Tag Archives: Ferriss Trophy

09 May

here and there

Announcing their presence with authority, as the line goes, the Mississippi Mud Monsters opened their inaugural season Thursday night with a 13-2 beatdown of Florence at Trustmark Park. An announced crowd of 4,552 saw the new Frontier League club blow the game open in a seven-run sixth inning, aided by some shoddy defense from the visiting Y’alls. Brayland Skinner, Mississippi State alum from Lake Cormorant, had two hits and scored two runs and Travis Holt went 3-for-5 with two RBIs in the Mud-sters’ 16-hit attack. Starting pitcher James Boeree, the 7-foot-2 Aussie, threw four hitless (with four walks) innings before yielding to four relievers. Game 2 of the season is tonight in Pearl. … At Twenty Field in Jackson, top-seeded Millsaps College won its SAA Tournament opener 5-2 against Berry and will play Rhodes today in the winners bracket. Bradley Pelle homered to back the excellent pitching of Nick Tarantino, who notched his 10th win. … In Decatur, East Central Community College won its NJCAA Region 23 bracket, whipping Copiah-Lincoln CC 10-0 as Chris Bilingsley threw a one-hitter and Brady McAbee drove in four runs. At Poplarville, Pearl River, riding homers from Jackson Hood and Carlton Thompson, beat Mississippi Gulf Coast 10-1 to advance in the winners bracket. The host Wildcats will play the winner of today’s Gulf Coast-Northeast game for the sub-regional title. PRCC is ranked No. 2 in NJCAA Division II, East Central No. 7. The winners of the two brackets will play a best-of-3 for the region championship. … The five finalists for the Ferriss Trophy have been named: Southern Miss’ Nick Monistere and J.B. Middleton, Ole Miss’ Luke Hill, Mississippi State’s Ace Reese and Delta State’s Drake Fontenot. The winner of the award for the state’s best college player will be announced May 19. … The MHSAA playoffs are finally down to the final 28. Four teams in each of the seven classes. In Class 7A, the North championship will be settled between Madison Central and Tupelo, the South between Brandon and Oak Grove. Oak Grove is ranked No. 2 in the state, per MaxPreps, behind MAIS member Magnolia Heights. The MHSAA state finals begin May 19 at Pearl’s Trustmark Park. The 6A semifinals match Saltillo and Warren Central, Pearl River Central and George County. In 4A, there’s an intriguing matchup in the South between No. 3 Purvis and No. 4 Sumrall. Purvis features the Parker twins, JoJo and Jacob, both pro prospects. Sumrall counters with Landon Hawkins and Leo Odom. No. 7 West Lauderdale is in the 4A North finals. In 2A, fifth-ranked East Union and ace Landon Harmon meet Hamilton for the North title. … Condolences go out to Ripley High and the family and friends of Joel Gafford, who recently passed away at age 40. He won over 250 games in 15 years at Ripley and took the team to the state finals last year. … On Thursday, Jackson native and former big league star Chet Lemon died at age 70. Lemon was a three-time All-Star and a World Series champion during his 16-year career. Regarded as one of the best defensive center fielders of his era (1975-90), Lemon’s career WAR of 55.6 is the best among all Mississippi natives in the big leagues. Roy Oswalt is second with a 50.0 WAR.

28 Apr

watch list

Delta State, which has never had a Ferriss Trophy winner, has produced quite a few viable candidates over the years. The Statesmen have another solid one in 2025. Right-hander Drake Fontenot is 9-1 with a 1.96 ERA, a .208 batting average against, 78 strikeouts and 19 walks in 91 2/3 innings for the Gulf South Conference regular season champion. Fontenot’s only loss came on Friday at Mississippi College in his worst outing of the season (seven runs in six innings). The Ferriss Trophy — named in honor of Delta State coaching legend Boo Ferriss — will be awarded to the best college player in the state for the 21st time on May 19 by the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. The finalists, who will attend the ceremony, have not yet been named. As usual, there are a bunch of players around the state who have put up mighty impressive numbers. Throwing out a few more names: Southern Miss’ J.B. Middleton, regarded as a top pro prospect, is 8-1 with a 1.92 ERA for the Golden Eagles. Teammate Nick Monistere, on a recent tear, has 16 homers, 56 RBIs, 42 runs and a .335 average for 31-13 USM. Ole Miss’ Luke Hill is batting .352 with 51 runs for the nationally ranked Rebels (31-13). Mississippi State’s Ace Reese has 16 bombs and 53 RBIs. Jackson State’s Jordan McCladdie is hitting .381 with 51 runs and 33 steals. Millsaps’ Gray Berry (.426, 61 runs) and Nick Tarantino (9-1, 2.74) have been stellar for a 28-11 conference championship club. MC’s Korey Cooper is a .376 hitter with 12 homers, 55 RBIs and 52 runs. At William Carey, also a conference champ, Rigoberto Hernandez is batting .386 with 12 homers, 51 RBIs, 63 runs and 17 bags for a 33-13 team. Blue Mountain Christian’s Hayden Redding has 46 steals and a .339 average. P.S. Mississippi College’s stunning blowout of Delta State in Clinton last weekend was the first-ever three-game sweep for the Choctaws over their longtime rival. MC (31-19, 21-12 GSC) outscored the Statesmen 40-7 and will go into the GSC Tournament next weekend as the No. 4 seed. DSU (32-16, 23-10) is the top seed, having gotten some help elsewhere over the weekend to win the regular season title. … Ole Miss jumped to No. 13 (from 22) in the new Baseball America Top 25 after taking two of three from then-No.8 Vanderbilt last week.

03 Aug

transaction watch

As part of a big wave of minor league transactions on Friday, former Mississippi State star Tanner Allen was released by Miami. He was on the Double-A Pensacola roster but playing at Low-Class A Jupiter on an injury rehab assignment. The lefty-hitting outfielder was batting .225 with two homers in 50 games this season and .229 for his career. Allen was a national player of the year, the SEC’s player of the year and the state’s Ferriss Trophy winner in 2021, when he helped MSU win the national title. He was a fourth-round pick by the Marlins that summer. Also released were Ole Miss alum Mike Mayers, a former big leaguer pitching at Triple-A Buffalo in the Toronto system; ex-UM infielder Justin Bench (San Francisco system); and Itawamba Community College alum Kyle Crigger (Miami system). … Meanwhile, former Ole Miss star Kemp Alderman was promoted by Miami from Jupiter to High-A Beloit and went 2-for-4 in his debut. The 2023 Ferriss Trophy winner was batting .270 with five homers and 30 RBIs in Low-A ball. P.S. After being outscored 25-3 in the first three games of the series at Trustmark Park, the Mississippi Braves rallied from a five-run deficit to beat Tennessee 7-6 Friday on a walk-off knock by Justin Dean in the ninth. Dean’s hit followed a walk, a steal and a wild pitch by former Delta State standout Dalton Moats, who took the loss for the Chicago Cubs’ Double-A club. … Former Mississippi Valley State (and Rust College) standout Dreylin Holmes has emerged as one of the top hitters in the MLB Draft League. He is hitting .400 with four homers, nine RBIs and 14 runs in 13 games for Mahoning Valley. The 6-foot-2, 215-pound outfielder reportedly hit a 461-foot homer on Thursday; he hit 29 homers in three seasons for the Delta Devils. … Brandon High’s Jamaurion McQueen is slated to participate in the Hank Aaron Invitational today at Truist Park in Atlanta. The event is part a diversity-focused development program for prep players around the country. McQueen, 6-3, 195, an outfielder/pitcher, is a Southern Miss commit.

27 Jul

hit parade

There are still a lot of hits in Tyreque Reed’s bat. After a year on the shelf, the Houlka native has come out swinging in the independent Frontier League, batting .371 in 32 games for the Washington Wild Things. Since coming off a stint on the injured list on July 4, Reed has banged out 29 hits in 15 games. He has two four-hit games and three three-hit games in that span. He hit his sixth homer of the season on Friday night. Even after a loss in that game, his Wild Things team — based in Washington, Pa. — has the best record (41-22) in the league. Reed established himself as a hitter of note in 2017 at Itawamba Community College when he batted a ridiculous .504 with 15 homers and 15 doubles in 141 at-bats. He was drafted by Texas in the eighth round that summer, played three years in that system, then was taken in the 2020 Rule 5 draft by Boston. A first baseman/DH, he was a ranked prospect for a time in both of those organizations and batted .268 with 64 homers in 374 games in the minors. He hit .296 with 14 homers at High-Class A Greenville in 2021 and earned a promotion to Double-A, where his production began to slip. He missed a chunk of the ’22 season and all of ’23 with injuries before becoming a free agent last fall. At 26, Reed’s window of opportunity in affiliated ball has probably closed. … Also finding a home in the Frontier League this year is Delvin Zinn, another ICC product and a former Chicago Cubs farmhand. Zinn, who stole 44 bases in one minor league season, is batting .329 with 11 steals for Evansville. P.S. Hot-hitting Kemp Alderman belted a walk-off, 11th-inning homer for Jupiter on Friday night. The ex-Ole Miss star, batting .322 in July, is at .283 with four homers and 24 RBIs for Miami’s Low-A club. The Hammerheads started three Mississippi products on Friday: Alderman in left field, former McLaurin High and Meridian CC star Davis Bradshaw at DH and Mississippi State alum Tanner Allen in right field. Alderman and Allen are both Ferriss Trophy winners.

10 Jun

wrapping it up

The college season in the Magnolia State was tinged with disappointment. To paraphrase the Billy Beane character from “Moneyball,” If you don’t win the last game of the season, the rest is irrelevant. Winning the last game is what every team is gunning for. But while no school from Mississippi won a national championship, there was plenty of stuff to be proud of. William Carey made yet another trip to the NAIA World Series. The Crusaders won the SSAC Tournament, then hosted and won an NAIA regional before ending their run at 37-16. R.J. Stinson was a Ferriss Trophy finalist and John Snyder a second-team All-America. Southern Miss, under first-year coach Christian Ostrander, won the Sun Belt Tournament and got an NCAA Tournament bid, finishing 43-20, the program’s eighth straight 40-win season. Mississippi State rallied from a sluggish start to earn an NCAA bid and finish 40-23. The Bulldogs’ Dakota Jordan won the Ferriss Trophy, and Connor Hujsak made the SEC All-Tournament team after delivering two game-winning knocks. Delta State reached the GSC Tournament championship round and earned an NCAA Division II regional spot. Led by All-GSC third baseman Dylan Coleman, the Statesmen finished 33-24. Jackson State reached the title game of the SWAC Tournament and was three outs from winning it. The Tigers finished 36-20 and were ranked No. 2 in Black College Nines’ final HBCU Large School poll. Belhaven — led by CCS pitcher of the year Brett Sanchez and player of the year Owen Abney — reached the semifnals of the CCS Tournament and ended the season with a 25-17 mark. The Blazers also swept all three games from Maloney Trophy rival Millsaps. Blue Mountain Christian reached the SSAC Tournament final — losing to Carey — and earned the school’s first NAIA Tournament bid. The Toppers, who finished 31-23, beat Carey in a three-game series for the first time, and Arderrius Townsend was a first-team All-America choice. MUW went 22-15, setting a school mark for regular season wins. Southeastern Baptist of Laurel posted a 17-15 record, including a win over Division I Alcorn State. It was an especially tough year for Ole Miss, which wobbled in at 27-29, 11-19 in the SEC. The Rebels’ season ended in gut-wrenching fashion: a walk-off loss to Mississippi State in the SEC tourney. Mississippi College‘s season also ended with a thud: a three-game sweep at the hands of rival Delta State. The Choctaws wound up 20-25, 10-20 in the GSC. Millsaps endured a 14-27 campaign that ended with two one-run losses to Centre (Ky.) in the SAA postseason. Both Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State struggled again, the Braves going 6-43 (5-25 SWAC) and the Delta Devils 12-34 (4-26). NAIA member Rust finished 16-33 overall (10-11 GCAC) but did win a couple games in the GCAC Tournament. Tougaloo went 13-35, 8-13 GCAC. P.S. Seven players from Mississippi jucos earned All-America honors in NJCAA Division II. Pearl River Community College first baseman Hollis Porter — the MACCC player of the year — was a first-team pick, along with Meridian catcher Blaise Priester. PRCC outfielder Bryce Fowler, Hinds outfielder Thomas Marsala and Jones infielder Brady Thomas made the second team, and East Central pitcher Luke Cooley — the conference pitcher of the year — and outfielder Mo Little were on the third team. ECCC got an at-large bid to the juco World Series and reached the semifinals, finishing 55-9.

20 May

honor society

Dakota Jordan, who has had a bunch of good days swinging the bat for Mississippi State this season, had a good day Monday without ever touching one. The former Jackson Academy star from Canton won the state’s Ferriss Trophy, was named one of the 25 semifinalists for the national Golden Spikes Award and also earned second-team All-SEC recognition. Jordan is batting .363 with 17 home runs, 63 RBIs and 51 runs through 55 games for the nationally ranked Bulldogs, who play Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament at Hoover, Ala., on Tuesday night. … MSU shortstop David Mershon and pitcher Khal Stephen made first-team All-SEC, and Ole Miss outfielder Andrew Fischer was a second-team pick. … Former Madison Central High standout Braden Montgomery, now at Texas A&M, was named first-team All-SEC and also a Golden Spikes semifinalist. … Southern Miss pitcher Billy Oldham and DH Slade Wilks earned first-team All-Sun Belt honors, and pitcher Niko Mazza, shortstop Ozzie Pratt and outfielder Dalton McIntyre — a Ferriss finalist — were pegged on the second team. Banks Tolley, an Ole Miss transfer from Madison, was named the Sun Belt’s newcomer of the year and ex-Pearl River Community College star Luke Lyon, now at Troy, was a second-team All-SBC pick. … Pearl River CC’s Michael Avalon was named the MACCC coach of the year and the Wildcats’ Hollis Porter, an MSU transfer, earned player of the year honors. PRCC won the regular season title in the conference. … In the MHSAA State Championships that begin Tuesday at Pearl’s Trustmark Park, two of the seven classification Mr. Baseball winners will take part: Ty Long of Class 4A Ripley and Landon Harmon of 2A East Union. Long is a USM signee, Harmon an MSU commit. Tupelo’s Lake Reed was the 7A winner, West Jones’ Camden Clark in 6A, South Jones’ Cole Richardson in 5A, Mooreville’s Mason McMillin in 3A and Pine Grove’s Gehrig Shinall in 1A.

20 May

trophy time

The Ferriss Trophy has been around since 2004, and it’s become kind of a big deal to be named the best college player in a state where baseball is quite a big deal. The list of winners is impressive. Nine of them are still active in the pro game, four of them currently playing in the big leagues, two of them owning World Series rings. The 2024 award — honoring former Delta State coach Boo Ferriss and presented by the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum — will be given out today at a ceremony at the Pearl River Resort in Philadelphia. The finalists are Brett Sanchez (Belhaven), Dakota Jordan (Mississippi State), Ethan Lege (Ole Miss), Dalton McIntyre (Southern Miss) and R.J. Stinson (William Carey). The oldest active winner is Drew Pomeranz, the 2010 recipient from Ole Miss. Currently pitching in Triple-A with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the big left-hander was the fifth overall pick in the 2010 draft and has made 289 MLB appearances, winning a World Series with Boston in 2018. Nick Sandlin (Cleveland), Brent Rooker (Oakland), Hunter Renfroe (Kansas City) and Chris Stratton (KC) are in The Show. Stratton won a ring with Texas last year; Rooker was an All-Star in 2023; Renfroe has 180 career home runs; and Sandlin has a career ERA of 2.99 over four seasons. Two-time Ferriss winner Jake Mangum, the former MSU star, probably should have been in the big leagues by now; he is batting .329 in Triple-A for Tampa Bay and has a .290 career average. Last year’s winner, Kemp Alderman of Ole Miss, a second-round draft pick last July, is currently on the injured list in A-ball in Miami’s system. Tanner Hall, the 2022 winner from USM, has spent most of this season on the shelf, having made just three appearances in Minnesota’s system. Tanner Allen, the 2021 winner at MSU, is in Double-A in Miami’s chain and batting .250 as a regular outfielder. Among the 2024 finalists, Jordan is the highest rated MLB draft prospect, checking in at No. 24 on the latest mlb.com list. Each of the five is well-credentialed.

08 May

fully charged

A well-rested Belhaven University team begins play today in the Collegiate Conference of the South Tournament at Maryville, Tenn. The second-seeded Blazers, who haven’t played an actual game since April 27, meet Huntingdon (Ala.) at the wonderfully named Scotland Yard, home of the top-seeded Maryville Scots. (Game time is 10 a.m. CDT.) Under first-year coach Andrew Gipson, the Blazers are 23-15 and took two of three from Huntingdon on the road last month. BU is led by the bat of Owen Abney, the arms of Brett Sanchez and Colton Sylvester and the legs of, well, a host of players. Former Jackson Prep star Abney is batting .345 with 10 homers and 55 RBIs. Sanchez is a preseason NCAA Division III All-America pick and a finalist for the state’s Ferriss Trophy. The fifth-year right-hander, who has 33 wins in his BU career, is 6-2 with a 2.58 ERA in 2024. Sylvester, who moved into the rotation late in the season, is 6-1 with a 2.43. The Blazers have stolen 137 bases — fourth in the country — led by Noah Foster with 26. Five others have nine or more, including Abney with eight bags. The six-team, double-elimination CCS Tournament will conclude on Saturday. P.S. Delta State mashed five homers in a 9-8 win against West Florida on Tuesday but ran out of juice in the second game of the GSC Tournament finals against the Argonauts, falling 9-2 at Oxford, Ala. DSU (32-22) hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAA D-II Tournament when the field is announced on Sunday. … Belhaven’s Sanchez is joined as a Ferriss Trophy finalist by Dakota Jordan (Mississippi State), Ethan Lege (Ole Miss), Dalton McIntyre (Southern Miss) and R.J. Stinson (William Carey). The winner will be announced May 20.

07 May

what a relief

Emmanuel Clase is the headliner in the vaunted Cleveland Guardians bullpen. Nick Sandlin plays an “Also Starring” role — and plays it very well. The former Southern Miss standout got four outs in the sixth and seventh innings on Monday and picked up the win in a 2-1 victory against Detroit. Sandlin is 3-0 with a 2.04 ERA and a save in 19 appearances for the Guardians, who lead the American League Central with a 23-12 record. Clase (0.49 ERA) pitched the ninth for his 11th save. The side-arming Sandlin stranded a runner in the sixth inning on Monday and has allowed just two of 14 inherited runners to score. He has a 0.62 WHIP. A second-round pick by Cleveland in 2018 after a sensational career at USM, Sandlin has a 2.95 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP over 160 career MLB appearances. At USM, he had 20 saves over his first two seasons, moved into the rotation as a junior and went 10-0 with a 1.06, earning All-America honors and the state’s Ferriss Trophy. He went back to the bullpen in pro ball. … Filling in for regular closer James McArthur, ex-Mississippi State star Chris Stratton weathered a shaky ninth inning to notch his second save in Kansas City’s 3-2 win vs. Milwaukee. The surprising Royals are 21-15, tied for second in the AL Central. Stratton, in his first season with KC, is 2-2 with a 5.40 ERA in 14 games; five of the nine earned runs he has yielded came in one appearance. McArthur, the Ole Miss alum who has seven saves this season, was down Monday, so Stratton — 14 career saves — got the call in the ninth. Aided by a double play, he got through the Brewers’ 3-6 hitters despite walking two. Stratton was also a Ferriss Trophy winner back in 2012, when he was the SEC’s pitcher of the year (as a starter) and later a first-round pick by San Francisco. … It’s “official” in Philadelphia: Former Madison Central High star Spencer Turnbull will move to the bullpen. In his first season with the Phillies, Turnbull is 2-0 with a 1.67 in six starts. But Philadelphia now has five other healthy starters, making a move necessary. Turnbull, who has started all but one game in his 67 career MLB appearances, reportedly would prefer to remain in the rotation. “He can do a lot of different things, because he gives you length, obviously,” Phils manager Rob Thomson told mlb.com. P.S. MSU product Brent Rooker won the AL player of the week award after batting .438 with three homers — two in one inning — and seven RBIs for Oakland in the week ending May 4. Rooker also won a POW award in 2023.

22 Apr

down the stretch

Ferriss Trophy voters have a tough decision to make in the coming weeks, which says a lot about the depth of talent, especially among hitters, in the state’s four-year colleges. The Ferriss Trophy, named for former big league pitcher and Delta State coach Boo Ferriss, is given annually to the state’s best college player by the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. The winner will be named in a ceremony four weeks from today. With a chunk of season still to be played, Mississippi State’s Dakota Jordan has some big numbers (.378, 15 homers, 51 RBIs, 42 runs) and is the top-rated 2024 MLB draft prospect among the state’s college crop. Southern Miss’ Slade Wilks, a 2023 Ferriss finalist, is having another strong year (.292, nine homers, 37 RBIs, 31 runs) for the Golden Eagles, as is Dalton McIntyre (.404), though he recently suffered an injury. At Ole Miss, Ethan Lege (.348, 12 homers, 37 RBIs, 38 runs) has been a consistent offensive force, and Jackson State has gotten great production from Joseph Eichelberger (.379). Not to be overlooked are small college players R.J. Stinson (William Carey), Arderrius “Peeko” Townsend (Blue Mountain Christian), Dylan Coleman (Delta State), J.T. Vance (Mississippi College) and Malik Berrien (Rust). Stinson is batting .427, while Townsend ranks among the NAIA leaders with 22 bombs. There hasn’t been a truly dominant pitcher in the state this season, but MSU’s Khal Stephen, USM’s Billy Oldham, Carey’s John Snyder and Belhaven University’s Colton Sylvester and Brett Sanchez, among others, have had shining moments.