Tag Archives: NJCAA

17 Mar

going strong

Millsaps College swept a doubleheader at Centre over the weekend — the third game was rained out on Sunday — to climb to 12-7 overall and 3-2 in the Southern Athletic Association. While the team’s season has been defined by fits and spurts, sophomore outfielder Isaac Glenn has been a steady force. The former Madison Central High two-sport star (baseball/football) is batting .426 with eight doubles, 11 RBIs, 13 runs and five stolen bases. Glenn plays center field and usually hits third for the Majors. As a freshman, he batted .299 with 20 RBIs and 28 runs in 30 games. The Majors are at home on Tuesday for a non-conference game against Huntingdon. … Jones County Junior College, the No. 1 team in NJCAA Division II, opened its MACJC South Division schedule with a doubleheader sweep at Pearl River on Saturday. JCJC coach Christian Ostrander notched his 199th and 200th career wins. The Bobcats are 21-1 heading into a South twinbill on Tuesday at East Central, the defending state champion. PRCC, which started 11-3, has dropped eight in a row and is 0-4 in the division. … Ti’Quan Forbes, the highly rated draft prospect at Columbia High, is hitting .389 with two homers and 12 RBIs in 11 games. Columbia is 8-3.

12 Mar

top of the world

Jones County Junior College takes the field in Ellisville today with a target on its back. The Bobcats are, for the first time in school history, the No. 1-ranked team in NJCAA Division II. The 17-1 Bobcats tangle today with Itawamba Community College in a twinbill at Community Bank Park and open MACJC South Division play on Saturday at Pearl River. JCJC coach Christian Ostrander appears to have a well-balanced club: Four regulars are batting above .350 and three frontline pitchers have ERAs under 1.40. Trent Giambrone leads the JCJC attack with a .452 average and 21 RBIs. Chase Hensley is hitting .375, Joshua Pankratz (from Taylorsville) .362 and Alex Shermer (Northwest Rankin) .352. Chris Morgan (Madison Central) has 22 runs and eight steals. Former Terry High star Wes Stringer is the Bobcats’ ace, with a 5-0 record and a 0.26 ERA. Lane Ratliff (Purvis) is 3-0, 1.35 and Hensley is 3-0, 1.38. P.S. Three other state schools are ranked in the latest juco D-II poll. East Mississippi is No. 6, Northwest (the only team to beat JCJC) is 13th and Northeast is 19th. … DeSoto Central High is No. 19 in Baseball America’s first in-season prep poll. Clay Casey, an Ole Miss commit, is 7-for-19 with seven RBIs for the Jaguars (5-2).

04 Mar

should be good

Jones County Junior College, unbeaten and ranked No. 7 in NJCAA Division II, makes the long trip from Ellisville to Senatobia on Wednesday to play Northwest Mississippi Community College in an intradivision doubleheader that should give us a good read on two of the state’s best teams. JCJC, coached by Christian Ostrander, is 14-0, led by the hitting of Trent Giambrone (.447, 17 RBIs, six steals) and Josh Pankratz (.372) and the arm of Westin Stringer (4-0). Northwest, coached by Mark Carson, is 8-4 and was the highest ranked Mississippi juco in the preseason poll at No. 14. NWCC has used six different starting pitchers, with Cody Waddell having the best numbers (2-0, 0.58 ERA). Kramer Hollenbach is batting .457 with 13 RBIs for the Rangers, Jay King is at .436 with 10 RBIs and Luke Latham has five homers and 13 RBIs. NWCC has 10 homers as a team – and it’s not easy to hit balls out in college baseball anymore. JCJC hasn’t done it. That could be a factor. The first of the two games is slated for a 2 p.m. first pitch at Jim Miles Field. It’ll be cold, sure, but these clubs will warm to the task.

16 Feb

juco jump-start

Northwest Mississippi Community College, ranked 14th in the NJCAA Division II preseason poll, finally got on the field on Saturday and – ta da – delivered a command performance. The Rangers swept No. 8 North Iowa JC 16-9 and 6-0 at Senatobia. Luke Latham and Taylor King homered in both games for Northwest, and Matt Ferguson threw a two-hitter in Game 2. … Pitching has been the story for Jones County JC, which is 4-0 after beating Jeff Davis CC twice on Saturday. The Bobcats have allowed just eight hits and two runs (with 40 strikeouts) in 30 innings. Former Terry High star Westin Stringer is 2-0 with two dominant outings. … Pearl River, which won 41 games in 2013, is off to a 6-0 start, including a sweep of Mississippi Delta on Friday. Luke McGee, a reverse transfer from Ohio State, is 2-0 for the Wildcats. … Patrick McMahon hit a walk-off homer for Gulf Coast in the first game of a doubleheader against Alabama Southern on Friday. … Northeast, ranked 20th, lost its first two games of the season. … Defending MACJC champion East Central has won three of its first four.

07 Feb

party on

Delta State, which hasn’t played a game yet, is already in a celebratory mood. This season marks the 10th anniversary of the Statesmen’s NCAA Division II national championship campaign. Of course, DSU may have plenty of other things to celebrate. The Statesmen, who open Friday at Palm Beach Atlantic in West Palm Beach, Fla., are a consensus top 10 team in the D-II preseason polls. Coach Mike Kinnison (747 wins in 17 years) has five preseason All-Gulf South Conference players on his roster. That group includes preseason All-Americans Jordan Chovenac (.333, 64 runs, 20 stolen bases) and Michael Manley (9-0, 1.93 ERA). Also back are pitchers Ricky Winters (5-0, 3.93) and Taylor Stark (3-0, five saves) and second baseman Kasey Hinton (.331). DSU went 44-11-1 in 2013, won the GSC regular season title and made the NCAAs. This team appears capable of similar accomplishments, and that 10th anniversary buzz certainly won’t hurt. P.S. The state’s junior colleges also start this weekend, with defending MACJC champion East Central Community College opening Saturday against Pensacola JC in Decatur. The Warriors went 32-21 last year but lost star shortstop Tim Anderson to the MLB draft. Two Mississippi schools are ranked in the NJCAA Division II preseason Top 20: Northwest (31-18) at No. 14 and Northeast (30-18) at No. 20. Defending South Division champion Pearl River, 41-14 in 2013, didn’t make the poll. … The best player in the league might be East Mississippi sophomore outfielder LeDarious Clark, a former two-sport (baseball/football) star at Southeast Lauderdale High. Clark is rated the No. 40 juco draft prospect by Sporting News. Also on that chart is former Northwest Rankin outfielder Daniel Sweet, No. 27, now playing at Polk State JC in Florida.