Tag Archives: MACCC

12 Jun

juco stars come out

Individual honors continue to roll in for Pearl River Community College’s 2025 team, which finished as national runner-up this season in NJCAA Division II. Five Wildcats were named to the NJCAA All-America teams, including first-team pick K.K. Clark. Jacob Keys and Caston Thompson made second-team A-A, Topher Jones the third team and Jacob Johnson honorable mention. Itawamba CC’s Jud Files and East Central’s Pablo Roque made the third team. Clark, a Brandon High product, went 12-2 with a 1.84 ERA in his lone season with PRCC after transferring from Mississippi State. He was previously named the MACCC’s pitcher of the year and the outstanding pitcher in the juco World Series. Clark is bound for Louisiana Tech, where he’ll play for Mississippian Lane Burroughs. All told, PRCC has seen 16 players from the ’25 squad sign with four-year schools. Pearl River’s Michael Avalon was the MACCC coach of the year after guiding the Wildcats to a 53-10 record with state and Region 23 titles. … A number of MACCC players finished among the national leaders in various statistical categories. PRCC’s Clark and Johnson, both 12-game winners, tied for second in the nation in that category, and Clark ranked fourth in strikeouts with 116. Jones College’s Caden Freeman and Copiah-Lincoln’s Nash Sturdivant tied for the D-II lead in saves with nine each. Jake Meilstrup of Southwest was third in the nation in steals with a school-record 56. (The previous record was held by Maleke Fowler — not, surprisingly enough, by former MLB star Jarrod Dyson.) PRCC’s Jones led the state with 72 RBIs, a figure that ranked 10th nationally, and teammate Keegan Giger, a .349 hitter, topped the state with 82 hits, tied for 16th in the national stats. Holmes’ Hunter Azemar led the state in home runs with 15, tied for 17th-most in the nation. PRCC’s Thompson, the MACCC player of the year and a Nicholls State signee, and Jackson Hood tied for 14th in homers with 14. The MACCC’s leading hitter was Hinds’ Dawson Muenzenmay, who batted .400, with Meridian’s Brennon Wright at .381. The national ranking of batting average leaders is not available.

29 May

just stuff

Brandon Woodruff, the ex-Mississippi State star, reportedly is on schedule to rejoin the Milwaukee pitching staff on the Brewers’ next homestand, which starts June 6. Making his eighth rehab appearance as he comes back from shoulder surgery, Woodruff went seven innings for High-Class A Wisconsin on Wednesday and yielded a lone unearned run. “It went pretty good,” Woodruff told reporters. He has a 1.94 ERA over 36 2/3 innings split between High-A and Triple-A. A two-time All-Star, Woodruff missed all of the 2024 season after the surgery. … Jake Mangum is batting .389 in 18 at-bats on his rehab assignment for Tampa Bay; the former MSU standout, on the injured list since April 24, is 6-for-15 at Triple-A Durham. … Former East Central Community College star Tim Anderson and Southern Miss alum Chuckie Robinson have been designated for assignment by the Los Angeles Angels. Former All-Star Anderson, a curious off-season addition, was batting .205 with no homers and one steal in 83 at-bats. Robinson, on the 40-man roster but playing at Triple-A Salt Lake all season, was batting .272 with a homer and 18 RBIs in 28 games. … Biloxi Shuckers alum Orlando Arcia, released by the Atlanta Braves, signed with Colorado and went 2-for-3 as the DH in Wednesday’s game, a loss to the Chicago Cubs. … Let’s do it again: Pablo Roque went 3-for-4 with six RBIs to lead East Central CC to a 13-4 win Wednesday against Southeastern Iowa, setting up another game against Pearl River CC. The MACCC rivals will meet tonight at Enid, Okla., for the seventh time this season and second time in the NJCAA Division II World Series. ECCC will have to beat second-seeded PRCC, unbeaten in Enid, twice to reach the World Series finals. … A couple of Mississippians have helped fuel NAIA No. 1 LSU-Shreveport’s run to a record 57-0. That’s 57-0. Hinds CC alum Vantrel Reed is hitting .397 with five homers and 61 RBIs and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC product D.J. Walker is batting .387 for the Pilots, who beat Southeastern (Fla.) 10-0 Wednesday in the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. LSU-S plays Hope International (Calif.) today for a berth in the finals. A third Mississippian, Pearl River CC product Byrion Robinson, is also on the LSU-S roster but has not pitched this season. … There will be three Golden Spikes Award semifinalists on display in the Hattiesburg Regional: Southern Miss’ J.B. Middleton, Alabama’s Justin Lebron and Miami’s Daniel Cuvet. There will be two in the Oxford Regional, both playing for Georgia Tech: Drew Burress and Kyle Lodise. The NCAA Division I Tournament starts Friday at all 16 regionals.

21 May

collecting hardware

Awards season was very rewarding for the Magnolia State’s NCAA Division I programs. Southern Miss’ Nick Monistere won the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Award; Golden Eagles teammate Carson Paetow won the league’s leadership award; Jackson State’s Eric Elliott is the SWAC’s pitcher of the year; and Mississippi State’s Ace Reese was named the SEC’s newcomer of the year. USM’s J.B. Middleton – who won the Ferriss Trophy as the state’s top player – and Colby Allen were first-team All-SBC picks along with Monistere. Reese, a transfer from Houston, was also first-team All-SEC. Ole Miss had two players – Luke Hill and Mason Morris – named to the All-SEC second team, and JSU had two – Jordan McCladdie and Wilbert Perez – make second-team All-SWAC. Worth noting: In the jucos, Pearl River Community College, which won the MACCC and Region 23 titles, had six players make first-team all-conference, including player of the year Caston Thompson and pitcher of the year K.K. Clark. In the small college ranks, as previously announced, Bobby Halford at William Carey, Rodney Batts at Delta State and Jim Page at Millsaps won conference coach of the year honors. Carey’s Josh Alexander was the SSAC player of the year; DSU’s Drake Fontenot won GSC pitcher of the year honors; and Millsaps’ Bradley Pelle (player) and Nick Tarantino (pitcher) swept the SAA’s top awards.

21 May

together again

MACCC powerhouses Pearl River Community College and East Central CC, who just met last week in a three-game showdown for the Region 23 crown, could collide again in the NJCAA Division II World Series in Enid, Okla. PRCC is the No. 2 seed, while ECCC is seeded sixth on the same side of the bracket in the 12-team, double-elimination event. PRCC (50-8) earned the automatic bid by winning the region title in a winner-take-all game Saturday. ECCC (42-14) got one of the two at-large bids and is in the field for the third straight year. PRCC won the national in 2022. ECCC will play Catawba Valley on Saturday. PRCC gets a first-round bye before taking on the winner of the Southeastern Iowa-Kellogg contest on Sunday. Pearl River leads the nation in staff ERA and ranks among the leaders in home runs, a pretty sweet combo. The big mashers for the Wildcats include Caston Thompson (13 homers, .372 average), Jackson Hood (12 homers, .344) and Topher Jones (10 homers, .377). The twin aces are Jacob Johnson (12-1, 1.62 ERA) and K.K. Clark (10-2, 1.75). Johnson shut out ECCC in the deciding game of the region title series. East Central’s top hitters are Barret Rodgers (.359) and Pablo Roque (.352, seven homers), and the Warriors’ ace is Bryson Goff (9-1, 2.81). P.S. In MLB, former Jackson Prep standout Will Warren, now with the New York Yankees, struck out 10 batters in 5 2/3 shutout innings to beat the Rangers and run his record to 3-2. … Ole Miss alum Nick Fortes hit his first homer of 2025, accounting for Miami’s only run in a 14-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs. … Mississippi State product J.T. Ginn has gone back on the injured list for the A’s after making one rocky start in his first game off the IL.

12 May

smalls world

Seeking a third straight trip to the NAIA World Series, William Carey University takes on Indiana Southeast today at Wheeler Field in Hattiesburg. British Columbia plays Oklahoma Wesleyan in the other Opening Round game in this four-team, double-elimination regional. The Crusaders, who won the regular season title in the SSAC, are 38-12 and ranked 10th in the nation. Carey won an NAIA national title in 1969. It’s a busy week for Mississippi’s small schools: Delta State and Mississippi College each received at-large bids to the NCAA Division II Tournament; Millsaps and Belhaven made the NCAA D-III field as at-large teams; and Pearl River Community College and East Central CC will face off in a best-of-3 series for the NJCAA D-II Region 23 championship. … Delta State (32-18), regular season champion in the Gulf South, will play West Florida on Thursday at Lakeland, Fla., in a four-team bracket in the South Region. MC (33-21), which last made the NCAA field in 2018, is in the other South Region bracket at Tampa, Fla., and will play Lynn on Thursday. Tampa is the No. 1 seed in the region, MC No. 4 and DSU No. 6. … Millsaps (29-13), regular season champ in the Southern Athletic Association, heads for the East Texas Baptist Regional at Marshall, Texas, to play the host school in the first round. Belhaven (31-13) plays Rhodes in the Webster (Mo.) Regional. Only 23 at-large bids are awarded in the 64-team D-III Tournament. … On Wednesday at Poplarville, juco juggernauts Pearl River, ranked No. 2, and East Central, ranked seventh, will clash for a trip to the NJCAA World Series in Enid, Okla. PRCC, regular season champ in the MACCC, is 48-7, and ECCC is 41-12. Both have been ranked No. 1 in the country this season. ECCC went to the World Series in 2023 and ’24. PRCC won the national title in 2022. They split their regular season meeting this spring. P.S. It already has been a banner year for the state’s small schools. Along with the three conference titles, three coaches won coach of the year awards: Bobby Halford at Carey, Rodney Batts at DSU and Jim Page at Millsaps. Carey’s Josh Alexander was named the SSAC player of the year; DSU’s Drake Fontenot won GSC pitcher of the year honors; and Millsaps’ Bradley Pelle (player) and Nick Tarantino (pitcher) swept the SAA’s top awards. In addition, MC had four GSC first-team picks, and Belhaven had four named in the Collegiate Conference of the South. Carey had three All-SSAC picks in addition to Alexander, and DSU’s Brett Burrell made All-GSC along with Fontenot.

06 May

wins and losses

Behind the stout pitching of Blake Gollott and Dylan Cope, Mississippi College beat Valdosta State 3-2 Monday in an elimination game and moved into the semifinal round of the Gulf South Conference Tournament. MC (32-20) takes on West Alabama, unbeaten in the tournament, today. Gollott (5-0) allowed one run over five innings and Cope one over four as the fourth-seeded Choctaws eliminated No. 2-seed Valdosta at Oxford, Ala. MC put out top-seeded Delta State on Sunday. J.T. Vance had the big hit against Valdosta, driving in two runs for a 3-0 lead in the third inning. The Choctaws entered the event on a five-game roll that included a first-ever sweep of Delta State in Clinton to conclude the regular season. … Belhaven fell to Huntingdon (Ala.) for the second straight day in the title game of the CCS Tournament, losing 3-1 Monday at Maryville, Tenn. The Blazers (31-13) scored 35 runs in their first three tourney games, two in the two losses to Huntingdon. NCAA Division III Tournament at-large bids are hard to come by, but BU might have a shot at one. … In the twin NJCAA Region 23 tournaments: Meridian Community College beat Northwest 6-0 Monday in the play-in game at Poplarville and Holmes knocked off Southwest 6-2 in the Decatur play-in. For MCC, Connor Gehr threw 5 2/3 innings of lockdown relief and also got two hits; Brennon Wright drove in two runs. Mississippi Gulf Coast, behind Eli Waters’ three-hitter, beat Northeast 7-1 Monday in a first-round game at Poplarville, where host Pearl River will play Meridian today. At Decatur, Copiah-Lincoln, with Tucker Jones and Riese Thomas combining for seven RBIs, beat Jones College 13-6 in a first-round contest; host East Central gets Holmes today in the first round. P.S. Belated kudos to state juco alums — and former major league players — Corey Dickerson (Meridian) and Tim Dillard (Itawamba) on their recent induction into the MACCC Athletics Hall of Fame. Now the coach at Jackson Academy, Dickerson also celebrated his team’s dethroning of MAIS 6A champion Jackson Prep in the state playoffs last week.

30 Apr

brought low

In need of a big hit in a clutch spot, Nathaniel Lowe delivered a huge one for Washington on Tuesday night. A short time later, his star turn was upstaged by a Philadelphia rally, Lowe brought low. The Phillies beat the visiting Nationals 7-6 in a wild affair at Citizens Bank Park. Lowe, the Mississippi State alum in his first season with the Nationals, was in a 2-for-27 funk when he blasted a two-strike, two-out, go-ahead three-run homer in the top of the ninth against Philly closer Orion Kerkering. In the bottom half, the Phillies rallied for two runs and the win against Nats closer Kyle Finnegan. The winning run crossed on a wild pitch. “That’s the roller coaster that we sign up for,” Lowe said in an mlb.com article. Washington traded for Lowe in the off-season, hoping his power bat — 78 bombs in four years with Texas — would boost a team that had posted four straight losing seasons. He has had some big knocks. The lefty-hitting first baseman is batting .245 with six homers and a team-best 23 RBIs — and the 2025 Nats (13-17) have been more competitive, Tuesday’s gut-punch notwithstanding. P.S. Former Southern Miss star Dustin Dickerson is hitting .353 in 10 games for Triple-A Omaha since Kansas City promoted the shortstop in his third pro season. … Braden Montgomery went 1-for-3 with two walks, an RBI and a run in his first game with High-Class A Winston-Salem in the Chicago White Sox system. The ex-Madison Central High standout, a first-round draftee in 2024, was hitting .304 with three homers and 19 RBIs at Low-A Kannapolis. … The fields are set for next week’s NJCAA Division II Region 23 sub-regionals. Pearl River Community College, the MACCC champ, will host Mississippi Gulf Coast, Northeast, Meridian and Northwest, with state runner-up East Central hosting Jones, Copiah-Lincoln, Holmes and Southwest. Meridian and Northwest will meet in a play-in game at Poplarville, and Holmes and Southwest will do the same in Decatur.

29 Apr

fasten your seatbelt

What was already going to be a fascinating week for Magnolia State teams got a lot more interesting on Monday, when Mississippi State decided to make “a change in baseball leadership.” Suddenly, Chris Lemonis was out as head coach. Justin Parker will make his debut as the interim coach tonight when the Bulldogs host Memphis at Dudy Noble Field in Starkville. Lemonis, who had a 232-135 record, won a national title in 2021, but the team’s results since then, especially in the SEC, have been decidedly mediocre. Ranked in the preseason, MSU takes a 25-19 record (7-14 SEC) into tonight’s game. … Also today, Jones College will host East Central Community College in a doubleheader that will decide the second seed in the MACCC playoffs. Both are ranked in the top 10 nationally in NJCAA Division II. Postseason positioning is on the line in several other MACCC games today. No. 2-ranked Pearl River already has claimed the regular season championship and will host a sub-regional starting May 5. … Jackson State completed a series sweep of Alcorn State on Monday, outscoring the struggling Braves 30-7 in the three games at Lorman. JSU, on a six-game win streak, is 23-17, 11-10 SWAC, and will host New Orleans on Wednesday and Mississippi Valley State next weekend. … In the SSAC Tournament opening round on Wednesday at Jackson, Tenn., No. 1 seed William Carey plays Tennessee Southern and No. 5 Blue Mountain Christian meets Middle Georgia. The Mississippi schools are in the same four-team pool. … Belhaven, seeded second in the CCS Tournament at Maryville, Tenn., plays Huntingdon (Ala.) on Wednesday in the first round. … Rust College will take on Wiley (Texas) on Wednesday in the quarterfinal round of the HBCUAC Tournament in North Little Rock, Ark. … Delta State is the top seed and Mississippi College No. 4 in the GSC Tournament that begins Friday at Oxford, Ala. DSU meets Montevallo (Ala.) and MC gets West Alabama in first round games. … NCAA Division III rivals Millsaps and MUW, whose conference tournaments start next week, will tangle today at Twenty Field in Jackson. Millsaps, as the top seed, will host the SAA Tournament starting on May 8. MUW’s seeding in the SLIAC tourney has not been set. P.S. With Baltimore having paced ex-State standout Jordan Westburg (hamstring) on the injured list, there are now 11 Mississippians on the major league IL and 11 on active rosters. (Cleveland sent Ole Miss alum Doug Nikhazy back to the minors after his inauspicious debut.)

23 Apr

three things

1 — Nothing like a comeback-capping walk-off win over your archrival to recharge the battery. Ole Miss, having lost five of seven and tumbled in the national polls, beat Mississippi State 8-7 in 10 innings on Tuesday night at Trustmark Park. The Rebels (29-12) hope to ride the momentum of that Governor’s Cup victory into a home series against nationally ranked Vanderbilt this weekend. Ole Miss is 10-8 in the SEC, Vandy 11-7 and 30-11 overall. Several Rebels took star turns in Pearl. Austin Fawley’s 12th homer of the year, a two-run shot, tied the score in the ninth at 7-7. Will Furniss’ run-scoring single — his third RBI of the night — won it in the 10th. Hudson Calhoun threw hitless ball over the last three frames, fanning seven, to get the W. While noting it wasn’t pretty, UM coach Mike Bianco said, “Our guys hung in there, and I’m proud of them for that.” For State, it was a deflating defeat. The Bulldogs (24-17) were coming off an SEC series loss to Florida in which their pitchers yielded 32 runs. They are 6-12 in the league with a trip to nationally ranked Auburn (28-13, 9-9) looming this weekend.
2 — Pearl River Community College, on a seemingly inexorable march toward the state juco championship, might get a test today from Jones College. PRCC, ranked No. 2 in NJCAA Division II, is 40-6 and 20-2 MACCC and leads the conference in hitting (.331), slugging (.539) and ERA (2.69). The Wildcats also have the reigning conference player (Topher Jones) and pitcher (K.K. Clark) of the week. But Jones College is no slouch. The Bobcats beat the Wildcats back in February and are ranked seventh nationally at 33-10, 19-5 MACCC. The teams, both of which own national titles, meet for a twinbill at Dub Herring Park in Poplarville.
3 — Props to the MHSAA classification players of the year: Talon Haley, Class 7A Lewisburg; Baylor Roberts, 6A Saltillo; Griffin Ennis, 5A Corinth; Jacob and JoJo Parker, 4A Purvis; Brody Thompson, 3A Mooreville; Landon Harmon, 2A East Union; Jon Grey Morrison, 1A West Union.
Plus 1: Grae Kessinger, former Ole Miss standout, has been released by Arizona. The erstwhile big leaguer, 27, who started this season in the minors, was designated for assignment on April 19. He was batting .235 in 11 games at Triple-A Reno and had been sidelined since April 9.

15 Apr

draft notice

A high school player from Mississippi went ninth overall in the 2024 MLB draft. Might another go that high this July? Keith Law, draft analyst for The Athletic and The New York Times, ranks Purvis High’s JoJo Parker No. 9 on his recently released 2025 draft prospect chart. (Jackson Prep product Konnor Griffin went at No. 9 overall to Pittsburgh last year and is currently in A-ball.) Law calls Parker “one of the best pure hitters in the draft class this year, with a very compact swing and excellent pitch recognition, unusual for a high school hitter from Mississippi.” Parker is the third-highest rated prep player on Law’s list. (Ethan Holliday of Stillwater, Okla., is No. 1 overall.) Parker is a 6-foot-2, 195-pound lefty-hitting shortstop. Per MaxPreps, he is batting .500 with eight homers, 47 runs and 27 steals. Yes, he also pitches for the Tornadoes, ranked third in the state by MaxPreps. Parker’s twin brother Jacob, also a potential 2025 draftee, is hitting .480 with nine homers and 37 RBIs and is regarded as a better pure power hitter than JoJo. Both are Mississippi State signees. … Also on Law’s Top 50 draft list are Southern Miss right-hander J.B. Middleton (No. 44) and Ole Miss righty Mason Morris (No. 50). P.S. Pearl River Community College’s Caston Thompson, from Jayess, went 7-for-11 with three homers, nine RBIs and six runs to earn MACCC player of the week honors. The second-ranked Wildcats went 3-1 last week and are 36-6, 16-2 MACCC. Jones County’s Josh Lee, from Gulfport, went eight innings, fanning 13, to beat Mississippi Gulf Coast last week and garnered conference pitcher of the week honors. He is 6-0 for the Bobcats, 29-10, 15-5, and ranked eighth in NJCAA Division II. East Central remains No. 3 in the national poll at 33-7, 15-3.