Tag Archives: Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College

18 Nov

catching up

With five hits in his last three outings, Anthony Alford appears to be finding his stroke in the Australian Baseball League. The former Mr. Baseball from Petal High is 5-for-12 with a home run, six runs and two RBIs in his last three games for Canberra. For the young ABL season, Alford is at .219. Drafted by Toronto in the third round in 2012, Alford has just 94 minor-league at-bats to date as he had been focused on football, which he has now given up. … Mississippians Hunter Renfroe and Tim Anderson got kudos from mlb.com’s Jim Callis for their work in the Arizona Fall League, which wrapped up last week. Mississippi State product Renfroe, a San Diego prospect, batted .284 with a league-best six homers and 20 RBIs. He also led the AFL in extra base hits, total bases and slugging. Anderson, a Chicago White Sox prospect from East Central Community College, hit .301 with six steals. “(F)ew shortstops can match his tools,” Callis wrote. … Tyrell Jenkins, the 6-foot-4 right-hander acquired by Atlanta from St. Louis in the Jason Heyward deal, posted a 2.22 ERA in the AFL. Jenkins, 22, is a candidate for the Mississippi Braves’ roster in 2015, which will be his sixth pro season. He pitched in high-A ball this past season. … Former M-Braves star Jeff Francoeur will get another shot (how many is that?) at making a big league club next spring, this time with Philadelphia. Francouer had a big year (.289, 15 homers, 69 RBIs) in Triple-A with San Diego in 2014, though he didn’t hit at all in his MLB trial. … Ex-MSU standout Tyler Moore is batting .299 with six homers, 17 RBIs and 19 runs in 22 games in the Dominican Winter League as he attempts to improve his stock in the Washington organization. … Mississippi Gulf Coast CC alumnus Roy Corcoran, 34, is pitching in the Mexican Pacific League. The onetime major leaguer is 2-3 with a 3.66 ERA for Hermosillo. Corcoran, who originally signed with the Montreal Expos in 2001, pitched in independent ball the last two years. His last MLB season was 2009; he has a career 4.17 ERA in 82 games. … Belhaven University is ranked No. 14 in the NAIA preseason poll. The Blazers open the 2015 campaign on Jan. 30 at Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson. William Carey also opens that day in Hattiesburg.

26 Sep

falling in

Fall ball has cranked up at Ole Miss, where the Rebels welcomed back 20 players from last spring’s College World Series finalist and blended in 18 recruits from a class rated No. 15 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball. Sophomore Colby Bortles, a .250 hitter in a part-time role in 2014, went 5-for-7 with a home run, three RBIs and three runs in two intrasquad scrimmages last weekend. Mike Bianco’s Rebels are slated for games today and Saturday at Oxford-University Stadium. … For the record, Mississippi State’s recruiting class was rated No. 6 by Collegiate Baseball. Baseball America’s ratings have not been released. … Belhaven University’s Steak and Burgers Series is under way at Jackson’s Smith-Wills Stadium. The Green leads the Gold 2-0; Thursday’s game was halted after eight innings with the scored tied 5-5. The Blazers were an NAIA regional participant last spring. … Mississippi College held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Rice Field House on Thursday. The hope in Clinton is that the baseball-specific facility will aid in recruiting as the Choctaws move into NCAA Division II. They’ll play a Gulf South Conference schedule in 2015. … Two new coaches are on the job in the junior college ranks: former Delta State assistant Rodney Batts at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and Ken Jackson at Southwest Mississippi CC. Batts was replaced on Mike Kinnison’s staff by former DSU star Eric Patten.

11 Sep

scanning the radar

Former major leaguers Bill Hall and Fred Lewis are plugging away in the independent Atlantic League, though neither is on a team enjoying much success. Nettleton’s Hall, 34, who played 11 years in the big leagues, is batting .258 with three home runs and 18 RBIs for Long Island, the defending league champ but a sub-.500 club in 2014. Lewis, 33, the ex-Stone County High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star, is hitting .259 with six homers, 39 RBIs and 12 stolen bases this year. The 7-year MLB veteran began the season with Lancaster but is now with Bridgeport, the league’s worst team. … In Japan, Pascagoula’s Joey Butler, another ex-Gulf Coast CC standout, is playing sparingly in his first season with Orix, which stands second in the Pacific League with just a handful of games remaining. Butler, 28, who has 17 MLB at-bats on his ledger, is hitting .231 with two homers and six RBIs in 21 games for the Buffaloes.

08 Aug

slammed

For most of this season, Tony Sipp has been quietly efficient for a team that doesn’t capture a lot of headlines. Former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star Sipp, a situational lefty for the lowly Houston Astros, had allowed just one earned run in 12 previous appearances when he was called on Thursday to face Philadelphia. It was the eighth inning, there were two runners on with one out, and the Astros led 5-2. Sipp allowed a single that loaded the bases but then got the second out. Up came Ryan Howard, Philly’s massive left-handed slugger. Sipp had held lefties to a .120 batting average and just one homer to that point of this season. Then Howard, on a 3-2 pitch, hit one out of Citizens Bank Park – a stadium-shaking grand slam that propelled the Phillies to a 6-5 win. Sipp jumped and punched the air in frustration as the ball left the yard. He was on all the highlight shows, the center of attention for all the wrong reasons. He was pulled from the game, left to mull that one pitch until his next opportunity comes. Overall, Sipp has a 2.91 ERA in 38 games in his first season with the Astros following stints in Cleveland and Arizona. Still, despite all his good work, that one pitch on Thursday is what got noticed. It’s the nature of the role, a role that’s not easy to play.

21 Jul

independent thinking

Former big leaguer Bill Hall of Nettleton is back on the roster of the independent Long Island Ducks, the team he helped to an Atlantic League championship in 2013. Hall, 34, who can play the infield and outfield, was signed on Friday. He hit 16 homers and drove in 63 runs for the Ducks last year. Long Island is managed by former Jackson Mets shortstop Kevin Baez. … Also toiling in the Atlantic League is Stone County High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College product Fred Lewis. Former big leaguer Lewis, 33, who played in Japan in 2013, is batting .233 with three homers and 15 RBIs in 40 games as an outfielder for the Lancaster Barnstormers.

30 Jun

hard knocks

Big day at the plate for B.A. Vollmuth on Sunday. The former Southern Miss star, playing for the Beloit Snappers in the Class A Midwest League, went 3-for-4 with three doubles, three runs and an RBI. Trouble is, the big days have been few and far between for Vollmuth this season. Dealing with failure is a big part of a player’s development in pro ball, and that’s what Vollmuth is confronted with in 2014. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound third baseman is batting just .189. He has six home runs but hasn’t hit one in the entire month of June. Vollmuth, from Biloxi, was arguably the state’s best player as a junior at USM in 2011. He was drafted in the third round by Oakland and showed enough that first season that he was rated the A’s No. 9 prospect heading into 2012. He batted .261 with 14 homers at two levels of A-ball in 2012 and was rated the No. 17 prospect following that season. Vollmuth spent 2013 at Stockton in the high Class A California League and enjoyed some success, hitting 21 homers and knocking in 70 runs. But he hit only .212 and struck out way too much (161 times). He was sent back this season to the low-A Midwest League, where apparently he is still trying to figure things out in what may be a pivotal season. P.S. Corey Dickerson, the former Meridian Community College standout, went 2-for-4 for Colorado on Sunday and has 10 multi-hit games in June. He is batting .343 with 10 homers, 33 RBIs and 34 runs in 60 games. Too bad his name isn’t on the All-Star ballot. … Tony Sipp, the Mississippi Gulf Coast CC product, registered his first save of the year in Houston’s 6-4 win over Detroit. Sipp threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 1.61. Primarily a set-up or situational left-hander, Sipp has only four career saves. … Picayune’s T.J. House was back in The Show and pitched well for Cleveland, allowing just two runs in six innings against Seattle. Unfortunately, the rookie lefty was matched against Felix Hernandez, who allowed just one hit over eight innings as the Mariners won 3-0. House is 0-2 with a 4.54 ERA in seven games, six starts.

02 May

opportunity knocks

Tony Sipp, the ex-Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star from Pascagoula, has signed a major league deal with Houston and reportedly will be in the Astros’ bullpen tonight when they host Seattle. Sipp had been at Triple-A Tucson in the San Diego system but was granted his release so he could sign with the Astros. Sipp, 30, came up with Cleveland and spent last season with Arizona. The left-hander has a 3.84 career ERA in 304 games. P.S. There has been nothing new today on Billy Hamilton’s injured left hand. The Taylorsville High product sprained his knuckles Thursday night making a diving catch. Word last night was that he might not miss more than a game or two. He is batting .245 with 11 steals for Cincinnati.

30 Apr

going independent

Fred Lewis is playing in the States again, currently with the Lancaster Barnstormers in the independent Atlantic League. Lewis, a Stone County High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College product, spent last year in Japan after a his six-year major league tour ended with the New York Mets in 2012. Lewis, 33, is career .266 hitter in MLB with 27 homers and 53 stolen bases. He had a good year in Japan but apparently found no interested parties among major league clubs. … Also with Lancaster is former Ole Miss star Bobby Kielty, another ex-big leaguer. Other Mississippians in the Atlantic League — the best of the indy loops — include Delta State product Edwin Maysonet and ex-UM pitcher Matt Maloney with Somerset, Gulf Coast CC alum Roy Corcoran with Sugar Land and former Rebels star Cody Overbeck with Bridgeport.

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.

01 Feb

sipp catches on

Tony Sipp, the former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star from Pascagoula, has signed a minor league contract with San Diego and will go to big league camp with the Padres later this month, according to a variety of reports. Sipp, a 30-year-old power left-hander, has a career 3.84 ERA, though he slipped last season to a 4.78 with Arizona. He would appear to have a good chance of making San Diego’s roster, which isn’t overrun with lefty relievers.