Tag Archives: NCAA regionals

02 Jun

worth noting

Arkansas-Little Rock, which stunned LSU — and pretty much everybody else — 10-4 on Sunday at Alex Box Stadium, is coached by Mississippi State and Meridian Community College alum Chris Curry and lists five state products on its roster. The upstart Trojans, 27-33 and No. 243 in RPI but champs of the Ohio Valley Conference, play the top-seeded Tigers again tonight for the Baton Rouge Regional title. Cooper Chaplain, a St. Joseph High product and MCC transfer, is UALR’s top hitter at .317 with seven homers, 38 RBIs, 52 runs and 12 steals. He went 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs in Sunday’s game. Gage Haley, an MSU transfer from Southaven, has pitched in 21 games (7.38 ERA) for the Trojans. Seth Cooper (Star, MCC), Wayne Sebren (Puckett) and Eli Huebner (Meridian, MCC) also suit up for UALR. … Former Ocean Springs High star Garrett Crochet struck out a season-high 12 in Boston’s 3-1 win Sunday against Atlanta at Truist Park. Left-hander Crochet, in his first season with the Red Sox and armed with a fat contract, is 5-4 with a 1.98 ERA in 13 starts and is tied for the MLB lead with 101 K’s over 82 innings. … Andrew McCutchen is being feted for matching Roberto Clemente on Pittsburgh’s all-time homer list with 240; they’re tied for third. Sixth on that list is Mississippi native — and 2025 Hall of Famer — Dave Parker with 166 and 11th is Southern Miss product Kevin Young with 136. … Bobby Bradley, the ex-Harrison Central standout, has moved from the Atlantic League to the Mexican League and is batting .292 with four homers and 16 RBIs in 12 games for Saltillo. The former big leaguer was at .219 with two homers in 20 games for Charleston in the Atlantic. Bradley has smacked 245 homers overall in pro ball (including winter leagues), 17 in MLB. … Mississippi State alum and 2024 Ferriss Trophy winner Dakota Jordan hit his third homer for San Jose on Sunday and is batting .309 with 37 RBIs and 18 steals for San Francisco’s Low-Class A club. Jordan was a fourth-round pick last summer. … Out of nowhere it seemed, Mississippi Mud Monsters right-hander Luis Devers threw a seven-hit shutout in the independent team’s 2-0 win Sunday against Joliet at Trustmark Park in Pearl. Devers was 1-2 with a 12.66 ERA entering the game. The 25-year-old Dominican Republic native was 30-27, 3.30, in six years in the Chicago Cubs’ minor league system. The Mud Monsters are 8-11 with a three-game road trip to Evansville (Ind.) ahead. … MUW’s Landon Clark, a two-way standout, has been named a second-team NCAA Division III All-American by the ABCA. Clark went 7-2 with a 3.19 ERA and hit .385 with five homers and 29 RBIs this season for the Owls. … The Parker brothers of Purvis High — twins JoJo and Jacob — have been named co-players of the year in the state by MaxPreps. The Gatorade player of the year announcement is coming soon. … Eight players at Mississippi schools are listed among the top 115 MLB draft prospects in MLB Pipeline’s latest rankings. Shortstop JoJo Parker is No. 10, Southern Miss pitcher J.B. Middleton 34, East Union High pitcher Landon Harmon 47, Lewisburg pitcher Talon Haley 90, Ole Miss infielder Luke Hill 96, outfielder Jacob Parker 107, Mississippi State pitcher Piko Kohn 112 and Ole Miss pitcher Mason Morris 115.

02 Jun

bombs away

On a chaotic Sunday in the NCAA Tournament — when regional 1-seeds Vanderbilt, Texas, Georgia, Clemson and Oregon all bit the dust — Ole Miss and Southern Miss are still standing. Weary, but still standing. In winning two elimination games each, they got some clutch pitching from some unsung players, but what carried them both into today’s championship showdowns were home runs. Ole Miss, which blasted six bombs in an elimination game on Saturday, hit eight more in its two Sunday wins. Isaac Humphrey’s three-run shot in the first inning was the first — and perhaps biggest — of three in the 11-6 victory over Georgia Tech. In the 19-8 bashing of Murray State, Will Furniss — in a 4-for-6, four-RBI effort — went yard twice and his teammates added three more homers. Humphrey homered again, tripled, doubled and walked twice. The Rebels get Murray State again tonight at Swayze Field. For USM, which got three huge bombs in a must-win game against Alabama on Saturday, Ben Higdon’s three-run eighth-inning homer was the key hit in Sunday’s 8-1 victory vs. Columbia. In the 17-6 mauling of Miami that followed, the Golden Eagles crushed four homers, two by Joey Urban, whose three-run shot highlighted a nine-run first inning. Kudos also to Eagles pitcher Camden Sunstrom, who pitched the last 4 2/3 and allowed a lone unearned run. USM gets a rematch with the Hurricanes tonight at Taylor Park. … Ole Miss has hit 121 home runs all told, with six players in double digits, topped by Judd Utermark’s 21 and Austin Fawley’s 20. USM has 102 homers on the season, 21 by Nick Monistere, 17 by Matthew Russo and 15 from Carson Paetow. Both schools rank in the national top 20 for bombs. P.S. It was a tough day for Mississippi State on the field in the Tallahassee Regional, where the Bulldogs beat Northeastern 3-2 behind the pitching of Evan Siary and Stone Simmons but then lost to Florida State 5-2 in a contentious elimination game. The Bulldogs, with 103 homers in 2025, hit two vs. FSU but that was all they got against sophomore Wes Mercedes, an Ole Miss transfer who worked eight strong for the victory, fanning nine. That hurts. MSU fans did get to cheer a bit on Sunday, however, when it was revealed that they have a new coach for 2026 — Brian O’Connor, a veteran who brings a great track record, including a national title, from Virginia.

01 Jun

on the bump

A host of starting pitchers with Mississippi ties took the bump on Saturday in games of significance all over the map. As might be expected, there was some good, some bad and even some ugly. To wit:
Start in the Oxford Regional, where Ole Miss ace Hunter Elliott, from Tupelo, was a little wobbly early but settled in to go six innings and get his 10th win in an elimination game against Western Kentucky. The Rebels hit six homers in the 8-6 victory.
In the Hattiesburg Regional, Southern Miss ace J.B. Middleton, from Yazoo City, gave up three bombs over seven innings against Alabama and stood to get the loss before the Golden Eagles rallied for a 6-5 win in an elimination game.
In the Tallahassee Regional, in an MLB scouts’ delight, Mississippi State’s Pico Kohn went against Florida State’s Jamie Arnold in a matchup of highly rated draft prospects. Kohn got roughed up: seven earned runs, including a see-ya-later grand slam, in 3 2/3 innings. Arnold battled through seven, struck out 13 and notched the W in the Seminoles’ 10-3 winners bracket victory.
In the NJCAA Division II World Series title game, Jacob Johnson, a 12-game winner from Carriere, went to the bump for the 18th time for Pearl River Community College but lasted just 2 2/3, allowing three runs on two hits and four walks. PRCC, which finishes 53-10, actually led late before a bullpen implosion gave Pasco-Hernando State an 11-7 victory and the national crown at Enid, Okla.
At Wrigley Field in Chicago, ex-Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz opened for the Cubs — his first start since 2019 — and threw a perfect frame, his 15th scoreless appearance. The first-place Cubs rolled on to a 2-0 win against Cincinnati.
At Dodger Stadium, former Jackson Prep star Will Warren, a rookie with the New York Yankees, struggled from the jump against Los Angeles’ array of mashers. He lasted just 1 1/3 innings, allowing seven runs in the 18-2 slaughter and saw his record dip to 3-3, his ERA rise to 5.19.
At Toronto, Ole Miss product Gunnar Hoglund, an A’s rookie, got roughed up by the Blue Jays, allowing four homers and eight runs in six innings in an 8-7 loss. He is 1-3 with a 6.40 ERA.
In Atlanta, Spencer Schwellenbach, who toiled for the Mississippi Braves just last year, pitched a gem for the big Braves: 6 1/3, five hits, no walks, 11 punchouts in a 5-0 win against Boston. Schwellenbach is 4-4, 3.13, in 12 starts. (Today in Atlanta, we get Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet, the Red Sox’s flame-throwing ace, vs. M-Braves alum Bryce Elder.)
P.S. MSU and Jackson Prep alum Jake Mangum hit his first big league homer Saturday for Tampa Bay in the 23rd game of his rookie season. He hit just 24 bombs in five minor league seasons. … Ex-USM standout Matt Wallner, just off the injured list, homered for Minnesota in his first at-bat since April 15. He has 31 career homers. … Former MSU star Chris Stratton made his Dodgers debut as a reliever and gave up one run — an Aaron Judge homer — in one inning of work. … The Dodgers claimed USM alum Chuckie Robinson off waivers from the Angels and assigned the veteran catcher to Triple-A Oklahoma City.

31 May

good news and …

Good day for Mississippi State and Pearl River Community College. While rumors percolate about who’ll be coaching them in 2026, the ’25 MSU team upended Northeastern 11-2 Friday in the opener of the Tallahassee Regional. Joe Powell and Noah Sullivan hit home runs and Ben Davis and Ryan McPherson combined on a five-hitter as the Bulldogs set up a winners bracket meeting today with Florida State, the top seed in the regional. Pearl River got a brilliant two-hitter from K.K. Clark — an MSU transfer — and beat East Central CC 10-0 in five innings to advance to the championship game of the NJCAA Division II World Series. Second-seeded PRCC, which won the title in 2022, faces No. 1 Pasco-Hernando State (Fla.) today in Enid, Okla., for the crown. ECCC ends its season at 46-16. … Bad day for Ole Miss and Southern Miss. Pitching let both of the regional hosts down. The Rebels were shocked by Murray State 9-6 in Oxford, while the Golden Eagles got pummeled 11-4 by Columbia in Hattiesburg. Ole Miss gets 3-seed Western Kentucky today. Former Hinds CC star Thomas Marsala is on the Hilltoppers’ roster. USM plays an elimination game against 2-seed Alabama, upset by Miami on Friday. There are several familiar names on the Crimson Tide roster: Bryce Fowler, who played at USM two years ago before transferring to Pearl River CC; Will Hodo, a former Wayne Academy star; Beau Bryans, a Madison Central and Jones College alum; and Jack Ketchum, a freshman out of Heritage Academy. P.S. Jake Mangum, out since April 24, returned to Tampa Bay’s roster on Friday. The rookie out of MSU, batting .338 when he was hurt, went 0-for-3 in a 2-1 loss to Houston. (Fun fact: Yainer Diaz, who hit the walk-off homer for the Astros, is the older brother of the Mississippi Mud Monsters’ Victor Diaz. Both are catchers.) … Rick Collier, who won more than 700 games in 23 years at Itawamba Community College, has retired. A three-time coach of the year in the state, his teams were a regular in the NJCAA national rankings and made the postseason 18 times. Under Delta State alum Collier, the program had more than 20 players drafted by MLB clubs, among them Tim Dillard and Desmond Jennings. … Happy trails, also, to Bill Blackwell, who has retired as executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, where he had served since 2016. Blackwell, who played baseball at Southern Illinois, was a longtime general manager of the Double-A Jackson Mets and Generals at Smith-Wills Stadium. … Today is opening day for the Cotton States League, the New Albany-based college summer loop that’s been around since 2009. The league will field four teams, stocked mostly with small college and juco players.

30 May

names to know

John Lewis and Andrew Nielsen: Lewis, from Columbus, drove in the tie-breaking run in the 11th inning and Nielsen, from Lucedale, got the last 11 outs without yielding a run as East Central Community College rallied past Pearl River CC 6-5 Thursday in the semifinal round of the NJCAA Division II World Series. The teams play again tonight — their eighth clash of 2025 — for a berth in the finals in Enid, Okla. Lewis’ knock in the top of the 11th scored Pablo Roque, who had led off with a double. Nielsen, 4-0 with a 2.62 ERA in 18 appearances this season, posted saves in the Warriors’ first two games in Enid.
Riley Maddox, Matthew Adams and Ben Davis: In today’s NCAA Tournament openers, Maddox gets the start for Ole Miss, Adams for Southern Miss and Davis for Mississippi State. Maddox, out of Jackson Prep, is 6-5 with a 5.26 ERA for UM, which plays Murray State in the Oxford Regional. Adams is 6-2 with a 3.93 headed into the Hattiesburg Regional game vs. Columbia. Davis, a Booneville product by way of Itawamba Community College, is 3-2 with a 3.96 in 22 games, just three starts, the last in March. He faces Northeastern in the Tallahassee Regional. Each of the state’s Big 3 is holding its ace for the second round.
Austin Riley: The ex-DeSoto Central star delivered in a time of major need for Atlanta, going 2-for-3 with a homer, two walks, three runs and four RBIs in a 9-3 win in Game 2 of a twinbill Thursday at Philadelphia. The Braves had lost the first game — Riley was 2-for-5 — and three in a row overall to fall to 25-29. Riley’s homer — his ninth — was his first in 22 games and his 20th career bomb vs. the rival Phillies. The third baseman is batting .280 with 32 RBIs.

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.

03 Jun

crash landings

A feel-good story involving a couple of Mississippi homeboys seemed to be developing on a sunny Sunday at Trustmark Park. Then the Montgomery Biscuits cruelly flipped the script, handing the Mississippi Braves a 13-5 defeat and putting a cap on their 1-5 homestand. Brandon Parker, the former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College slugger from Saucier, and Landon Harper, the ex-Southern Miss pitcher from Meridian, played starring roles as the M-Braves took a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning. Parker hit two home runs, a solo shot in the second inning and then a three-run blast in the sixth that put the M-Braves ahead. Harper, making his first home appearance, came on in relief in the fifth and threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out three. But Montgomery, the first-place club in the Southern League South, piled up six runs in the seventh to take command, and the M-Braves went quietly from there. Both Parker and Harper were unlikely heroes. Parker, who doesn’t play regularly, entered the game batting .160 with one homer. Harper, recently called up from A-ball, allowed three runs in three innings in his first Double-A appearance last week. They did their part on Sunday, but little else went right for the M-Braves, who entered this homestand last Monday riding a seven-game win streak. They leave on a four-game slide and with a 23-28 record, 7 games behind the Biscuits. P.S. The college season in Mississippi came to a close on Sunday night with both Southern Miss and Mississippi State losing in their respective NCAA regionals. Both won elimination games earlier Sunday but basically ran out of pitching in the nightcaps, falling to the top seeds, USM to Tennessee, State to Virginia. The Golden Eagles finish 43-20, the Bulldogs 40-23.

01 Jun

names to know

Dakota Jordan: The Mississippi State sophomore slugged a two-out, two-strike, three-run homer in the bottom of the 10th inning to boost the Bulldogs to a 5-2 win against St. John’s in Friday’s opener at the Charlottesville Regional. It was the 18th homer of the season for the ex-Jackson Academy standout, who was in a 1-for-26 slump. State gets host Virginia today in a winners bracket game.
Niko Mazza: Presumably, the junior right-hander will get the start today for Southern Miss in an elimination game against Northern Kentucky at the Knoxville Regional. Mazza, former MRA star, is 8-3 with a 4.43 ERA. USM lost its opener 10-4 to Indiana.
East Central Community College pitchers: The Warriors bowed out of the NJCAA Division II World Series with a 2-1 loss to Brunswick (N.C.) on Friday despite a six-hit effort from Marbin Lezcano, Riley Passman and Rex Henderson. In four straight elimination-game wins over a three-day stretch, 10 different Warriors pitchers combined to allow just 12 runs: Bryson Goff (complete-game 3-hitter), Chris Bilingsley, Hayden Dodson, Henderson, Connor Alpin, Evan Folse, Carson Ellis, Reid Hall, Eli Smith and Parker Martin. In ECCC’s opening game loss in Enid, Okla., staff ace Luke Cooley allowed just two runs in five-plus innings, but the Warriors squandered a big lead.
Dakota Hudson: The ex-MSU standout threw seven innings, allowing one run on four hits and a walk, to pace last-place Colorado to a 4-1 win over the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. Hudson, who has won two of his last four starts, is 2-7 with a 5.02 ERA in his first year with the Rockies.
Darryl Strawberry: The New York Mets will retire the former Jackson Mets star’s No. 18 in a ceremony today at CitiField. Old JaxMets fans will never forget Strawberry’s exploits at Smith-Wills Stadium in 1982: He hit a franchise-record 34 homers, batted .283, stole 45 bases, hit nine triples, drove in 97 runs and walked 100 times. He was named the Texas League MVP. The next year, he won National League rookie of the year honors with the big Mets. They won a World Series with him in right field in 1986, and he was an eight-time All-Star.

30 May

there’s a drive …

Power matters in college baseball. Power wins. Twelve of the top 20 teams in total home runs are in the NCAA Tournament, seven of them as No. 1 seeds, three more as 2-seeds. The national leader in homers — with 147 — is SEC champion and No. 1 overall seed Tennessee, which is hosting the Knoxville Regional where Southern Miss was shipped. Virginia, which is hosting the Charlottesville Regional where Mississippi State was assigned, ranks ninth in homers with 113. Both teams feature multiple players who can rake. Neither USM (41-18) nor State (38-21), both 2-seeds, would be regarded as teams that rely heavily on power. USM has hit just 63 homers this season, ranking 138th overall. State’s got 73, barely cracking the top 100 at No. 98. Tennessee has five players with double-figure homer totals, led by Christian Moore with 28 and Billy Amick with 19. USM’s leader is Slade Wilks with 14. Indiana, USM’s first-round opponent in the regional, blasted 78 homers this season, and Northern Kentucky, the 4-seed in Knoxville, hit 86. On the flip side, USM’s pitching, which has posted a 5.00 ERA (54th nationally), has done a fair job of limiting long-ball damage, allowing 60 homers. MSU pitchers, in a remarkable turnaround from 2023, have put up a 4.15 ERA this season, 12th-best in the country. They’ve yielded 63 homers. The Bulldogs’ first-round opponent is St. John’s, which has only 41 homers. The 4-seed in Charlottesville is Penn, which has hit 55. Virginia’s top slugger is Harrison Didawick, who has 23 bombs, leading three others in double digits. Dakota Jordan is sitting on 17 for the Bulldogs, though his power tailed off down the stretch. Hunter Hines has hit 15 bombs. There is more to the game than hitting home runs, of course, but it certainly helps to have that weapon in your lineup. Nothing changes a game like a three-run bomb.

27 May

travel plans

Mississippi State, snubbed as a regional host, will pack its bags and head to California this week, if Baseball America’s NCAA Tournament projections are accurate. BA has State ranked 15th in its latest poll but seeded second in the Santa Barbara Regional, where 18th-ranked UCSB of the Big West is the No. 14 national seed. The actual regional assignments for the 64-team field will be announced later today. Southern Miss, champion of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament and ranked 22nd by BA, is projected to travel to Tallahassee, Fla., where Florida State is the No. 8 national seed. Five SEC teams got regionals, including Georgia, which was knocked out of the SEC Tournament in the first round. No Sun Belt team is hosting; Louisiana-Lafayette is projected to make the field, as a 2-seed like USM. P.S. Defense, or lack thereof, often makes a difference when the heat is on in postseason play, as both USM and Jackson State witnessed on Sunday. USM benefited from a pair of errors by Georgia Southern in the ninth inning of the Golden Eagles’ 14-11 win in Sunday’s SBC tourney title game. USM scored five times in the ninth, three of the runs unearned. (USM, error-free on Sunday, also got plenty of offense from the likes of Dalton McIntyre, Davis Gillespie and Slade Wilks, plus another lockdown relief effort from Colby Allen.) Jackson State took a one-run lead into the bottom of the ninth but committed a pair of costly errors, helping Grambling State win 6-5 and claim the SWAC Tournament title and automatic bid to the NCAAs. JSU made four errors all told, leading to three unearned runs. Grambling did not make an error.