Tag Archives: Mississippi State

31 Aug

noteworthy

The Milwaukee Brewers, the team with the best record in the majors, got stronger on Saturday when Jackson Chourio came off the injured list. And the former Biloxi Shuckers star went 2-for-4 with a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning as the Brewers (85-52) beat Toronto 4-1. It was the 18th homer of the season for Chourio, who spent a month on the IL. The 21-year-old outfielder, currently batting .278 with 68 RBIs and 18 steals, was third in National League rookie of the year voting in 2024. Mississippi State product Brandon Woodruff, another of the many Shuckers alums on Milwaukee’s roster, starts for the Brewers today at Toronto; he is 5-1 with a 3.10 ERA. … Ex-DeSoto Central High standout Blaze Jordan extended his hitting streak to seven games with a home run — his 15th of 2025 — in Triple-A Memphis’ 8-2 win over Oklahoma City. Jordan, St. Louis’ No. 18 prospect, is batting .280 with 84 RBIs on the year with three different clubs. … In a Double-A Eastern League game at Reading, Pa., before a crowd of 7,000-plus, a couple of former Mississippi high school stars got big knocks: Bryson Ware, Germantown grad, hit a two-run homer for Reading (Philadelphia affiliate) and Tupelo alum Reed Trimble went deep for Chesapeake (Baltimore) in the Fightin Phils’ 3-1 victory. Reading managed just two hits in the game. Ware, who also played at Pearl River Community College and Auburn, is batting .279 with two homers for Reading and has eight bombs overall at two levels. Ex-Southern Miss star Trimble has nine homers for Chesapeake and 13 overall, including a couple in Triple-A. … And at Windy City in Illinois, Kyle Booker’s eighth-inning single drove in the lone run as the indy Mississippi Mud Monsters (and Jeremy Peguero) beat the Thunderbolts 1-0. The Mud Monsters (48-47) finish their inaugural season today at Crestwood, Ill. … Madison Central product Spencer Turnbull has signed a minor league deal with Kansas City and will report to Triple-A Omaha. The veteran right-hander is now with his third organization in 2025, having been released by Toronto and the Chicago Cubs. … On this date in 1990, former Jackson State standout Wes Chamberlain made his MLB debut for the Phillies. He would play six years in the majors, batting .255 with 43 homers. He batted .364 for the Phils in the 1993 NL Championship Series win over Atlanta.

30 Aug

plan is working

To the long list of Konnor Griffin’s best games as a first-year pro, add this one: On Friday night, the former Jackson Prep star belted two home runs — his first in Double-A — and drove in seven runs while leading Altoona to a 14-3 win against Harrisburg. “Sticking to the plan I’ve had all year,” the minors’ No. 1 prospect told milb.com. His aggressive approach has produced a .353 average and 13 RBIs in nine games for Pittsburgh’s Double-A team. On the year, the 19-year-old Griffin is batting .333 with 18 homers, 85 RBIs and 64 stolen bases across three levels. He has had three four-hit games, a four-RBI game, a three-double game and two three-steal games. Friday was the first two-homer game for the 6-foot-4, 225-pound shortstop. He has yet to go more than two straight games without a hit. … Braden Montgomery, the other Mississippi prep product drafted in the first round in 2024, is also enjoying a big season. The Madison Central alum went 2-for-4 with an RBI for Double-A Birmingham on Friday and is batting .307 with a homer and 10 RBIs in 27 games at that level. The Chicago White Sox’s No. 1 prospect is at .278 with 12 homers, 67 RBIs and 14 bags on the season. Montgomery, a 22-year-old switch-hitting outfielder, was drafted 12th overall out of Texas A&M. … Jurrangelo Cijntje, the switch-pitcher drafted in Round 1 in 2024 out of Mississippi State, is also in Double-A and has a 4.58 ERA for Seattle’s Arkansas club. The Mariners’ No. 8 prospect at 22, he is 4-7 with a 4.58 on the year in 19 appearances over two levels. P.S. Ex-Ole Miss slugger Tim Elko, recalled from Triple-A for the fourth time by the White Sox, went 0-for-4 on Friday. A .292 hitter (with 24 homers) in the minors this year, he is batting .136 in The Show. … Riley Maddox, former Ole Miss and Jackson Prep standout, threw two scoreless innings in his pro debut for Washington’s Low-Class A Fredericksburg team. … Props to the Mississippi Mud Monsters, who played Thursday night in Pearl, made a 10 1/2-hour trip to Chicago and beat Windy City 4-1. The independent Mud Monsters, now 47-47, got seven strong innings from Luis Devers (8-6) and two RBIs each from Travis Holt and Karell Paz. … Mud-sters outfielder Davis Bradshaw announced his retirement on Friday after seven pro seasons, six in affiliated ball with Miami. The former McLaurin High and Meridian Community College star hit .310 for his pro career, .402 this year with Mississippi. “I’ve cherished every step of this journey,” he said in a Facebook post.

27 Aug

power trip

With his fourth home run in three games, Matt Wallner powered Minnesota to a comeback 7-5 win at Toronto on Tuesday night and joined some rather select company. The ex-Southern Miss star, from Forest Lake, Minn., became the fourth native of the North Star State to hit 20 bombs in a season. He joins Hall of Famers Joe Mauer and Dave Winfield along with Twins legend Kent Hrbek in that club. Wallner’s three-run homer in the ninth inning Tuesday came against Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman and gave the Twins a 7-4 lead. Seven of Wallner’s 14 hits this month are home runs, and most of them were tape-measure blasts. On Monday, he hit two against Toronto ace — and future Hall of Famer — Max Scherzer in a Twins loss. “Wally is a fun player to talk about,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli told mlb.com after Monday’s game. “Nobody really impacts the ball the way he does except for maybe five guys, maybe 10.” … It was a big night for big flies from Mississippians in the majors and minors: Colt Keith, Biloxi High alum, hit his 12th — as part of a 3-for-5 night — in Detroit’s 7-6 loss in 10 innings against the A’s. … Former Mississippi College standout Blaine Crim belted his 20th Triple-A bomb of the season, his second for Albuquerque in the Colorado system. Crim’s homer came against Mississippi State alum J.P. France, pitching for Houston’s Sugar Land club, which won the game 6-4. … USM product Reed Trimble hit his 12th homer of 2025, going yard for Double-A Chesapeake (Baltimore). The Tupelo native has hit eight homers in Double-A, two in Triple-A and two in the low minors in a peripatetic campaign. … Kemp Alderman, the 2023 Ferriss Trophy winner at Ole Miss, smacked his 14th homer for Double-A Pensacola (Miami); the Decatur native has four in August after hitting just one in July. … And Mississippi Braves alum Ozzie Albies hit two homers for Atlanta — his first two-homer game in more than two years — powering the Braves to an 11-2 win at Miami. The switch-hitting Albies, who has 12 homers on the year, hit one from each side, getting his first as a righty hitter all season. P.S. Hurston Waldrep, former USM and M-Braves star, battled for 5 1/3 innings (one run allowed) in Tuesday’s game and stood to get the win before the Atlanta bullpen coughed up a late run. Waldrep is 4-0 with an 0.90 ERA in his five appearances this season. Lightly recruited out of his Georgia high school in 2020, Waldrep went 7-2 in two years at USM — a good baseball school, by the way — before transferring to Florida. On the Braves broadcast it was noted that he still has the ball from his first college victory in 2021.

26 Aug

head-to-head

Detroit vs. the A’s in West Sacramento, Calif., an interdivisional game between a first-place club and a last-place one. Not a matchup that generated much excitement on the major league schedule for Monday night. Ah, but there was a matchup within the matchup that Mississippi baseball aficionados would find compelling. It wasn’t the pivotal head-to-head confrontation in the A’s stunning 7-3 win, but it was entertaining. Batting leadoff for Detroit was Colt Keith, the ex-Biloxi High star, the state’s Gatorade player of the year in 2019. Starting on the mound for the A’s was J.T. Ginn, former Brandon High star, the state’s Gatorade player of the year in 2018. Both were drafted in 2020, Keith out of high school, Ginn out of Mississippi State. Both are second-year big leaguers, but they hadn’t faced off before. The lefty-hitting Keith came in batting .261 with 11 homers and 39 RBIs, having a fine year for the Tigers (78-54), who have been in command of the American League Central most of the season. Right-hander Ginn was 2-5 with a 4.95 ERA for an A’s team that was 60-72, in the AL West cellar, 10.5 games back of the third wild card spot. Keith was a .278 hitter against right-handers, with all 11 of his homers coming against righties. Lefties were batting .339 with eight bombs against Ginn, who had yielded 10 runs in 11 2/3 innings in his previous three outings. But this matchup, on this night, belonged to Ginn. He struck out Keith on three pitches to start the game, the first of his eight K’s. In the third inning, Keith crushed a line drive foul down the right-field line on the first pitch, then popped up to left two pitches later. In the fifth — in what was still a scoreless game — the count went to 3-1 before Ginn induced a grounder to short that ended the inning. Ginn departed in the sixth; he would be charged with seven hits, a walk and three runs in 5 1/3, in line for a loss before the game suddenly turned. The crucial clash came in the seventh, when former Mississippi Braves star Shea Langeliers hit a two-out grand slam off Tigers ace Tarik Skubal that put the A’s up 6-3. The 450-foot bomb at Sutter Health Park was the 29th of the season for “Bang-eliers” and the first slam ever allowed by Skubal, the 2024 AL Cy Young winner. Skubal took the L, falling to 11-4. Ginn may have gotten a no-decision on this night, but he won the battle with Keith and his team ultimately won the war.

25 Aug

details, details …

Sunday stuff: Two more hits and RBIs for Nathaniel Lowe. That’s seven knocks in 16 at-bats with seven RBIs for the ex-Mississippi State star in six games with Boston. The Red Sox lost to the New York Yankees on Sunday and are 3-3 in Lowe’s appearances. … Two more hits, an RBI, a run, three different positions and a win for Kansas City’s Adam Frazier. The former MSU standout is hitting .295 with 14 RBIs and 12 runs in his 29 games for the wild card-chasing Royals, 19-12 since the All-Star break. … Konnor Pilkington, MSU product from Pascagoula, struck out the Philadelphia side in the seventh inning of Washington’s 3-2 loss; he has 18 punchouts in 14 2/3 innings — with a 5.52 ERA — in 16 games this season. … Blaze Jordan, DeSoto Central High product, drove in a run for Triple-A Memphis, his 16th RBI in 17 games since joining the St. Louis affiliate in a trade. He is batting just .129. … In his first week in Double-A, ex-Jackson Prep standout Konnor Griffin batted .286 with four RBIs, four runs and four steals for Pittsburgh’s Altoona club. … Former Southern Miss star Dustin Dickerson scored one run for Northwest Arkansas, but it was the game-winner in a walk-off victory by the Royals’ Double-A club. … MSU product Kamren James hit his first homer of the season and fellow Bulldogs alum Colton Ledbetter added his sixth in a win for Double-A Montgomery, a Tampa Bay affiliate. … Patrick Lee, former William Carey University star, hit his fourth homer for West Michigan, one of six bombs Detroit’s High-Class A club belted in a 16-0 win. … Luke Hill, a 2025 draftee out of Ole Miss, got three more hits and is batting .417 in seven games for Low-A Lynchburg in Cleveland’s chain. He has a homer, four RBIs, five runs and five bags. … Michael Fowler took a loss for Low-A Carolina but still has yet to yield an earned run in five appearances for the Milwaukee affiliate. He pitched for USM and the independent Mississippi Mud Monsters this season before the Brewers signed him on July 29. P.S. Fun flashback: On this date in 1995, former Jackson Mets star Gregg Jefferies hit for the cycle and ex-Jackson Generals ace Jeff Juden threw a complete game and clubbed a grand slam as Philadelphia whipped the Los Angeles Dodgers (and Hideo Nomo) 17-4.

24 Aug

touching the bases

His Boston teammates call Garrett Crochet “Beast,” and on Saturday at Yankee Stadium he showed why. The former Ocean Springs High star overpowered the New York Yankees in the Red Sox’s 12-1 victory: seven innings, five hits, one run, one walk, 11 strikeouts. The 6-foot-6, 245-pound left-hander is 14-5 with a 2.38 ERA; he is 2-0, 2.96, in three starts vs. the Yankees, all wins by Boston. He went over 200 strikeouts for the season and passed 500 for his career; he has only been a starter for two of his five seasons. While Crochet was sharp in the Red Sox’s eighth straight win over the Yanks, Jackson Prep product Will Warren was not. He was charged with five runs in four innings and fell to 7-6, 4.47. … The Milwaukee Brewers will honor the late Bob Uecker today at American Family Field. Brewers broadcaster Tim Dillard, the ex-Itawamba Community College star who pitched for the Brewers from 2008-12, said this about Uecker, aka Mr. Baseball: “He made everybody better. Whether it was with his knowledge or his wit, his storytelling, just his voice, all of it. That was his gift, and he shared it with the world.” … Matt Wallner hit his 17th homer in Minnesota’s loss on Saturday. The former Southern Miss slugger, batting just .210, has 33 extra-base knocks among his 55 hits. … Seattle has designated former Mississippi Braves shortstop Dylan Moore for assignment. With the Mariners since 2019, the versatile Moore is hitting .193 this year. … Former Atlanta Braves scout Roy Clark — responsible for the drafting of Austin Riley, Brian McCann, Jeff Francoeur, Freddie Freeman, Jason Heyward and Adam Wainwright, among others — has died at age 68. … Justin Foscue, the ex-Mississippi State standout, is itching for a call-up with Texas, which has suffered a rash of injuries lately. Foscue hit his 15th homer for Triple-A Round Rock on Saturday and is batting .292 with four bombs and 17 RBIs in August. He is 3-for-51 in his brief MLB time the last two years. … The Mississippi Mud Monsters’ Frontier League playoff hopes took a hit on Saturday when Washington rallied for six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning en route to an 8-6 win. Former ICC standout Tyreque Reed hit a game-tying three-run homer in the pivotal frame, his 13th of the season for the Wild Things. … Christopher Sargent Jr. continues to put up staggering stats in the independent Pioneer League: The USM alum, who had two hits in Ogden’s win on Saturday, is batting .384 with 35 homers, 130 RBIs and 94 runs in 80 games.

23 Aug

reverse course

Nobody can honestly say they saw this coming. In four games with Boston, ex-Mississippi State star Nathaniel Lowe is 3-for-10 with a homer, two doubles, four RBIs and three runs. On Friday night, he whacked a pinch-hit double in the seventh inning and scored the game’s only run as the Red Sox beat the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. He drove in two runs in Thursday’s 6-3 victory. When he was released by Washington on Aug. 14, Lowe had a .216 average; he had hit .205 with two homers in July and .091 with one in August. The Red Sox, with a need for a lefty-hitting first baseman, snapped him up, and Lowe, 30, seems reinvigorated by the move to a contending club. He is a .263 career hitter with 106 homers over seven seasons and a Silver Slugger award on his resume. “(S)o far, so good,” Boston manager Alex Cora said in an mlb.com piece. “He’s been great coming off the bench, twice, putting up good at-bats. He’s a good defender, and it seems like he’s happy.” After Friday’s win, Boston’s seventh straight over New York, the Sawx are now second and leading the Bombers by a half-game in the American League East and atop the wild card standings. Might Red Sox fans look back on the Lowe signing as a seminal moment in this season? Worth noting: The last time the Red Sox won the World Series — 2018 — they had a Mississippi State alum playing first base — Mitch Moreland. And stay tuned: Game 3 of this four-game series today matches Ocean Springs’ Garrett Crochet against Brandon’s Will Warren. The stadium should be at fever pitch. … Meanwhile, at a more subdued Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, another former MSU standout had a big night. Jake Mangum went 4-for-5 with two doubles, two RBIs, a run and a stolen base as the Tampa Bay Rays whipped St. Louis 10-6. The Jackson Prep grad, who’s also been slumping of late, boosted his average to .283 with the third four-hit game of his rookie season. He has contributed two homers, 14 doubles, 34 RBIs, 32 runs and 20 steals in 90 games for a Rays team that, at 62-67, has tumbled out of the playoff picture. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves star William Contreras hit his first career walk-off homer Friday to give Milwaukee yet another victory, its 20th in 25 games, 5-4 against San Francisco. … Snake-bit Baltimore put MSU product Jordan Westburg on the injured list again, this time with an ankle sprain. … Arizona named Tim Bogar, former Jackson Mets shortstop back in the ’80s, as its new third-base coach. … In the minors, Southern Miss alum Matthew Etzel banged out three hits and is now batting .423 with five RBIs, five runs and four steals in six games since Miami promoted him to Triple-A Jacksonville.

21 Aug

roller coaster

Ups and downs will happen; that’s a fact of life for a pitcher. Making adjustments and minimizing the downs are the keys to sustained success. … It was a year ago today that J.T. Ginn, in his fourth pro season, made his big league debut for Oakland and showed out, striking out the side in his first inning and working two hitless frames all told. There have been flashes of brilliance ever since from the ex-Mississippi State star but also bursts of turbulence. On Wednesday night, the 26-year-old right-hander threw four scoreless innings at the Minnesota Twins, then coughed up three hits, a walk and the lead in the fifth. He was pulled with two outs, two on and the score tied. (The A’s would go on to win 4-2 in 10 innings.) Ginn is 2-5 with a 4.95 ERA in 17 appearances (10 starts) this season. He has a 1.37 WHIP and a .264 batting average against. Since throwing six shutout innings in a win against Houston on July 27, he is 0-3 with a 7.88 ERA. The A’s, long out of playoff contention, likely will keep sending Ginn out there, hoping he can capture the promise he showed at Brandon High and MSU. He was a first-round draft pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2018 but didn’t sign, opting to go to State. The New York Mets took him in the second round in 2020 even after he had suffered an arm injury that required Tommy John surgery. He was moved to the A’s in a 2022 trade. … In mid-June, Hurston Waldrep was in the minors and on a real downer, saddled with a 5.84 ERA and a 5-5 record for Triple-A Gwinnett. A 2023 first-round pick by Atlanta, he had some early success in the low minors but floundered in a brief big league trial in 2024. Flash forward to Wednesday: The onetime Southern Miss standout threw seven shutout innings for Atlanta and got the win in a 1-0 victory over the Chicago White Sox. He is 4-0 with an 0.73 ERA and a 0.77 WHIP in four games for the Braves since his late July call-up. Somewhere back there at Gwinnett, he figured some things out and changed the arc of his season. … Michael Fowler, another USM alum, has been on quite the odyssey. The Alabama native bounced from LSU to Tulane to USM, battling injuries and doing little to distinguish himself over five college seasons. After posting a 9.39 ERA in 10 games for the Golden Eagles in 2025, the right-hander went undrafted. He signed with the independent Mississippi Mud Monsters — and apparently something clicked into place. He went 2-1 with a 1.92 ERA in seven games, striking out 15 in 9 1/3 innings, and rode that wave to a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers. In four games at Low-Class A Carolina, Fowler has not allowed a run over 3 1/3 innings, including a two-out appearance on Wednesday. He even got a brief look at Triple-A Nashville last week.

20 Aug

rise and shine

Hit? Check. RBI? Check. Stolen base? Check. Win? Check. Baseball’s No. 1 prospect, Konnor Griffin, batting second and playing shortstop, checked off several notable accomplishments in his Double-A debut on Tuesday night, helping Altoona beat Reading 6-5. He singled in his first at-bat. We shouldn’t be surprised, really. The former Jackson Prep star also got a hit in his first pro at-bat back in April and got two knocks in his first game at the High-A level in June. On the season, Griffin is now batting .331 with 16 homers, 73 RBIs, 97 runs and 60 steals. And he is only 19. “It’s just like popcorn,” Andy Fox, manager of Pittsburgh’s Double-A club, told milb.com. “People pop at different times. He’s just an early popper.” The 2024 Gatorade player of the year in Mississippi is the third recent winner of that award to reach Double-A this season, quite a testament to the caliber of high school baseball in the state. Magnolia Heights alum Cooper Pratt, the 2023 Gatorade winner and Milwaukee’s No. 3 prospect, is playing at Biloxi, while Madison Central grad Braden Montgomery, the 2021 winner and the Chicago White Sox’s No. 1 prospect, is with Birmingham in his first pro season. Of note: The 2022 Gatorade winner, Dakota Jordan (Jackson Academy), is one of the top hitters in the Low-Class A California League in the San Francisco system; a couple of injury setbacks likely have kept him from being promoted. And the 2020 winner, Blaze Jordan (DeSoto Central), is at Triple-A Memphis — at age 22 — in St. Louis’ chain. … Emaarion Boyd, an 11th-round pick out of South Panola in 2022, was promoted to Double-A Pensacola by Miami but did not play Tuesday. He was batting .235 with 43 steals in High-A; he is a .251 career hitter with 134 bags in four years, the first three in Philadelphia’s system. P.S. Jake Mangum, the ex-Jackson Prep and Mississippi State star, got a couple of hits, an RBI and a steal for Tampa Bay — but he also had to watch seven of the New York Yankees’ nine home runs sail over his head in right field at Steinbrenner Field. The Bombers, tying a franchise record for homers in a game, won 13-3. … Nathaniel Lowe hit a game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth in his second game with Boston, but the former MSU standout then watched Baltimore win 4-3 in 11 innings … Four former Mississippi Braves catchers were in big league lineups on Tuesday: Drake Baldwin (Atlanta), William Contreras (Milwaukee), Shea Langeliers (A’s) and Alex Jackson (Baltimore). Baldwin delivered the game-winning RBIs for the Braves against the Chicago White Sox, and Langeliers hit his 27th home run in an A’s victory.

19 Aug

whatever happened to …

Vantrel Reed: The Warren Central High and Hinds Community College product is playing in the MLB Draft League, a short-season independent pro loop. He is batting .285 with two homers, 10 RBIs and 12 steals in 30 games with the Williamsport Crosscutters. Reed starred for the 59-0 LSU-Shreveport team that won the NAIA World Series in May. (Also in the MLBDL are ex-Rust and Mississippi Valley State standout Dreylin Holmes and Jackson State alum Chenar Brown.)
Jacob Robson: The former Mississippi State standout, a Canada native, is now with Winnipeg in the indy American Association, where he is hitting .259 with 13 homers, 46 RBIs and 27 steals. Robson was an eighth-round draft pick out of State in 2016 by Detroit and has bounced all over the globe ever since. He got into four MLB games with the Tigers in 2021 and has also played in the Dominican Republic, Australia and the World Baseball Classic.
Will Bednar: The 14th overall pick in the 2021 draft, after helping MSU win the College World Series, the injury-plagued right-hander is at Double-A Richmond in the San Francisco system. Working only in relief this year, his ERA is 5.40 with a win, three holds and 62 strikeouts in 40 innings. He has a 1.17 ERA in six games in August. The 25-year-old has made just 81 appearances (5-11, 5.00 ERA) in his five pro seasons.
Billy Hamilton: The ex-big leaguer from Taylorsville, who’s been playing — or not playing — in the Mexican League, remains on the injured list, where the 34-year-old has resided since mid-May. He has seven steals in 10 games for Jalisco, giving the fleet-footed outfielder 850 bags in his long pro career. He swiped 326 — the record for a native Mississippian — over parts of 11 MLB campaigns, the last in 2023.
Drew Lugbauer: The former Mississippi Braves slugger — who holds the franchise career home run record with 68 over three seasons in Pearl — is now hitting bombs in the Mexican League. Currently with the Algodoneros Union Laguna, his third LMB club this season, he is batting .287 with 16 homers and 62 RBIs. All told, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound first baseman has hit 178 homers going back to his college days at Michigan (2015-17).
P.S. In his first game with Boston (see previous post), MSU alum Nathaniel Lowe drew a walk and scored a run in a 6-3 loss to Baltimore. In that game, former Bulldogs star and current Orioles third baseman Jordan Westburg, batting .375 over his last seven games, suffered an ankle injury that was initially described as “mild.”