Tag Archives: Itawamba Community College

13 Aug

cub futures

Wyatt Short, the former Ole Miss standout from Southaven, has been promoted to Triple-A Iowa in the Chicago Cubs’ system and pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in his debut on Sunday. Short, a 5-foot-8 left-hander, posted a 1.63 ERA and nine saves at Double-A Tennessee, where he was a Southern League All-Star this summer. He has a career 2.37 ERA with 16 wins and 38 saves in 136 relief appearances. Short was a 13th-round pick by the Cubs in 2016 and is one of six Mississippi products now in that organization. Ex-Mississippi State star and veteran big league pitcher Kendall Graveman signed as a free agent in the off-season but is on the injured list recovering from Tommy John surgery in July 2018. George County High alum Justin Steele is also on the Cubs’ 40-man roster, but the injury-hampered top 20 prospect, a 2014 draft pick, is on the IL at Double-A Tennessee. With Short at Iowa is Delta State product Trent Giambrone, the Cubs’ No. 28 prospect (per MLB Pipeline); the versatile Giambrone, a 2016 draftee, is batting .242 with 23 home runs. Playing the infield at Class A Myrtle Beach are former Southern Miss star Luke Reynolds and Itawamba Community College product Delvin Zinn. Zinn, a 2016 draftee, is hitting .233 with 12 RBIs and eight steals in 35 games since he moved up from low-A ball in early July. Reynolds, C-USA player of the year in 2018 and a 10th-round pick that year, was demoted from Myrtle Beach to low-A South Bend when Zinn moved up. He returned to the Carolina League on Aug. 2 and is 10-for-33 with a homer and five RBIs since.

09 Aug

minor matters

Nobody doubts that Jake Mangum can put the bat on the ball. After a sluggish start to his pro career, the ex-Mississippi State and Jackson Prep standout is batting .345 over his last 10 games, boosting his average to .252 for short season Class A Brooklyn in the New York Mets’ chain. A fourth-round pick in June, Mangum is rated the No. 24 prospect (by MLB Pipeline) in the Mets’ system. He’s shown off his plus speed, with 11 stolen bases. He has made just one error in 31 games in the outfield, playing mostly center. The question about Mangum is power, which seems to be of utmost importance in today’s game. So far, Mangum hasn’t shown much: five extra-base hits and no homers in 113 at-bats. … Former George County High two-way star Walker Robbins’ switch from hitter to pitcher in the St. Louis system has gone well. The 6-foot-3 left-hander has a 3.95 ERA and two saves in 11 games at rookie-level Johnson City. A fifth-round pick in 2016, he batted .170 over three seasons before going on a pitching program this past off-season. “Hitting’s fun and playing every day is great, but striking somebody out is an adrenaline rush. All eyes are pretty much on you when you’re on the mound. It’s fun.” Robbins told the Johnson City (Tenn.) Press. … Tyreque Reed, the Itawamba Community College product from Houlka, took one step forward and then one step back this season and appears to have regained his footing. Reed began 2019 at high Class A Down East in the Texas system but batted just .216 with four homers in 32 games. He returned to low-A Hickory, where he is hitting .268 with 11 homers in 42 games. Reed batted .267 with 18 bombs at Hickory in 2018, his second pro season. This is a guy who hit .504 with 15 homers at ICC in 2017. … Ex-State star Jacob Lindgren is making progress in his bounce-back season from two Tommy John surgeries. The onetime big leaguer has allowed one run in nine innings at high-A Winston-Salem (Chicago White Sox) and has punched out 13, including four in two innings Thursday. (Ole Miss product Tate Blackman hit a home run for the Dash in that game.) … Southern Miss alum Bradley Roney, also coming back from injury, has an 0.69 ERA in his last 10 appearances for the Double-A Mississippi Braves. He has 27 strikeouts in 17 2/3 innings. … MSU product Nate Lowe was bumped back to Triple-A Durham — despite a .294 average and five homers over 30 MLB games – when Tampa Bay acquired Jesus Aguilar. MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis predicts that the lefty-hitting Lowe will soon get another call-up, which would be his fourth of 2019. The Rays are an American League wild card contender.

17 May

worth noting

Things went a little nuts Thursday in Starkville, where the runaway train that is Mississippi State scored 24 runs, its most in an SEC game in 22 years, to blow away South Carolina. The Bulldogs (44-10, 19-9 SEC and 31-4 at Dudy Noble Field) had a seven-run inning and two five-run innings. Twelve different players scored, with Jake Mangum and Tanner Allen crossing the plate four times each. Eleven different players got a hit, with Allen going 5-for-5. Four Dogs homered. Oh, and Ethan Small breezed through five innings to improve to 8-1.
Delta State, behind the pitching – again — of Hunter Riggins, beat Embry-Riddle 5-1 in an NCAA Division II South Sub-Regional game at Ferriss Field in Cleveland. Riggins, who somehow did not make the final five in the Ferriss Trophy voting, threw a seven-hitter with six strikeouts to move to 11-3 and trim his ERA to 2.03. DSU is now 40-12, winning 40 for the 15th time under coach Mike Kinnison. The Statesmen get Valdosta State in a winner’s bracket game today.
In the big juco showdown at Cresap Field in Fulton, No. 2-ranked Itawamba Community College took down No. 1 LSU-Eunice 5-2 in the winner’s bracket of the NJCAA Division II Region 23 Tournament. LaBryant Siddell drove in two runs and scored two for ICC (41-6-1). Justin Medlin (7-1) went 6 1/3 innings for the win, striking out 11, and Kyle Crigger worked the final 2 2/3 for the save. ICC next plays Pearl River, which beat Gulf Coast 12-11 in 11 innings as Shemar Page homered twice.
At Trustmark Park in Pearl, West Jones (Class 5A) and North Pontotoc (3A) claimed MHSAA state championships, New Hope rallied late to win its 4A opener and emergent draft prospect Jared Johnson pitched Smithville to a 4-2 win over Stringer in 1A. Johnson, a sturdy 6-foot-3, 200-pound right-hander, wasn’t particularly sharp but yielded just two cheap singles over seven innings, notching eight strikeouts and five walks. He hit 94 mph on the stadium gun and was consistently around 92. The MSU (and former ICC) commit is 9-0 with an 0.68 ERA.

07 May

juco numbers game

On the eve of the MACJC postseason, there are lots of numbers to digest. Five state junior colleges are ranked in the new NJCAA Division II Top 20, and all of them reached the postseason. No. 4 Itawamba Community College won the regular season title and the right to host the Region 23 Tournament, where top-ranked LSU-Eunice also has an automatic berth. The next eight teams in the MACJC standings face off in best-of-3 series this week to determine four more region tourney participants. Fifth-ranked Jones College (aka Jones County JC), which took second in the league, hosts Hinds; No. 9 Northwest hosts Northeast; No. 6 Pearl River hosts East Central; and No. 16 Meridian hosts Gulf Coast. … LSU-E, which leads the nation in staff ERA (2.56) and bats .340 as a team, could be a bear in the double-elimination region tourney. … Itawamba ranks fifth in the nation in ERA (3.43), third in fielding (.966) and is riding an 11-game winning streak. … The last team to beat ICC was Northwest, in Fulton back on April 16. … Keep an eye on PRCC, which ranks third in the nation in home runs, led by Dexter Jordan’s 15. … Northeast’s Drew Smith led the state in batting at .440 and also hit 13 homers. … Jones is the best hitting team in the state at .330. … Meridian enters on a five-game win streak. … Hinds, ranked ninth at 21-5 in early April, went 4-13 down the stretch and finished ninth in the league.

01 May

hail to champs

One thing has been settled in the land of the Mississippi junior colleges. Itawamba Community College has won the MACJC regular season championship and will host the NJCAA Division II Region 23 Tournament later this month. The fourth-ranked Indians (37-6-1, 22-4) clinched first place on Tuesday by sweeping a twinbill from Mississippi Delta 9-4 and 5-2. ICC coach Rick Collier on Twitter: “Winning a state championship in this league is very hard to do! I am so proud of you all. Keep rolling there is alot of baseball left.” Northwest, ranked No. 8, sits at 20-6, No. 7 Jones County at 19-7 and No. 5 Pearl River at 17-9, each with one doubleheader left to play. The Nos. 2-9 teams in the final standings will pair off in best-of-3 series next week that will send four more team to the region tourney in Fulton, where ICC and top-ranked LSU-Eunice will be waiting. … ICC has ridden a dominant ace this season, but Houston Harding (10-0) wasn’t available on Tuesday. The wins went to Justin Medlin and Hunter Hughes, both 6-1. Medlin is also one of the top hitters for Collier’s club, batting .309 with seven homers and 35 RBIs entering Tuesday’s games. Brett Coker led the team with a .376 average, and Jackson Lancaster was at .333 with 38 RBIs.

25 Apr

gimme five

He came up in the ninth inning Wednesday needing a home run for the cycle. Delvin Zinn had to settle for a double, his fifth hit of the game in what was the best performance in his four years of pro ball. “One-hundred percent I was (thinking home run), but I guess if you miss with a double, that’s alright,” the ex-Itawamba Community College star from Pontotoc told milb.com. Zinn is batting .375 through 13 games in his second season with South Bend, the Chicago Cubs’ Class A club. The 21-year-old middle infielder was drafted in the 23rd round in 2016 by the Cubs. He had hit .411 and drawn raves for his defense during his one season at ICC, but he’s moved slowly in pro ball. He spent two years at the rookie level, helping the Cubs win an Arizona League title in 2017. He batted .286 in 59 games for South Bend last year. The five-hit game might be a springboard for him. … Five was also a number of note for Ole Miss product Drew Pomeranz. The big lefty got his first win for San Francisco, throwing six shutout innings at Toronto. He now has big league wins for five different clubs. The fifth overall pick in the 2010 draft by Cleveland, Pomeranz has been a relatively effective pitcher (45-50, 3.91 ERA) who just never stays in one place for very long.

19 Apr

juco snapshot

Before the dust gets kicked up again in the MACJC, here’s how the teams stack up with roughly two weeks left in the regular season: Fourth-ranked Itawamba Community College (14-4) and No. 11 Northwest Mississippi (15-5), after their split on Tuesday, remain in a virtual tie for first in the standings. No. 6 Pearl River and No. 9 Jones County, both on extended winning streaks, are third at 12-6. Gulf Coast (11-7) and East Central (12-8) are in a virtual tie for fifth, and No. 10 Meridian and 14th-ranked Hinds are knotted in seventh at 10-7. Copiah-Lincoln sits at 9-9. Yes, it’s going to be a mad scramble to the finish and on into the playoffs. The big doubleheader this weekend is Saturday’s matchup of Northwest and Meridian in the Queen City. … Pitching – good pitching — has been a main storyline this season. MACJC schools occupy the Nos. 7 to 11 spots in the NJCAA Division II team stats for ERA. Itawamba, featuring ace Houston Harding, has a 3.28, Northwest a 3.29 and Pearl River a 3.34. Meridian’s Braden Forsyth, who has worked as a starter and reliever, has a 1.15, while Harding, 8-0 as a starter, is at 1.72. PRCC’s Miles Smith has 69 strikeouts, eighth in the nation. Jones County leads state schools in batting with a .337 average, led by Brandon Hale at .398. Pearl River has mashed 59 homers, second-most in the country. Dexter Jordan has 10, and Wiley Cleland and Kasey Donaldson nine apiece. Meridian’s Kace Garner leads the state with 12 bombs, and Gulf Coast’s Brandon Parker has 10.

16 Apr

spotlight on …

If you’re a Mississippi baseball aficionado, Roy Cresap Field in Fulton is the place you oughta be today. The top two teams in the MACJC standings will clash in a doubleheader that should be worth the price of admission and then some. Host Itawamba Community College is ranked No. 4 in the latest NJCAA Division II poll, sporting a 28-5 overall record and 13-3 mark in the conference. Northwest Mississippi CC, ranked 15th, is 25-7, 14-4. ICC’s Houston Harding, a lefty from Walls and a Mississippi State commit, is one of the top pitchers in the country; he is 8-0 with a 1.72 ERA. The staff’s other ace is Austin King, 5-1, 3.22. Two-way standout Justin Medlin is 4-0, 2.05 as a pitcher and is batting .355 with seven homers and 31 RBIs. Northwest trots out a powerful lineup that features five hitters with five or more homers, led by Hammer Franks with seven. Franks is batting .316 with 32 RBIs. Brayland Skinner leads the Rangers regulars with a .359 average and 12 steals. The Rangers’ best pitchers have been the Stinnett brothers – sophomore Carson is 6-0, 3.22, freshman Parker 4-2, 1.80 – and lefty Dalton Fowler (5-1, 2.32).

25 Mar

have a day

It’s gotta be a big thrill for a minor league player just to get called over to big league camp for the first time for an exhibition game. Then imagine getting a start at first base, then a hit in your first at-bat and then a home run in your third. Tyreque Reed lived that on Sunday in Arizona. The former Itawamba Community College slugger from Houlka, an eighth-round pick by Texas in 2017, surely left an impression on the Rangers’ brass. All three of the 21-year-old’s ABs came against Kansas City big leaguer Jakob Junis. The seventh-inning homer put the Rangers ahead in a game that would end in a 3-3 tie. Reed’s bat is legit. He gained a measure of fame when he led the nation’s Division II jucos in batting with an eye-popping .504 average in 2017. He also launched 15 bombs in 47 games for ICC that year. The 6-foot-2, 260-pound right-handed hitter hit .350 with five homers in 35 games in rookie ball in 2017 and followed that by batting .267 with 18 homers and 53 RBIs at Class A Hickory in 2018. His development should be fun to watch.

05 Mar

spring flings

There was an under-the-radar Mississippi baseball aficionados moment late in the St. Louis-Detroit Grapefruit League game on Monday: The Tigers’ Kade Scivicque, a former Southwest Mississippi Community College star, took ex-Ole Miss standout Mike Mayers deep in the eighth inning. (Detroit won the game 9-5, but no one really cares about that.) It was the first hit in four at-bats of the spring for Scivicque, in Detroit’s camp as a non-roster invitee. An All-SEC catcher at LSU, he was drafted in the fourth round by the Tigers in 2015, traded to Atlanta (spending some time with the Mississippi Braves), released and re-signed by Detroit (twice). He’s a .268 career hitter in the minors, having reached Triple-A. Mayers, a third-round pick by St. Louis in 2013, has a 6.75 ERA in three spring appearances. He spent most of 2018 in the big leagues, posting a 4.70 ERA with two wins, a save and six holds in 50 games, and figures to land a bullpen job again this season. … Delta State product Trent Giambrone, in the Chicago Cubs’ camp as a non-roster player, went 0-for-1 with a walk and two runs on Monday; he is 7-for-16 this spring with a .471 on-base average, two homers, three RBIs and four runs. … Former Harrison Central High standout Bobby Bradley, in Cleveland’s camp as a 40-man roster member for the first time, went 0-for-1 as a sub and has gotten just three at-bats this spring. He’ll likely be back in Triple-A. … Ex-Ole Miss star Aaron Barrett, making a valiant comeback attempt with Washington, worked a scoreless inning, cutting his ERA to 12.00 in three appearances. Barrett has endured myriad injuries (see previous posts) since his last MLB game in 2015. … Itawamba CC alum Tim Dillard, 35 and in his 18th pro season, suffered a blown save for Texas and saw his ERA climb to 23.14 in three outings. Dillard, son of ex-big leaguer Steve, last pitched in the majors in 2012 with Milwaukee, which drafted him in 2002.