Tag Archives: Ole Miss

16 May

numbers to crunch

13 – Wins in 13 weekend series finales by Southern Miss, which beat Louisiana Tech 2-0 on Sunday to improve to 36-15 on the season, 20-7 (first) in Conference USA.
30 – Runs, on 45 hits, piled up by Mississippi State in its weekend sweep at Auburn, coached by former State pitching coach Butch Thompson. The Bulldogs are 37-14-1, 18-9 SEC.
26 – Home wins, in 32 games, for Ole Miss (39-13, 17-10 SEC), which finished a sweep of Kentucky with Henri Lartigue’s walk-off home run on Saturday.
4 – Delta State’s seed in the NCAA Division II South Region tournament at Tampa, Fla. The Statesmen, 38-15 and Gulf South Conference champs, play 5-seed Lynn University on Thursday.
3 – Consecutive years William Carey has earned an NAIA regional bid. The Crusaders (37-19) play College of Idaho on Tuesday in Santa Barbara, Calif.
60 – Runs, leading the SWAC, by Jackson State’s Cornelius Copeland, who also is batting a league-high .421 for the Tigers (32-24) heading into the SWAC Tournament.
84 – Runs in five postseason games by East Central Community College, which won its fourth MACJC championship and will host the NJCAA Division II Region 23 Tournament this week in Decatur.

12 May

good stuff

As the fifth overall draft pick in 2010 out of Ole Miss, Drew Pomeranz entered pro ball with some hefty expectations. The big left-hander is starting to live up to them. Pomeranz, now with San Diego, blanked the mighty Chicago Cubs over six innings at Wrigley Field on Wednesday night, striking out 10 and propelling the Padres to a 1-0 win. It was just the second time this season the Cubs have been blanked. Pomeranz, now 4-3 with a 1.80 ERA, threw five shutout innings at the New York Mets in his previous start and has allowed just one run over his last 18 innings. “In pro ball, this is the best I’ve ever felt in a stretch,” he told mlb.com. While people in the game rave about his stuff, the 6-foot-6 Pomeranz has been traded three times in six years. His career MLB numbers are 18-27, 3.80 as he has bounced between starting and relieving. He may finally have found his place. P.S. The Padres’ lone run in the game – the second in their sweep on Wednesday – came on a monstrous homer by former Mississippi Braves standout Christian Bethancourt, his third of the year.

10 May

there’s a catch

The recently released watch list for Ferriss Trophy candidates is an impressive one. The pool of players having big years at schools across the state may be as deep as it has ever been. By no coincidence, five Magnolia State colleges are currently ranked in national polls, including the Big 3 NCAA Division I schools. It’s hard not to notice that none of the players on the Ferriss Trophy watch list is a catcher from the Big 3 — but don’t get the impression that this is a position of weakness among state schools. Far from it, actually. The Big 3 wouldn’t be where they are today without the play of the men in the mask. At Mississippi State, that’s Elih Morrero. At Southern Miss, it’s Chuckie Robinson. And at Ole Miss, Henri Lartigue. Lartigue and Marrero are on the watch list for the Johnny Bench Award, which goes to the nation’s top catcher, and Robinson certainly ought to be. Lartigue leads the Rebels and ranks among the SEC’s best in hitting at .344. The former Southaven High star also has two homers and 20 RBIs. Robinson, from Illinois, is the reigning C-USA hitter of the week. He is batting .305 with five homers and 37 RBIs, seven of which came in one game against Western Kentucky over the weekend. Robinson’s father played minor league baseball, and Marrero’s father, Eli, played 10 years in the majors, including a stint with Atlanta. The younger Marrero, a true freshman from Florida, is batting .252. Behind the plate, each has been solid. Robinson has thrown out 20 base stealers at a rate of 43.4 percent. Marrero is at 28 percent, Lartigue 26. There are four pitchers on the Ferriss Trophy watch list, plus another two-way player. If one of those five should win the award on May 23, you can bet he’ll give a nod of appreciation to his catcher.

09 May

here and there

Dansby Swanson, Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect, is expected to make his home debut tonight when the Mississippi Braves host Mobile. Interested to see what kind of crowd they get at Trustmark Park. Swanson, hitless in his last three games, is batting .310 over his nine Double-A games. The shortstop out of Vanderbilt homered in his M-Braves debut on April 30 and had a four-hit game May 4. … Brett Phillips, Milwaukee’s No. 2 prospect, had a three-homer game for Biloxi on Saturday and is batting .260 with five bombs for the season. The Shuckers also open a homestand tonight. … Mississippi State is No. 3, Ole Miss No. 6 and Southern Miss No. 19 in the new Baseball America poll. State’s Dakota Hudson is listed as the No. 19 draft prospect in BA’s latest rankings. … After rallying to beat West Georgia 8-7 on Sunday, Delta State is 2-0 in the Gulf South Conference Tournament. Ace Tre Hobbs had an off day, but DSU got three RBIs from Trent Giambroni, a three-run homer from Ethan Gill and a clutch sac fly by Will Robertson to secure the W, its 36th of the year. … Jackson State, looking to gather some momentum for the SWAC Tournament, swept Mississippi Valley State in a three-game set at Braddy Field over the weekend. The Tigers are 14-10 in the league and 6-0 against MVSU. The tournament is slated to start May 18. … The MACJC final four is set. Jones County Junior College, the regular season champ, will host the double-elimination tournament starting Thursday. Also in are 3-seed East Central, which beat Gulf Coast 27-21 on Saturday to advance from the best-of-3 round; Meridian, the second seed; and 4-seed Northwest. … The Houston Astros optioned former M-Braves star Evan Gattis to Double-A? Reportedly, he was sent down just to brush up on his catching skills; he hasn’t caught in an MLB game since 2014.

06 May

minor details

Anthony Alford, the ex-Petal High star, is playing again for Toronto’s high Class A Dunedin club after missing almost a month with a knee injury. Alford is just 1-for-12 in three games since he returned and is at .071 in four games all told. The highly regarded outfielder is playing just his second full pro season. … The Mississippi Braves’ Mississippi connections are putting up good numbers. Ole Miss product Chris Ellis moved to 4-0 with a 2.06 ERA with a win at Tennessee on Thursday, and Southern Miss alum Bradley Roney got the save, his second to go with an 0.87 ERA in nine appearances. … Former DeSoto Central standout Austin Riley, a 2015 Atlanta draftee and one of the organization’s top prospects, is batting .237 with two homers and 11 RBIs at low Class A Rome. … Vancleave High product Colin Bray is featured in the May 6-20 issue of Baseball America as a player to watch in the Arizona system. After a strong year in low-A ball in 2015, Bray, a switch-hitting outfielder, is batting .233 at high-A Visalia. “He can do everything you want a young player to do,” said Diamondbacks farm director Mike Bell. … Ole Miss product Alex Yarbrough is back in Double-A, where he had great success in 2014, in the Los Angeles Angels’ system. Yarbrough, who scuffled last year in Triple-A, is batting .275 with six doubles and 11 RBIs in 20 games at Arkansas. … Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College alum Fred Lewis, now 35, is hitting .286 with three homers for Southern Maryland in the independent Atlantic League.

04 May

ups and downs

After missing two games with pain in his right knee, ex-Ole Miss star Zack Cozart is back in the Cincinnati lineup today, batting leadoff against San Francisco. Former Taylorsville High standout Billy Hamilton, who reinjured his left thumb on Tuesday, will not start for the Reds. Cozart, who is batting .347 with two homers and nine RBIs, left Sunday’s game at Pittsburgh with an issue in his surgically repaired knee. Hamilton, who has recently boosted his average to .215, first hurt his thumb last month. … After Jonathan Papelbon blew a save on Tuesday, Washington manager Dusty Baker said the Mississippi State alum is in no danger of losing his job as closer. Papelbon is 9-for-11 in save chances. After allowing three runs in the ninth inning against Kansas City on Tuesday, his ERA jumped to 4.50. … Don’t be surprised if Itawamba Community College product Desmond Jennings is not in Tampa Bay’s lineup tonight. He is in an 0-for-24 skid that has dropped his average to .173. Jennings, who played only 28 games in 2015 because of injuries, actually got off to a good start this spring.

01 May

hot & not

It’s safe to assume Zack Cozart isn’t getting questions anymore about his surgically repaired knee. It appears to be fine. As the calendar flips from April to May, the former Ole Miss star sits among the major league leaders with a .361 average. He also has a couple of homers and nine RBIs for Cincinnati. Also hot in the season’s opening month were UM product Seth Smith (.298, four homers, 10 RBIs), McComb native Jarrod Dyson (.303, four steals in only 10 games) and former Mississippi State standout Jonathan Papelbon (eight saves in nine chances). Somewhere in the temperate zone: State alum Mitch Moreland is at .257 with three homers and 11 RBIs; ex-Ole Miss standout Drew Pomeranz is 2-2 with a 2.86 ERA; Greenwood native Louis Coleman has posted a 3.60 ERA; and ex-State standout Kendall Graveman is 1-2 with a 4.03. On the not-so-hot chart, there’s a crowd that includes Taylorsville’s Billy Hamilton (.218, four steals), Meridian Community College product Corey Dickerson (.214 with five homers), ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier (.191 with three homers), Itawamba CC’s Desmond Jennings (.183), Ole Miss alum Chris Coghlan (.155 with four homers) and Gulf Coast CC product Tony Sipp (5.40 ERA).

30 Apr

mr. 100

The 100th home run of Seth Smith’s big league career will certainly be memorable. The former Ole Miss standout from Jackson hit the milestone bomb on Friday night, giving Seattle a 1-0 win over visiting Kansas City. It was the only hit the Mariners got. The victory went to Seattle ace Felix Hernandez and was the 145th of his career, which matches Jamie Moyer for the most in franchise history. The left-handed hitting Smith went deep against righty Kris Medlen, the former Mississippi Braves star, in the sixth inning. The ball just got over the wall in right field at Safeco Field and was just out of the reach of the Royals’ Jarrod Dyson, the Southwest Mississippi Community College product from McComb. Smith’s first career homer came in 2008 with Colorado. He has also homered for Oakland and San Diego. And if you were wondering, 91 of his homers have come against right-handers.

29 Apr

feeling a draft

Mississippi State’s Dakota Hudson, who notched his sixth win of the year on Thursday, is ranked No. 10 on MLBPipeline’s latest list of the Top 100 draft prospects. The 6-foot-5, 205-pound right-hander has “the look of a frontline starter.” He wasn’t razor sharp against Alabama but went five innings, yielding six hits and three earned runs with four strikeouts in the Bulldogs’ 12-5 win. Hudson, who emerged as a prospect last summer in the Cape Cod League, is 6-3 with a 3.00 ERA and 74 K’s in 72 innings. Ole Miss ace Brady Bramlett, who is actually having a better year than Hudson, didn’t make the MLBPipeline list. Bramlett left after 3 1/3 innings of the Rebels’ 7-6 win against LSU on Thursday, having yielded seven hits and three earned runs, but for the season is 6-2, 2.61 with 73 K’s in 58 2/3 innings. Bramlett was drafted in the 22nd round by Oakland in 2015; he should go higher this summer. The only other Mississippian on the MLBPipeline list is George County High’s Walker Robbins, who checks in at 91. The State signee, a lefty-hitting first baseman who also pitches, is batting .469 with three homers and is 5-1, 0.46 on the mound. … Hudson was rated No. 19 by Baseball America in its March 10 draft prospect list. Ole Miss shortstop Errol Robinson, who has had a down year, was No. 57 and Oxford High catcher Thomas Dillard was No. 82.

26 Apr

just the facts

8,480 – Listed capacity of Pearl’s Trustmark Park, which will be exceeded in tonight’s Ole Miss-Mississippi State game.
6:30 – Time of first pitch, changed to accommodate the SEC Network broadcast.
36 – Meetings in the Mayor’s Trophy/Governor’s Cup series, with each team winning 18 times.
246 – Wins for State in the all-time series.
205 – Wins for Ole Miss in the all-time series.
5 – Wins by State vs. Ole Miss in nine games at Trustmark Park.
3 – State’s ranking in the Baseball America poll (and two others).
9 – Ole Miss’ ranking in the BA poll.
0 – Career starts for Ole Miss freshman Ryan Cyr (1-0, 0.00 in 12 innings), who gets the ball tonight.
8 – Career starts for State junior Chad Smith, who is 3-3, 4.99 in 11 appearances overall.
7 – Home runs by Gavin Collins, State’s leader.
5 – Home runs by Colby Bortles and J.B. Woodman, Ole Miss’ leaders.
.397 – State’s team on-base percentage.
.362 – Ole Miss’ team OBP.
39 – First-inning runs scored by Ole Miss (to 15 by its opponents).
122 – Two-out RBIs by State hitters.
3.84 – State’s staff ERA.
3.07 – Ole Miss’ staff ERA.