn State, which is led by Wallace Rios (22 runs). Game 1 of the series is tonight at Biloxi’s MGM Park, the other three are at JSU’s Braddy Field. Both teams are 6-6 in the SWAC East. Tyler Richardson has scored 42 runs for NAIA nationally ranked William Carey, which travels to Bethel in Tennessee aiming to move up in the Southern States Athletic Conference standings. Millsaps, with Isaac Glenn (25 runs) fronting its charge, ends its regular season with a trip to Hendrix in Arkansas. The Majors are 17-18 and 10-8 in the Southern Athletic Association, which starts its postseason next week.

12 Apr

tilting at curveballs

The biggest disappointment in the big leagues so far would have to be Minnesota, which is 0-7. Ex-Southern Miss star and Twins second baseman Brian Dozier was quoted during spring training as saying, “The last couple years, we thought we would be good, but this year we expect it.” Like his team, 2015 All-Star Dozier isn’t meeting expectations: .192 with a solo homer. … Among the surprises in MLB is Cincinnati, off to a 5-2 start. Ole Miss alum Zack Cozart is batting .412, and Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton, while hitting just .176, has contributed a homer, a steal, three walks and four runs. … The only thing Jonathan Papelbon has throttled this season for Washington has been opposing batters. The former Mississippi State star has saved all four of the Nationals’ wins, allowing just one run. … Tampa Bay wanted power from ex-Meridian Community College star Corey Dickerson, and the ex-Colorado slugger has delivered with three homers through six games. He has only two other hits, however. … McComb native Jarrod Dyson is 1-for-4 with two walks in two rehab games at Triple-A Omaha; no definite return date has been set for the Kansas City Royals speedster. … Former Mississippi Braves star Mallex Smith’s line from his MLB debut for Atlanta on Monday: 1 hit, 1 run, 1 caught stealing, 5 stitches in his forehead. But, he may start again tonight. … Though the M-Braves are 1-4, don’t blame Ozzie Albies or Chris Ellis for the poor record. Albies, the flashy shortstop prospect, is batting .364. Ellis, the highly touted Ole Miss alum, won his only start, throwing six shutout innings. … Petal High product and Toronto prospect Anthony Alford, injured (leg) in Class A Dunedin’s opener last week, is on the club’s 7-day disabled list. Alford’s Dunedin teammate D.J. Davis, a Stone County alum, is off to a 3-for-21 start. … Not only does the Magnolia State have three nationally ranked NCAA Division I teams, but D-II Delta State is 26-11, NAIA William Carey is 29-13 and jucos Jones County and Meridian are 31-3 and 26-6, respectively. … On the schedule today are two interesting intrastate matchups: Mississippi Valley State visits Delta State at Ferriss Field in Cleveland and Mississippi College and Millsaps hook up at Twenty Field in Jackson in a Maloney Trophy Series game.

01 Apr

hot spots

Opposing pitchers must be hard-pressed to find a soft spot in Delta State’s lineup. Every regular is hitting .300 or better, and collectively the Statesmen are batting .336 with 212 runs in 30 games. Will Robertson, a senior from Falkner who missed 2015 with an injury, has been hot from the jump and is batting .409. Trent Giambroni and Ben Pickard have seven home runs each. DSU also throws out a pair of aces: Left-handers Tre Hobbs and Dalton Moats are a combined 12-3 with a 3.02 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 107 innings. The sum of these parts is also impressive. The Statesmen, unranked in preseason, are now ranked in two NCAA Division II polls, No. 14 in one, 24 in the other. They’ll take a 20-10 overall record and a 13-5 Gulf South Conference mark into this weekend’s series against Christian Brothers at refurbished Ferriss Field. … Cleveland isn’t the only hot spot in the state this weekend. In Hattiesburg, at Wheeler Field, William Carey plays host to NAIA No. 3 Faulkner in a Southern States Athletic Conference series. The Crusaders are 23-11 and coming off what amounted to a batting practice session against Tougaloo on Wednesday. WCU won 18-3 and 16-0; Tyler Richardson had a day, going 4-for-8 with nine RBIs. Things will be a little tougher against Faulkner, which is 29-7, 11-1 SSAC and was ranked No. 1 last week before losses to Georgia-Gwinnett and Bethel. Carey, 7-4 in the league, is 18-5 overall at home. Faulkner is 4-3 on the road. … Of course, the hottest spot in the state this weekend is Starkville. Tonight’s pitching matchup is a dandy: Mississippi State’s Dakota Hudson vs. Ole Miss’ Brady Bramlett in the opener of the three-game series at Dudy Noble Field. Strong arms and good hitters abound on these two nationally ranked rivals. State (18-7-1, 4-2 SEC) is hitting .317 as a team, third in the league. Ole Miss (20-5, 2-4) has a 2.73 staff ERA, fourth in the league. The Bulldogs roll out the likes of Jacob Robson and Jack Kruger and Austin Sexton, each of whom has sparkling stats. The Rebels feature Tate Blackman and J.B. Woodman and Wyatt Short, among other stars. But many times the hero in a big series is someone you might not expect. Here’s a couple of candidates: Nathaniel Lowe arrived at State as a touted slugger, coming off a 17-home run season as an NJCAA All-America in 2015. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Lowe is hitting .306 and is third on the team with 22 RBIs, but he has just one long ball. Who better to break out against than Ole Miss? The Rebels, meanwhile, have been waiting for Errol Robinson to break out. A highly rated draft prospect who made some preseason All-America teams, the junior shortstop is batting just .213 with four extra-base hits in 24 games. He batted .297 in 2015, with 31 runs and 30 RBIs in 58 games. Robinson had a big hit in a win against State last year; perhaps he can summon another.

27 Mar

scatter shots

A change of scenery might be what Tyler Moore needs, but a return to Triple-A Syracuse probably isn’t going to help. Moore, the former Mississippi State standout, was outrighted to Syracuse by the Washington Nationals on Friday after clearing waivers. Declaring free agency was not an option for the 29-year-old Moore, who doesn’t have enough service time. As a regular in the minors, Moore hit .271 with 107 homers, including back-to-back 31-bomb seasons, over 612 games. Playing irregularly in the big leagues, he has a .228 average and 24 homers in 277 games over four years. He is hitting .121 as a pinch hitter, and he struggled this spring. Moore, well-liked in Washington, needs an opportunity somewhere else. Maybe the Nationals will try to deal him. … Cleveland optioned Pascagoula’s Joey Butler to Triple-A Buffalo, but manager Terry Francona said he was “thrilled” that the Indians were able to keep the slugging outfielder in the organization. Butler, who flashed his potential with Tampa Bay in 2015, didn’t have a good spring with the Indians, but he’ll get another shot with them. … Delta State is suddenly cooking, with eight straight wins and back-to-back Gulf South Conference series sweeps. The Statesmen, after rolling over North Alabama on the road this weekend, are 20-9, 13-5. They’ll be climbing in the NCAA Division II polls. … This just in: Southern Miss can hit a little bit. The Golden Eagles mashed four home runs on Saturday to finish off a C-USA sweep of Texas-San Antonio and now have 33 homers in 25 games. Taylor Braley leads with eight and Dylan Burdeaux has seven for 19-6 USM. …. Big series. Big crowds. Big letdown in Oxford? After getting swept by South Carolina in a matchup of top 10 teams, Ole Miss finds itself with a 2-4 SEC record. It’ll be interesting to see how the Rebels respond. … Was anybody left at Dudy Noble Field on Saturday when Mississippi State’s game against Georgia ended? Was anybody awake? The home Dogs lost to the road Dogs 11-8 in a nine-inning game that lasted almost five hours and “featured” 22 walks and 10 pitching changes. State did win the first two games and is now 4-2 in the league. … Props to Itawamba Community College’s Rick Collier on becoming the school’s all-time winningest coach with 452 W’s in 14 years. The Indians, with two homers from Timothy Rowe, beat Meridian 10-3 in the second game of a twinbill on Friday to push Collier past Roy Cresap. … Nominee for Game of the Year: In Ellisville on Friday, Jones County Junior College got a game-tying three-run homer from pinch-hitter Marcus Hardy in the bottom of the ninth and a walk-off two-run shot from Erick Hoard in the 10th to beat Northwest 8-6. After completing the doubleheader sweep, Jones is 24-2 and 7-1, leading the MACJC standings.

20 Mar

names to know

In Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday night, under the SEC Network spotlight, Jake Mangum and Noah Hughes — freshmen and former Jackson Prep teammates –- played starring roles for Mississippi State in an SEC series-clinching win against Vanderbilt. Mangum had a go-ahead, two-run hit in the eighth inning and Hughes delivered two scoreless innings of relief in the 5-4 victory against a Commodores team ranked as high as No. 2 in the country. But those aren’t the only names to know today. Other Magnolia State players taking star turns this weekend: Southern Miss catcher Chuckie Robinson delivered a go-ahead hit and threw out a Marshall baserunner trying to steal in the eighth inning as the Golden Eagles won the rubber game of their C-USA series on Saturday. … Ole Miss’ Wyatt Short notched his fifth save of the year and 18th of his career as the Rebels beat Tennessee 6-4 on Saturday and evened their SEC series. … Wallace Rios of Alcorn State hit two homers and drove in six runs as the Braves beat Alabama A&M 15-13 in a SWAC contest. … Nick Lowe hit a game-tying sac fly and Cody Christian drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth to give William Carey a 5-4 win over visiting Blue Mountain in a Southern States Athletic Conference game. … Garrett Odom blasted two homers and knocked in six runs to pace Mississippi College to a 13-7 Gulf South Conference win against Christian Brothers. …. Terrell Hodges went 6-for-12 with six runs, three RBIs and two steals as Belhaven swept Louisiana College in an American Southwest Conference series at Smith-Wills Stadium. … Millsaps’ Brennan Ducote had two hits and two RBIs to spark the Majors to a 4-1 win over Southern Athletic Association rival Rhodes in Game 2 of a Saturday twinbill. … And in Cleveland, where Delta State swept a GSC doubleheader from Alabama-Huntsville, ranked No. 9 in NCAA Division II, the heroes were many. Lefties Justin Vincent and Tre Hobbs threw complete games; Ben Pickard drove in seven runs; Brandon Cummins scored five times; and Trent Giambroni hit his seventh homer.