Tag Archives: Delta State

07 Feb

right at home

What do you take to a housewarming? Delta State’s players brought a handful of home runs and a little bit of pitching to newly refurbished Ferriss Field (Harvey Stadium) in Cleveland on Saturday, and an announced crowd of 881 brought some atmosphere. When the party was over, Statesmen baseball had settled in nicely with a doubleheader sweep of Harding. Ethan Gill blasted two homers for DSU, and Will Robertson and Colton Welch added one each. Juco transfer Dalton Moats didn’t pitch great in the season opener but did notch the win in an 11-5 romp. Tre Hobbs, another transfer (from Mississippi Delta Community College), was outstanding in Game 2, allowing one run and fanning six in 5 2/3 innings of a 2-1 victory. All in all, it was a good start for DSU, which ended the 2015 season a little short of its annual goal, which is an NCAA Division II regional appearance. The Statesmen went 25-18 last year, finishing with a loss in the Gulf South Conference Tournament title round. The new digs might provide some inspiration this season, though winning at Ferriss Field has never been a problem for DSU, which went 11-2 there in 2015.

04 Feb

choosing nine

Time to take a break from the football recruiting blather and Super Bowl hype. Enough already with the Golden State Warriors. Opening Day Eve for college baseball is upon us. To get in the spirit of the new season, here’s a list of nine Magnolia State players to watch over the coming months:
1. Seth Davis, Blue Mountain, first baseman. No player in the state made a bigger leap forward in 2015 than Davis. A .195 hitter as a sophomore, the 6-foot-5, 225-pounder raked at a .396 clip last season, belting eight homers and driving in 40 runs. He was BMC’s first first-team All-SSAC selection.
2. Adrian Brown, William Carey, outfielder. Brown was a first-team All-NJCAA Region 23 pick for Copiah-Lincoln CC in 2015 after batting .318 with seven homers and 12 steals. If the name sounds familiar, it should. Brown’s father, also named Adrian Brown, played in the big leagues from 1997-2006.
3. Isaac Glenn, Millsaps, outfielder. Glenn, who played in the shadow of Keith Shumaker in 2015, will get a bigger share of the stage now. He led the Majors with a .436 average and 45 RBIs last year and earned first-team All-SAA honors. He’s now getting NCAA Division III preseason All-America notice.
4. Ethan Gill, Delta State, third baseman. Slugging is making a comeback, and the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Gill can accurately be called a slugger. He came in last year as a transfer from Itawamba CC and led the Statesmen in homers (10), RBIs (51) and slugging percentage (.610). He also batted .325.
5. Gavin Collins, Mississippi State, catcher/third baseman. Collins made the SEC All-Freshman team at catcher in 2014 and was a preseason All-SEC pick last year but was set back by a hand injury. He wound up hitting just .228 in 35 games. Expect a bounce-back season.
6. Brady Bramlett, Ole Miss, right-hander. Drafted in the 22nd round by Oakland last summer, Bramlett opted to return to Oxford. That’s a real shot in the arm (pun intended) for the Rebels. After missing the 2014 season with an injury, Bramlett went 7-4 with a 3.74 ERA in 2015.
7. Nick Johnson, Southern Miss, right-hander. The former Ridgeland High star is poised for a bigger role with the Golden Eagles, who lost a lot from a very good 2015 staff. Johnson was 4-0 with a 2.93 ERA in 12 games and 27 2/3 innings. He limited batters to a .198 average.
8. Jesus Santana, Jackson State, third baseman. As a freshman in 2015, the Puerto Rico native led the SWAC in homers with 12 while batting .283 with 48 RBIs. He was All-SWAC last year and is now showing up on some black college preseason All-America charts.
9. Collin Carroll, Alcorn State, first baseman. Carroll won’t sneak up on anyone in 2016. Collegiate Baseball has pegged the senior as the SWAC’s projected player of the year and a third-team All-America. Carroll, a transfer from Southwest Mississippi CC last year, batted .337 with 12 homers and 50 RBIs.

21 Jan

campus notes

Delta State junior Jacob Swiney was named to the Preseason All-Gulf South Conference squad announced on Wednesday. The Biloxi native, also cited as a top player in NCAA Division II by Collegiate Baseball, batted .396 with three home runs and 35 RBIs last season, making All-GSC first team. Junior college transfer pitchers Dalton Moats and Jacob Howell were listed on the GSC’s top newcomer list. The Statesmen were pegged for a third-place finish in the league. … Mississippi College’s Will Elliott and Perry Turner also made the list of top newcomers in the GSC. Elliott, a junior outfielder from Oxford, is a transfer from Alabama. Turner, a junior pitcher, came in from Jones County Junior College. MC, still in transition to D-II, is not yet eligible for the GSC championship. … Millsaps College outfielder Isaac Glenn was an honorable mention pick on the d3baseball.com preseason All-America team. The junior from Madison hit .436 with 17 doubles and 45 RBIs in 2015. He led the Southern Athletic Association last year in slugging and on-base percentage. … Jackson State had three players named to the Black College Nine preseason All-America team. Third baseman Jesus Santana and DH Sam Campbell were named to the first team and outfielder Lamar Briggs to the second team. Santana led the Tigers and the SWAC with 12 home runs in 2015. … Former USM and MLB standout Chad Bradford will be the keynote speaker at the Southern Miss Dugout Club Banquet on Feb. 6. Bradford played at Byram High School and Hinds Community College before signing with USM. He went 5-4 with a 3.59 earned run average and three saves in 1996, his only season with the Golden Eagles. The submarine-style right-hander, featured in “Moneyball,” pitched for 12 years in the majors, posting a 36-28 overall record with a 3.26 ERA. He served as pitching coach at Hinds CC in 2014-15. … Tougaloo, one of three GCAC schools that play baseball, will be eligible to compete for the Association of Independent Institutions Baseball Championship this year. A total of 15 teams will vie for eight spots and a chance to play for one of the three NAIA Tournament bids given to the tournament champion, runner-up and third-place finisher. The Bulldogs went 7-40 in 2015 in the first year of coach Earl Sanders’ second stint with the program. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves third baseman Wes Timmons is the new coach at Shorter University, which plays in the Gulf South Conference.

14 Jan

managerial matters

Phillip Wellman, after a year out of the pro game, is a manager again. The former Mississippi Braves manager has been handed the reins of San Diego’s Double-A San Antonio club in the Texas League. Wellman managed the M-Braves from 2007-10 and won a Southern League pennant with the team in 2008. After leaving the Braves, he served as a hitting coach in the St. Louis system and then managed in Double-A in the Los Angeles Angels’ organization in 2014. … The Double-A Biloxi Shuckers have a new manager: Mike Guerrero, first-base coach in Milwaukee last year. A longtime minor league skipper, Guerrero replaces Carlos Subero, who was promoted to the Brewers’ big league staff. There are some familiar names in the Brewers’ system: Former Jackson Generals manager Rick Sweet will run the Triple-A team, Colorado Springs, and ex-Delta State star Edwin Maysonet is now a coach at Class A Brevard County, along with Ned Yost IV, a Jackson native and the son of the Kansas City manager.

23 Oct

campus notes

Circle the dates of March 6, April 22-24 and, most notably, May 13-15. Those are the dates when new Auburn coach Butch Thompson will send his Tigers out against Southern Miss, Ole Miss and Mississippi State in 2016. Aberdeen native and ex-Itawamba Community College star Thompson, a popular and well-respected assistant coach at State the previous seven seasons, has taken the reins on the Plains, where he was an assistant from 2006-08. Auburn will play USM in a tournament in Pensacola, Fla., in March, visit Oxford to play Ole Miss in April and host State in May in the next-to-last SEC weekend. … Ole Miss’ Will Golsan went on a tear in the Cal Ripken Baseball League playoffs back in the summer, batting .438 with six runs in five games en route to winning the championship. The sophomore out of New Hope High has had his moments during the Rebels’ fall ball scrimmages, as well, registering a four-hit game last weekend. UM has two more scrimmages slated for this weekend. … Southern Miss will begin its 5-game Fall World Series on Tuesday at Taylor Park. The last game is set for Nov. 3, which will conclude fall ball for the Golden Eagles. Senior pitchers Luke Lowery and Cody Livingston will manage the two squads in the World Series. … Jacob Barfield, a sophomore transfer from Wharton County (Texas) Junior College, put an exclamation point on Mississippi State’s Bulldog World Series with a three-run, last-inning home run for the Grays on Wednesday night. Cole Gordon homered for the Maroon team, which won the 5-game series. … Delta State concluded fall ball last weekend with the final two games of its Green and White Series. Compiling three-hit games were Luke Stanley, Erick Santiago and Josh Peden, while Westin Stringer, Itawamba CC transfer Brady Chambley and Dalton Moats, a former Coastal Carolina standout, delivered stout pitching performances.

02 Oct

campus notes

Delta State will dedicate Tim and Nancy Harvey Baseball Stadium at Ferriss Field and unveil a statue in honor of former coach Dave “Boo” Ferriss on Saturday. The ceremonies will coincide with DSU baseball’s biannual reunion, which will bring over 350 former players, coaches and diamond girls to Cleveland. Tim Harvey was a DSU player under Ferriss, and he and his wife made the lead gift for stadium renovations. If there is anyone who doesn’t know, former major league pitcher Ferriss won 639 games over 26 seasons as DSU coach, took three teams to the NCAA Division II World Series and laid the foundation for what is one of the nation’s best D-II programs. … Tim Dillard is being inducted into the Itawamba Community College Hall of Fame and will be honored in a ceremony during the school’s football homecoming in Fulton on Saturday. Dillard, 32, who pitched in Triple-A for Milwaukee this season, starred for ICC in 2002 and ’03, leading the Indians to the juco World Series as a sophomore. A 34th-round draft pick, he has pitched 13 seasons in pro ball, posting a 4.70 ERA in 73 big league games, all with the Brewers. … Mike Smith, a senior outfielder for Mississippi State, didn’t play a great deal in 2015 as a juco transfer, batting .208 in 24 at-bats. He’s bucking for more playing time next spring. In nine scrimmages this fall, Smith is 10-for-23 with seven RBIs, six runs and five steals. The Bulldogs scrimmage again on Sunday at Dudy Noble Field. … The “Jake Gibbs Letterwinner Walk,” honoring every Ole Miss athlete who earned a letter, will be unveiled next October as part of a Vaught-Hemingway Stadium project, the school announced. Gibbs was a football and baseball star for the Rebels and is the school’s second all-time winningest baseball coach. He also played in the big leagues.

01 Sep

career thoughts

Brent Leach’s 11th season in pro ball ended last week when he was released by the Milwaukee Brewers. Injury had limited the Flowood native to six appearances for Triple-A Colorado Springs. Leach turns 33 in November and last pitched in the big leagues in 2009, when he worked in 38 games as a lefty specialist for the Los Angeles Dodgers. If his career is over, it was quite the odyssey, taking him from Brandon High to Southern Miss, Delta State and minor and major league parks all over the country. His MLB debut came in Dodger Stadium; he got the last three outs in a game won by Clayton Kershaw. Leach pitched in Japan in 2011 – after the tsunami — and spent some time in 2012 with the Double-A Mississippi Braves, pitching at Trustmark Park, not far from where he grew up. In 308 minor league games, Leach has 35 wins, 25 saves and a 3.67 ERA. He was undefeated — 2-0 — as a big leaguer. If he is ready to call it a career, he can also call it a good one.

27 Aug

campus news

Mississippi State alumnus Mitch Moreland recently made a $100,000 donation toward the new Dudy Noble Field, the MSU Bulldog Club announced today. In recognition of his generosity, the indoor batting cages at the facility will be named for him. Moreland, now with the Texas Rangers, starred at State from 2005-07, batting .332 for his career and helping the Bulldogs reach the College World Series in his final season in Starkville. Moreland’s donation will go toward the $40 million renovation plan for venerable Dudy Noble. … Delta State will dedicate a statue honoring former coach Dave “Boo” Ferriss and unveil its new-look stadium on Oct. 3. The statue, crafted by Kim Sessums of Brookhaven, is located in front of Ferriss Field, which has undergone renovations. The ribbon-cutting ceremony will be part of the annual Statesmen Baseball Reunion activities. … Fall ball will begin soon, and Alcorn State players will go to work under new coach Brett Richardson, who recently replaced Barret Rey. Richardson was a longtime assistant at Florida A&M, where he also played. The Rattlers won the MEAC championship this past season. Rey won a SWAC championship with the Braves in 2011, his second year at the helm, but wasn’t able to repeat that success. The Braves were 16-40, 7-18 SWAC, in 2015. … It will be interesting to track the progress of the four players from MAIS juggernaut Jackson Prep who signed with SEC schools back in November. Parker Caracci is at Ole Miss, Noah Hughes and Jake Mangum at State and Gene Wood at Alabama. … Ole Miss’ pitching staff should get a big boost from the return of Brady Bramlett, who was drafted by Oakland in the 22nd round in June. He was 7-4 with a 3.74 ERA for the Rebels in 2015. … New Mississippi College coach Jeremy Haworth has bolstered the Choctaws’ roster since his arrival. Recent additions include outfielder Will Elliott (an Alabama transfer from Oxford), outfielder Parker Thurman (Mississippi Valley State/Pearl), infielder/outfielder Chance Whitten (East Central Community College) and pitchers Perry Turner (Jones County JC), Scott Szush (Southeastern Louisiana) and Matt Payne (Volunteer State CC).

27 Jul

off the beaten path

One of the hottest hitters in the independent Atlantic League is Fred Lewis, the former Stone County High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star. The 34-year-old Lewis is hitting .389 over his last 10 games and is up to .264 for the year. Playing for Jackson native Stan Cliburn’s Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, Lewis has three homers, 30 RBIs, 42 runs, six steals and a league-best six triples in 77 games. Lewis played parts of seven years (2006-12) in the majors, hitting .266. … Gulf Coast CC product Roy Corcoran, 35, has 17 saves and three wins (despite a 5.11 ERA) in 35 games for Aguascalientes in the Mexican League. The last of his 82 MLB games came in 2009 with Seattle. … Former Mississippi State standout Luis Pollorena is 5-1 with a 2.06 ERA for the Laredo Lemurs of the indy American Association. Pollorena, a 5-foot-8 lefty who won 17 games over three seasons at State, spent the previous two years in the Texas Rangers’ organization. … Ole Miss’ Errol Robinson rapped out three hits on Sunday to boost his average to .314 for Hyannis in the Cape Cod League. He is among the league leaders with 20 runs. … Also in the Cape on Sunday, Reid Humphreys of MSU blasted his fourth homer of the summer for Bourne. Humphreys is batting .239 with 11 RBIs. … Southern Miss’ Dylan Burdeaux hit a pair of homers on Saturday in the New England Collegiate League, giving him six for the season. His USM and Ocean State teammate Chuckie Robinson also has six homers, tied for fourth in the league behind another teammate, Tim Lynch, who has nine, which equals the league-best. … Delta State’s Will Robertson is hitting .479 with a homer, 13 RBIs and 24 runs in 18 games for the Tippah Tribe in the Cotton States League.

24 Jul

catching up

Delta State, the 2,700-student school up in Cleveland with its proud baseball tradition, has produced, remarkably enough, three major league catchers. Carlos Leal has designs on being the fourth. Leal, in just his second pro season, is playing in the Class A Midwest League and batting .314 with two homers and 26 RBIs for Wisconsin in the Milwaukee system. Leal, from Puerto Rico, was a two-time All-Gulf South Conference catcher at DSU and an All-Stater at East Central Community College before that. But he was drafted as a pitcher (34th round) last year by the Brewers, who were impressed by his strong arm in a workout. He did not make a smooth transition last summer, putting up an 8.53 ERA in six rookie-league appearances. Milwaukee brass decided in the off-season to give Leal a shot at making one of the minor league clubs this spring as a catcher. He not only made the Wisconsin roster, he became the Timber Rattlers’ No. 1 catcher and made the MWL All-Star Game last month. “You could tell he has a passion for catching,” Charlie Greene, a Brewers minor league instructor, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. At 24, the left-handed hitting Leal could and probably needs to move up quickly. It’s a long way from A-ball to the big leagues, but Leal certainly appears to have a shot at joining Barry Lyons, Scooter Tucker and Eli Whiteside as Statesmen who’ve caught in The Show.