LSU Archives - All Mississippi Baseball

random (but relevant) numbers

200 — Wins for Michael Avalon as coach at Pearl River Community College, No. 200 being the national championship-securing 7-2 victory over Madison (Wisc.) College on Saturday in Enid, Okla. The Wildcats got homers from Tate Parker and Alex Perry, two RBIs from World Series MVP D.K. Donaldson and 12 strikeouts from Cole Tolbert and Turner Swistak, who combined on a six-hitter. PRCC follows Jones College (2016) as NJCAA Division II national champs. William Carey University (1969), Delta State (2004) and Mississippi State (2021) have won national titles at the four-year level.
3 — Hits by Peyton Chatagnier, including a key two-run double in the eighth inning that propelled Ole Miss to a 7-4 win against Arizona in the first round of the Coral Cables Regional. The Rebels get 1-seed Miami today; the Hurricanes used a three-homer game by Yohandy Morales to beat Canisius 11-6.
4 — Runs by LSU, three after two were out, in a stunning ninth-inning rally that led to a 7-6, 10-inning win against Southern Miss in the Hattiesburg Regional winners bracket. On a day when crooked numbers were flying all over in the NCAA regionals, these teams combined for 18 hits, five homers, eight walks, three HBPs, 28 strikeouts and 357 pitches in a 3-hour, 44-minute grinder played before 5,211 emotionally drained fans at Taylor Park. USM tries to rebound today against Kennesaw State, hoping (?) for another crack at the Tigers.
6 — Combined hits by Matt Wallner (four) and Blaine Crim in Wichita’s 8-7 win vs. Frisco in a Double-A Texas League clash (see previous post). Wallner, a USM alum, hit his 11th homer and drove in three runs for Wichita. Ex-Mississippi College star Crim boosted his average to .301 with a 2-for-5 effort and scored twice for Frisco.
21 — Hits in his last 15 games by Austin Riley, the DeSoto Central High product who tripled and homered in Atlanta’s 6-2, 11-inning win against Colorado. Riley is batting .339 with six homers and 12 RBIs over his last 15 games. He has 14 bombs all told for the Braves, who have won four straight to reach 27-27 on the season.

in a word

If you had to assess Southern Miss with one word, it would be: pitching. The Golden Eagles have a deep and talented stable of arms that enters the Hattiesburg Regional with a 3.04 ERA, among the nation’s best. Tanner Hall was C-USA pitcher of the year and the state’s Ferriss Trophy winner. For LSU, the 2-seed in the regional, the word would be power. The Tigers raked 107 home runs, led by the remarkable Dylan Crews with 21. Army, the 4-seed, is mostly about speed. The Black Knights swiped 101 bases this season, led by Hunter Meade with 31. Kennesaw State is a curiosity. The Owls’ pitching is highly suspect; they don’t hit a ton of homers or steal a bunch of bases. But KSU does have Josh Hatcher, an All-America candidate who hit .386 with 13 homers, 55 RBIs and 60 runs and twice hit for the cycle in 2022. (Unfortunately, he doesn’t pitch.) USM (43-16, 22-10 at Taylor Park) does enough with the bats (.283, 77 homers) that it should prevail in the regional and make the Super Regional. But LSU, which didn’t have a typical season (38-20, 17-13 SEC), certainly poses a threat. In a published poll, four Gannett “experts” split between USM and LSU as the regional favorite. (All four picked Miami to come out of the Coral Gables Regional, where Ole Miss is playing. That regional champion plays the Hattiesburg champ in the Super Regional.)