Tag Archives: junior college baseball

21 May

bring ’em on

Hinds Community College’s first-round foe in the NJCAA Division II World Series will be Lincoln Land CC of Illinois. The Loggers are 44-15 and ranked 11th in the nation. Forgive the Eagles if they shrugged at those numbers. After all, Hinds had to get through the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the nation just to get to the 10-team national tournament, which begins Saturday in Enid, Okla. Hinds (35-19) beat top-ranked Jones County JC in the Region 23 title game at Ellisville last Saturday. Sam Temple’s Eagles, who also beat No. 2 LSU-Eunice (twice) in the regional, are in the Juco World Series for the fifth time but for the first time since 1999. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Hinds’ first World Series trip (see previous post). Casey Sutton, who beat Jones in the region finale to move to 8-2 for the year, is the Eagles’ likely starter in the opener. Austin Sanders notched his eighth save in the title game, and the Eagles got big hits from Casey Echols (son of former Mississippi State star Tracy Echols), Luke Reynolds and Caleb Upton.

27 Apr

juco postseason glance

The junior college postseason qualifiers appear to be set. The unofficial matchups: Holmes at Jones County; Northwest at Hinds; East Central at East Mississippi; and Pearl River at Northeast. JCJC, ranked No. 1 in NJCAA Division II, won the South Division and East Mississippi, ranked seventh, won the North (for the first time since 1998). The best-of-3 series begin Friday. The four winners move on to the double-elimination state tournament May 8-10 at a site to be determined.

25 Apr

juco madness

Division titles — and more — will be determined on Saturday as the MACJC regular season concludes. East Mississippi Community College, ranked seventh in NJCAA Division II, hosts Northeast in a doubleheader showdown for the North crown. The Lions are 17-5, the Tigers 16-6. No. 1-ranked Jones County JC (17-5) will try to wrap up the South championship when it visits last-place Copiah-Lincoln (7-13). Hinds is 16-6, a game back of JCJC, heading into a twinbill against visiting East Central (9-13). Mississippi Gulf Coast, behind James Land’s monster day (8-for-9, two homers, six RBIs), split with Jones on Wednesday to stay in contention for a playoff berth in the South. Gulf Coast is 9-13 with Pearl River (11-11) coming to Perkinston on Saturday. Elsewhere, Holmes (10-12 North) hosts Coahoma (0-22) and Northwest (14-8 North) hosts Itawamba (9-13). Southwest (9-15 South) and Delta (12-12 North) have finished division play. The juco postseason is a long and winding road. The top four teams in each division begin the postseason on May 2-3 with a best-of-3 series (North 1 hosts South 4, etc.). The four series winners advance to the state tournament (May 8-10). The NJCAA Region 23 Tournament is May 15-18. The winner there goes to the D-II World Series.

12 Mar

top of the world

Jones County Junior College takes the field in Ellisville today with a target on its back. The Bobcats are, for the first time in school history, the No. 1-ranked team in NJCAA Division II. The 17-1 Bobcats tangle today with Itawamba Community College in a twinbill at Community Bank Park and open MACJC South Division play on Saturday at Pearl River. JCJC coach Christian Ostrander appears to have a well-balanced club: Four regulars are batting above .350 and three frontline pitchers have ERAs under 1.40. Trent Giambrone leads the JCJC attack with a .452 average and 21 RBIs. Chase Hensley is hitting .375, Joshua Pankratz (from Taylorsville) .362 and Alex Shermer (Northwest Rankin) .352. Chris Morgan (Madison Central) has 22 runs and eight steals. Former Terry High star Wes Stringer is the Bobcats’ ace, with a 5-0 record and a 0.26 ERA. Lane Ratliff (Purvis) is 3-0, 1.35 and Hensley is 3-0, 1.38. P.S. Three other state schools are ranked in the latest juco D-II poll. East Mississippi is No. 6, Northwest (the only team to beat JCJC) is 13th and Northeast is 19th. … DeSoto Central High is No. 19 in Baseball America’s first in-season prep poll. Clay Casey, an Ole Miss commit, is 7-for-19 with seven RBIs for the Jaguars (5-2).

06 Mar

number crunching

Delta State has won 33 straight games — yes, 33! — against Christian Brothers, which comes to Ferriss Field in Cleveland this weekend for a Gulf South Conference series. DSU is 79-11 all-time vs. CBU. The teams will play two on Saturday and a single game Sunday. The Statesmen, still nationally ranked in NCAA Division II, are 7-5 and 6-3 in the GSC. … Jackson State, which opens Southwestern Athletic Conference play this weekend at Braddy Field against Alabama A&M, is batting .211 as a team. And yet, the Tigers are 7-5 and coming off a 5-4 win over South Alabama. In addition to some solid pitching, JSU has 25 stolen bases, 21 sacrifice bunts and five sac flies. … Ole Miss and Mississippi State are 22-6 combined, and Memphis has wins over both of them. The Tigers (11-1) beat the Rebels (11-2) 4-1 on Wednesday. No longer in C-USA, Memphis doesn’t play Southern Miss this year but does take on Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State in addition to another game with UM. … In Wednesday’s big junior college showdown in Senatobia, Jones County and Northwest split the doubleheader. The Rangers (now 9-5) got a 5-for-5, two-homer performance from Chase Clark in handing the Bobcats (15-1) their first loss of the year, 7-1, in the opener. JCJC won Game 2 5-3 as Trent Giambrone hit the Bobcats’ first homer of the season and Cole Barlow notched his fifth save. … East Mississippi CC improved to 12-4 by taking two from Pearl River at Poplarville on Wednesday. The Lions have swept four doubleheaders already. Chase Reeves had four hits, including a homer, in the PRCC sweep, while Connor Burton got his third save in Game 1 and J’Daylin Jackson his third win in Game 2.

19 Feb

walk the walk

LeDarious Clark, generally considered the top juco prospect in the state, rose to the occasion for East Mississippi Community College on Tuesday with a walk-off grand slam. Clark’s blast, his second of the season, beat Hinds 7-5 in the first game of a doubleheader in Scooba. (The Lions also won Game 2 to improve to 7-3.) Clark, a sophomore outfielder out of Southeast Lauderdale High, is hitting .321 with a .679 slugging percentage, 10 runs, eight RBIs and three steals. … The walk-off was also in style for Mississippi Gulf Coast’s James Land on Tuesday. The freshman from Harrison Central delivered his game-winning home run — his fourth hit of the game — in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Bulldogs a crazy 17-16 win over Jeff Davis CC in Perkinston.

16 Feb

juco jump-start

Northwest Mississippi Community College, ranked 14th in the NJCAA Division II preseason poll, finally got on the field on Saturday and – ta da – delivered a command performance. The Rangers swept No. 8 North Iowa JC 16-9 and 6-0 at Senatobia. Luke Latham and Taylor King homered in both games for Northwest, and Matt Ferguson threw a two-hitter in Game 2. … Pitching has been the story for Jones County JC, which is 4-0 after beating Jeff Davis CC twice on Saturday. The Bobcats have allowed just eight hits and two runs (with 40 strikeouts) in 30 innings. Former Terry High star Westin Stringer is 2-0 with two dominant outings. … Pearl River, which won 41 games in 2013, is off to a 6-0 start, including a sweep of Mississippi Delta on Friday. Luke McGee, a reverse transfer from Ohio State, is 2-0 for the Wildcats. … Patrick McMahon hit a walk-off homer for Gulf Coast in the first game of a doubleheader against Alabama Southern on Friday. … Northeast, ranked 20th, lost its first two games of the season. … Defending MACJC champion East Central has won three of its first four.