Tag Archives: Meridian Community College

30 Aug

steele-y performance

No Mississippi native has won a Cy Young Award. Justin Steele, the left-hander from Lucedale, is building a mighty strong case. Steele threw six shutout innings Tuesday night to lead the Chicago Cubs to a 1-0 victory against Milwaukee at Wrigley Field. The former George County High star has 15 wins, tied for the National League lead, and a 2.69 ERA, second in the loop. He also has a league-best 18 quality starts, perhaps none bigger or better than Tuesday’s. The Cubs’ win snapped the first-place Brewers’ nine-game win streak and trimmed second-place Chicago’s deficit to 4 games in the NL Central. Steele was struck in the left leg, just above the knee, by a line drive in the second inning but, unfazed, went on to throw 111 pitches, allowing just six hits and one walk while fanning eight. When he got a punch out for the final out of the sixth, he walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the 33,294 at the Friendly Confines. “I loved it. I love pitching in that environment,” Steele told mlb.com. Steele out-dueled former Biloxi Shuckers ace Corbin Burnes, a former Cy Young winner (2021), who pitched seven brilliant innings for Milwaukee. … Cliff Lee, a Meridian Community College alum from Arkansas, won the American League Cy Young in 2008 with Cleveland. Former Jackson Mets standout Mike Scott won the NL award in 1986 with Houston. The award was initiated in 1956. P.S. The AL West race sure looks like fun. Seattle, Texas and Houston are tied at the top after Tuesday’s results. Mississippi State product J.P. France picked up his 10th win for the Astros, going 5 2/3 (two runs) to beat Boston 6-2 at Fenway Park. France gained a measure of revenge against the Red Sox, who pounded the rookie right-hander for 10 runs in a loss last week. Ex-State star Chris Stratton got the final two outs of the sixth inning, stranding two inherited runners, to pluck the win for Texas, which beat the New York Mets 2-1 at CitiField. Stratton has a 2.00 ERA in 11 games for the Rangers.

09 Aug

transaction action

A virtual horde of minor leaguers started new assignments on Tuesday, and among Mississippi products, none made a bigger splash than former Southern Miss star Matthew Etzel. Etzel homered in his debut for Low-Class A Delmarva in the Baltimore organization. The 2023 draftee was promoted from rookie ball, where he was off to a sizzling start (see previous post). Atlanta promoted three Mississippians. Itawamba Community College alum Will Verdung moved from the Florida Complex League to Low-A Augusta and went 1-for-5. Hurston Waldrep, a USM alum and the Braves’ first-round pick (from Florida) last month, moved from Augusta to High-A Rome, as did ex-Smithville High standout Jared Johnson, who pitched a scoreless inning on Tuesday. Colton Ledbetter, a ’23 draftee out of Mississippi State, went 0-for-3 for Low-A Charleston (Tampa Bay); he hit .400 in the FCL. Former USM star Dustin Dickerson, also a ’23 draftee, went 0-for-3 in his debut for High-A Quad Cities in the Kansas City system; he hit .357 in the Arizona Complex League. Ex-Ole Miss standout Tim Elko made his Double-A debut in the Chicago White Sox chain, going 1-for-5 for Birmingham; he hit 22 homers in the two levels of A-ball. Meridian Community College product Davis Bradshaw went 0-for-3 at Double-A Pensacola (Miami) after a move up from High-A Beloit, where he hit .317; Bradshaw got a look in Double-A last year. Ole Miss alum Anthony Servideo was bumped from Double-A Bowie to High-A Aberdeen in the Orioles’ system and went 1-for-4; he was hitting .218 at Bowie. Landon Tomkins, an ex-Hinds CC standout and a ’23 draftee, was reactivated by Pittsburgh at Low-A Bradenton and pitched an inning (two unearned runs) in his second pro game. P.S. Four former Mississippi Braves hit a total of five homers for four different teams in the big leagues on Tuesday: Ronald Acuna for Atlanta, William Contreras for Milwaukee, Drew Waters for Kansas City and Joey Meneses (two) for Washington. Braden Shewmake hit one for Triple-A Gwinnett.

29 Jul

remember the time

On this date in 2009, the Philadelphia Phillies — defending World Series champs — swung a big trade with Cleveland for left-hander Cliff Lee, the former Meridian Community College star and 2008 Cy Young Award winner. Lee went 7-4 with a 3.39 ERA down the stretch for the Phillies and 4-0 in the postseason, but the team lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series. Lee was traded to Seattle in the off-season. On July 29, 2010, the Phillies, again eyeing a postseason run, traded with Houston for Roy Oswalt, the former Holmes CC standout who had won an ERA title in 2006. Oswalt went 7-1 with a 1.74 for the Phils and 1-1 in the postseason as the team lost to San Francisco in the National League Championship Series. After the 2010 season, Philadelphia brought Lee back as a free agent. The Phils entered the 2011 season with a fantastic rotation — famously hailed as the “legion of arms” on the cover of Sports Illustrated — of Lee, Oswalt, Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton. The team won 102 games — Lee won 17, Oswalt nine — and the NL East title but fell in the division series to St. Louis. Lee and Oswalt both lost their starts. Oswalt left after the 2011 season and was soon out of the game. Lee pitched three more years in Philly with only modest success. Neither would appear in another postseason game, and the Phillies didn’t make the postseason again until last year. P.S. Props to Millsaps College coach Jim Page and former Mississippi State and big league pitcher Paul Maholm for their formal induction today into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, a very deserving honor for each.

19 Jun

punching ’em out

There was no joy in Seattle for Lance Lynn and the Chicago White Sox on Sunday, but a record-tying effort deserves some bit of fanfare. Ole Miss alum Lynn struck out 16 batters, matching a franchise mark set in 1954. “My stuff was good,” Lynn told mlb.com, “but we lost. It doesn’t matter how many you strike out if you don’t win the game.” The White Sox’s 5-1 loss dropped their record to 31-42. Lynn is 4-8 with a 6.51 ERA. But Sunday’s outing was one of his best in a tough year. He threw 114 pitches over seven innings, allowed four hits, two walks and three runs. Lynn has 1,817 career punchouts, third-most — for the time being — among Mississippians in MLB history. Now in his 12th big league season, the burly right-hander struck out 246 batters in 2019, most by a Mississippian in a single season. On the career chart, Weir’s Roy Oswalt finished with 1,852 and Meridian Community College alum Cliff Lee got 1,824. Ex-Ole Miss star Jeff Fassero had 1,104, Greenwood native and Mississippi State product Paul Maholm 984 and Leakesville native Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell 918. Baseball Reference credits Negro Leagues star and Hall of Famer Bill Foster, an Alcorn State alumnus who grew up in Rodney, with 922; he likely had more than that. P.S. Former Ole Miss standout Nick Fortes went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run as Miami beat Washington to climb 10 games over .500 for the first time in 12 years. The Marlins are 41-31, 5 games back of Atlanta in the National League East. Fortes is batting .243 with four homers and 15 RBIs in 47 games as Miami’s catcher; the team reportedly likes his work behind the plate.

12 Jun

stars come out

The Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference, which had four teams in the top 13 of the final NJCAA Division II poll in mid-May, placed six players on the D-II All-America teams announced today. Meridian CC’s Cole Boswell made the first team. The Southern Miss signee, the MACCC pitcher of the year, went 11-1 with a 2.49 ERA and averaged 11 strikeouts per nine innings for the Eagles, who finished 38-12 and were ranked No. 3 in the final poll issued before the postseason. Four state juco products made second-team A-A, led by Itawamba infielder Will Verdung, the state’s position player of the year and another USM signee. Verdung hit .389 with 15 homers and 49 RBIs. Also on the second team: Pearl River’s Cooper Cooksey, who led the nation with a 1.32 ERA; Hinds infielder Dylan Coleman; and Mo Little, DH for East Central, which won the state and Region 23 titles and played in the juco World Series. Gulf Coast outfielder Sean Smith made the third team. P.S. In case you missed it: Cooper Pratt, shortstop/pitcher for Magnolia Heights Academy, won Mississippi’s Gatorade Player of the Year award for 2023, joining an impressive list. An Ole Miss signee and highly rated MLB draft prospect, Pratt hit .469 with 38 steals and went 10-0, 0.14, on the mound for the MAIS 5A champions. Dakota Jordan, a Jackson Academy alum now at Mississippi State, won the 2022 award, preceeded in recent years by Braden Montgomery of Madison Central, Blaze Jordan of DeSoto Central, Colt Keith of Biloxi and J.T. Ginn of Brandon. Montgomery is now at Stanford, while Blaze Jordan, Keith and Ginn are in pro ball.

03 Jun

old-school artist

Power is all the rage in baseball. Check the box scores. Who hit one out? Blaze Jordan, Joe Gray Jr. and Colt Keith, all products of Mississippi high schools, blasted home runs in the minors on Friday, as did former Mississippi State star Hunter Stovall. Cheers all around. The art of hitting a single, of just putting a ball in play that results in a base knock, doesn’t have the wow factor. It’s kind of a shame. Here’s a tip of the cap to a guy who seems to have mastered that old-school art. Davis Bradshaw, former McLaurin High and Meridian Community College standout, hit a single on Friday for High-A Beloit in the Miami organization. It was his 33rd single among his 37 hits; he has no homers. The lefty-hitting Bradshaw is batting .398; he was at .415 in mid-May. He was out for a couple of weeks last month, so he doesn’t have enough at-bats to qualify for the Midwest League leaderboard, but he would be second in hitting in all of the minors if he did. Bradshaw has struck out just 16 times and walked eight in 93 at-bats over 29 games. Drafted out of MCC back in 2018, Bradshaw, now 25, carries a .307 career average — but has only two home runs. The lack of power is no doubt holding him back. He is not a rated prospect. He got a look in Double-A last year and hit .286 but was back in A-ball to start 2023. And he went right back to banging out singles, keeping that old-school art alive. P.S. Southern Miss and Auburn might have anticipated meeting on Day 2 of regional play, but they surely didn’t expect the clash to come in the losers bracket. The top two seeds in the Auburn Regional were upset by Samford and Penn. That’s baseball. BTW, Josh Rodriguez, who hit that massive 10th-inning homer for Samford on Friday, was a first-team All-MACCC pick at Hinds Community College last year. … Props to East Union (Class 2A) and Purvis (4A) for winning MHSAA state titles Friday at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Amory plays St. Stanislaus for the 3A crown and Saltillo battles East Central for the 5A title today.

28 May

worth noting

With a sixth-inning double Saturday at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Corey Dickerson reached a pretty cool milestone: 1,000 career hits. McComb native Dickerson, 34, got his first big league hit in 2013 with Colorado, which drafted the lefty-hitting outfielder out of Meridian Community College in 2010. Now with Washington, Dickerson has played for eight different clubs over his career and has been an All-Star and a Gold Glove winner. He has 136 career homers and 460 RBIs. The career hits leader among Mississippi natives is Dave Parker with 2,712. Three others (Buddy Myer, Ellis Burks and Frank White) reached the 2,000-hit level. … Former Southern Miss star Matt Wallner now has 18 career hits after a 4-for-4 effort for Minnesota on Saturday. Wallner, who has played in just 28 games over his young MLB career, hit his first homer of 2023 in the win against Toronto; he hit two last season. … USM will play for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament title Sunday in Montgomery, Ala., after beating Appalachian State 11-1 in an elimination game on Saturday. USM lost an earlier game to the Mountaineers. In the win, Will Armistead threw a seven-inning four-hitter and Matthew Etzel and Reece Ewing banged out three hits apiece in a 15-hit attack. … East Central Community College got run-ruled 12-2 by Southeastern Iowa on Saturday in the NJCAA Division II World Series and plays an elimination game Sunday vs. Frederick (Md.) CC in Enid, Okla. … William Carey University won its opener Friday against Bellevue (Neb.) and will play again Monday in the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. R.J. Stinson hit an RBI double and scored on a Jake Lycette sac fly to give the Crusaders a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the eighth. Preston Ratliff pitched the ninth to nail down the win, Carey’s 48th of the season.

16 May

staying the course

With four hits, including a home run on Monday night, plus two walks in his last three games, it looks like Austin Riley might be coming out of his lengthy slump. The former DeSoto Central High star’s seventh homer of the season, a deep blast to right-center at Globe Life Field, was one of five bombs Atlanta hit in a 12-0 win over Texas that snapped a four-game losing skid. It was Riley’s first homer since May 3, though he has had some hard-hit balls in the interim. He has 20 RBIs, ranking just fifth on the team. His average, which had dipped to .239 on on May 9, is now at .245. He is a .270 career hitter and batted .300 in 2021. Watching Riley play, you’d never guess he has been slumping. He never shows any sign of frustration or anger. His defense at third base is unaffected. He punches in every day, always with the same calm demeanor. Slumps, Riley said in a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, are “part of the game. I think how you deal with it is what brings you out of the back end of it.” Maybe that’s what’s happening now. P.S. Former Meridian Community College standout Corey Dickerson was activated from injured list by Washington on Monday, though he did not play. Dickerson is eight hits shy of 1,000 for his big league career, which began in 2013. … Milwaukee transferred ex-Mississippi State star Brandon Woodruff (shoulder inflammation) to the 60-day IL, retroactive to April 8. That likely means it’ll be late June at the earliest before the Brewers get their horse back. Before landing on the IL, he was 1-0 with a 0.79 ERA in two starts. … The Brewers sent Hattiesburg High product Joe Gray Jr. back to High-Class A Wisconsin from Double-A Biloxi. Gray was 2-for-37 in his first taste of Double-A pitching … Mississippi State alum Jordan Westburg is ranked No. 52 in MLB Pipeline’s recently updated list of the Top 100 minor league prospects. Westburg, who was 74th in the February rankings, is batting .321 with 11 homers in Triple-A in Baltimore’s system. Biloxi High product Colt Keith cracked the Top 100 at No. 87. Keith is hitting .266 with five homers in Double-A in Detroit’s chain.

28 Apr

minor matters

Putting up numbers is typically the key to advancement in the minor leagues. Several Mississippi-connected players are doing precisely that. To wit: At Triple-A Jacksonville in the Miami system, former Mississippi State and Jackson Prep standout Jake Mangum is batting .339 and slugging .500 (six extra-base hits) in 17 games. The switch-hitting outfielder is in his first season with the Marlins after being traded by the New York Mets in December. At High-Class A Beloit in the Marlins’ system, Meridian Community College and McLaurin High product Davis Bradshaw is hitting .368 (with a current six-game hit streak) in 14 games. The lefty-hitting outfielder got a look in Double-A in 2022 and is bidding for another. At Double-A Erie in Detroit’s chain, former Biloxi High star Colt Keith is hitting .300 (despite a recent skid) with three homers and 11 RBIs. The lefty-hitting third baseman is a highly rated Tigers prospect. At Low-A Kannapolis in the Chicago White Sox’s system, ex-Ole Miss star Tim Elko (see previous post) leads the Carolina League in homers (six) and RBIs (24) and is batting .362 through 17 games in his first full pro campaign. At High-A Brooklyn in the Mets’ organization, former Southern Miss standout Tyler Stuart has a 1.98 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings in three starts. The 6-foot-9 right-hander was a 2022 draftee. At Low-A Augusta in the Atlanta system, former Smithville High star Jared Johnson is 1-0 with a 1.29 in three appearances. The 2019 draftee’s progress has been slowed by injuries. P.S. Mississippi State alum Brent Rooker took Shohei Ohtani deep on Thursday and now has seven homers this season, tied with Hunter Renfroe for most in MLB by a Mississippian. Rooker, in his first season with Oakland, has 18 RBIs, tops among state-connected players, and is hitting .305.

05 Mar

juco snapshot

Mississippi’s junior colleges are still tuning up for conference play, which starts for most next weekend, and no team’s motor is running more smoothly than No. 1-ranked Pearl River Community College. The Wildcats, defending national champs in NJCAA Division II, are 15-3, a notch above unranked Jones (14-4) with ninth-ranked Meridian (12-4) lurking. PRCC is led by Alex Perry, a .403 hitter whose 25 knocks are the most of any MACCC player, and Will Passeau, 3-1 with a 2.74 ERA and a state-best 32 strikeouts. The Wildcats have home games today against Lansing and Baton Rouge. Jones, heading into a three-way event Wednesday with Itawamba (10-3) and Delta in Cleveland, has been sparked by Gatlin Sanders, batting .418 with two homers and 18 RBIs. Meridian’s leaders are Dalton McIntyre, a .451 batter with 13 steals, and Chris Boswell, who is 4-0 with a 0.86 ERA. Gulf Coast has the state’s top home run hitters in Charlie Keller and Sean Smith — both with eight, which ranks second nationally — but the Bulldogs are just 7-9. Smith, batting .488, also leads MACCC in RBIs with 25, three more than Hinds’ Dylan Coleman. Hinds, ranked No. 15 in the preseason poll, is 11-6. The best closer in the state to date has been Brayden Sanders, who has three saves and a 0.00 ERA in six appearances for Northwest (11-6). … The next NJCAA D-II poll will be released March 13. Nine of the state’s 15 teams currently have winning records.