Pearl River Community College Archives - Page 9 of 9

14 Jul

touching the bases

With the trade winds starting to intensify in the major leagues, it looks as if ex-Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz will soon be on his way to a new club. MLB.com reports there is a lot of interest in the San Diego left-hander, who just appeared in his first All-Star Game. Boston, Baltimore, Texas, the New York Mets and Miami are among the teams that could be in the bidding. Former Mississippi Braves Arodys Vizcaino (now Atlanta’s closer) and Yunel Escobar (the Los Angeles Angels’ third baseman) are also mentioned as hot commodities. … Former Mississippi State standout Hunter Renfroe went 0-for-2 in the Triple-A All-Star Game in Charlotte, N.C., on Wednesday night. His Pacific Coast League team, which also included former Mississippi Braves reliever James Hoyt, lost to the International League 4-2. Former Jackson Mets star Wally Backman managed the PCL stars. … Jackson native and ex-big leaguer Stan Cliburn managed the Freedom Division to a 3-1 win in the independent Atlantic League’s All-Star Game on Wednesday night at Lancaster, Pa. Cliburn’s Southern Maryland team won the Freedom Division title in 2015, which earned him the managerial honor, though he now skippers the New Britain Bees, who play in the Liberty Division. … Former Ole Miss star J.B. Woodman, the first position player picked out of the state in this year’s MLB draft, is heating up after a chilly start to his pro career. Woodman, a lefty-hitting outfielder with Toronto’s short-season Class A Vancouver team, has hit .290 with eight RBIs over his last 10 games. His average has jumped some 70 points in that span. … Alex Gunn, a Clinton High and Hinds Community College product, got the win in his first appearance for the Arizona Diamondbacks’ rookie Arizona League team. Signed late last week out of the independent American Association, Gunn went 5 2/3 innings, yielding four hits, two walks and two earned runs on Wednesday. Gunn, who also pitched at the University of Memphis, was 2-0 with a 3.37 ERA this season for the Gary South Shore RailCats. … Pearl River CC product Zach Clark has signed with Milwaukee, which drafted the shortstop/outfielder in the 19th round last month. Clark, who had been an Alabama commit, batted .325 with 11 homers and 41 RBIs for the Wildcats.

09 Jun

there and here

Corey Dickerson slugged two homers for Tampa Bay on Wednesday, giving the former Meridian Community College standout 11 for the year. He leads the all-Mississippi home run derby by two over Ole Miss product Zack Cozart, who hit his ninth for Cincinnati. Ex-Southern Miss star Brian Dozier (Minnesota) has seven, and State alum Mitch Moreland (Texas) and UM’s Seth Smith (Seattle) have six each. … Dakota Hudson may be the only Mississippian picked on Day 1 of the MLB draft, which will go through 77 picks today. The Mississippi State right-hander, who has been garnering all types of honors of late as he also preps for the Super Regional showdown with Arizona, is rated 13th on Baseball America’s draft prospects list and 15th on mlb.com’s. Others who might get called today include Ole Miss’ J.B. Woodman, State’s Daniel Brown, Reid Humphreys and Jacob Robson, George County High’s Walker Robbins and Oxford High’s Thomas Dillard and Grae Kessinger. … Atlanta has the third overall pick – surely the Braves will take a college bat – and Milwaukee has the fifth. … Dansby Swanson, the Braves’ top prospect, has seen his average drop 30 points the last two weeks. The shortstop, one of four Mississippi Braves named to the Southern League All-Star Game, is batting .269 with four homers and 17 RBIs after an 0-for-4 on Wednesday night. … Mason Robbins, Walker’s brother, is on a tear at Class A Winston-Salem in the Chicago White Sox’s system. The ex-USM star, a lefty-hitting outfielder, has batted .410 over his last 10 games and is at .314 with two homers and 19 RBIs for the season. … Pearl River Community College will have a new coach in place soon. Michael Avalon, formerly of Mississippi Delta CC, is expected to be approved next week. The Wildcats went 25-21 in 2016, the last of Josh Hoffpauir’s six seasons as coach. … Robert Carson, the much-traveled former Hattiesburg High star, is now pitching for Southern Maryland, the independent Atlantic League club that Stone County High product Fred Lewis also plays for.

11 Mar

weather permitting …

If it ever stops raining, Meridian Community College’s Scaggs Field looks like the place to be on Saturday. Weather permitting, the Eagles will host Jones County Junior College in the marquee matchup of the first round of MACJC play. Jones is 17-1, having lost for the first time (to Arkansas Baptist) last Sunday. MCC is 15-1, having lost only to Jefferson (Mo.) in mid-February. Both teams are led at the plate by Southern Miss signees: Jones’ Mason Irby is batting an amazing .571 with seven homers and 27 RBIs, while MCC’s Jaylon Keys is batting .411 with four homers and 11 steals. The Bobcats, in their first year under coach Chris Kirtland, also feature Clint Sasser (.469, 21 steals) and a bevy of good arms, topped by freshman Ben Stiglets (4-0, 0.53 ERA). Eason Weeks and Baylor Obert are .400 hitters for Dillon Sudduth’s Eagles, and the most consistent pitcher has been Hunter Mullis (3-0, 3.71). The doubleheader is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. … Pearl River (15-3) is slated to open against Coahoma in Clarksdale on Saturday. For the Wildcats, Zachary Clark has been a standout on a strong offensive club. The Alabama signee is batting .388 with eight bombs, 24 RBIs and 21 runs. Coahoma (6-11 with four straight wins) has some good arms on a staff with a collective 4.07 ERA. … In other Saturday MACJC openers, all twinbills, it’s Itawamba-Hinds, Northwest-East Central, Southwest-East and Copiah-Lincoln—Delta. Weather is likely to impact this schedule. The Gulf Coast-Northeast matchup already has been postponed until May because of weather concerns.

19 Feb

in the swing

Pearl River Community College is not among the six unbeaten Mississippi jucos, but the Wildcats’ offensive output has been perhaps the most impressive. PRCC, off to a 9-3 start, is averaging 10 runs a game with a .426 average, a .663 slugging percentage and 15 home runs. George Teer is batting .528, Carter Hankins .515 with four homers and 21 RBIs and Zack Clark .450 with four bombs and 12 RBIs. Hankins was named the NJCAA Division II national player of the week on Thursday. .… Jones County Junior College improved to 6-0 by outscoring Baton Rouge CC 41-5 in a twinbill on Wednesday. Mason Irby, a Southern Miss signee, had two homers and six RBIs in a 27-5 win and three more hits in a 14-0 victory. … Timothy Rowe is batting .636 and Mississippi State transfer Delvin Zinn .545 (with six RBIs and eight runs) for 4-0 Itawamba. … Northwest’s 4-0 start has been fueled by, among others, LeeMarcus Boyd, a USM signee who is batting .429 with a homer and seven RBIs. … Nationally ranked Hinds is 2-2, having played all its games against Bossier Parish (La.). Chase Cockrell had a four-hit, five-RBI game in a 13-2 win on Wednesday. … East Mississippi has started sluggishly at 1-7, though freshman Marcus Ragan is batting .400 with three RBIs and seven runs. … Meridian CC’s Hunter Mullis was the MACJC’s pitcher of the week after throwing a complete-game five-hitter with 13 strikeouts against Wallace-Selma (Ala.) last week. The Eagles are 5-1.

08 Feb

weekend wrap

No one had a better opening weekend than Mississippi College’s Hunter Bolin. The junior from Starkville went 9-for-13 with five RBIs and five runs as the Choctaws launched the Jeremy Haworth era with a three-game sweep of Tougaloo at Frierson Field in Clinton. MC outscored the Bulldogs 32-14, and its pitchers posted a 2.63 ERA. If there was a downside, the Choctaws committed seven errors; Haworth is counting on defense to be a strength of this club, which is entering its second season of NCAA Division II play. … Jasper James, a junior from Wiggins, had eight hits and five RBIs in three games for Tougaloo. … Blue Mountain College took three of four from Judson College in New Albany, capping the weekend with a brilliant performance by Collin McCrory, who threw a one-hitter in a 5-0 victory. The junior from Amory was one out away from a seven-inning no-hitter. … Will Robertson, a senior from Falkner coming back from a 2015 injury, went 5-for-12 with two homers and four RBIs to help Delta State sweep Harding in a three-game series at Ferriss Field in Cleveland. … Nick Lowe and James Land each hit a homer and the pair combined for 10 RBIs but William Carey went just 1-2 on its trip to Ave Maria in Florida. … Millsaps put up 20 runs but won only once in three outings at the Firehouse Classic at Montgomery, Ala. Lee Ogletree, a 2015 transfer from Hinds Community College, had six hits and four RBIs for the Majors. He picked up three of his RBIs in an 11-7 win over Southwestern on Saturday. P.S. Worth noting: Pearl River CC scored in every inning of both games of a doubleheader sweep of Mineral Area CC on Saturday in Poplarville. The Wildcats won 14-7 and 16-8. After losing the season opener to Mineral Area on Friday by a 20-9 count, PRCC won Game 2 of that twinbill 14-4. Carter Hankins, a sophomore from Purvis, banged out nine hits and drove in six runs for the weekend.

30 Jun

that’ll work

The Toronto Blue Jays surely like what they’re seeing from Anthony Alford, who is 6-for-22 in his first five games in the high Class A Florida State League. The former Mr. Baseball from Petal began his first full pro season in the Midwest League, hitting .293 with 14 doubles, 16 RBIs, 12 steals and 49 runs in 50 games at Lansing. The righty-hitting outfielder, a third-round pick in 2012, already has two doubles, a triple, a homer, three RBIs and four runs for Dunedin. … The Los Angeles Angels surely like most of what they’ve seen from Alex Yarbrough in his last five games. The switch-hitting second baseman out of Ole Miss is 9-for-19 (.473), lifting his average at Triple-A Salt Lake to .247. He has 19 doubles, 29 RBIs and 36 runs in 73 games. However, Yarbrough has struck out six times in his last five games, giving him 81 in 299 at-bats. That’s an area where the 2014 Texas League player of the year needs to improve. P.S. Jacob Taylor, the Pearl River Community College alum from Picayune, pitched two scoreless innings (no hits, three walks, two strikeouts) in his pro debut today. Taylor, a fourth-round pick by Pittsburgh and the second Mississippian drafted this year, is with the Gulf Coast League Pirates.

28 Apr

beep beep

In his ninth game of the season, Jarrod Dyson got his first stolen base. The ex-Southwest Mississippi Community College star swiped three bags on Monday, helping Kansas City beat Cleveland 6-2. Dyson, who led the Royals with 36 bags in 2014, hasn’t gotten a lot of opportunity to showcase his speed to this point. He has only 18 at-bats (three hits) and has scored five runs for the 13-6 Royals. Dyson batted .269 and scored 33 runs in 120 games (260 ABs) last year. P.S. Pearl River Community College sophomore Jacob Taylor is the lone Mississippian on mlb.com’s new list of the Top 100 draft prospects. Taylor, a 6-foot-3, 215-pound right-hander with an upper 90s fastball, is rated No. 76. He is 2-5 with a 3.90 ERA for a Wildcats team that has had a rough year. The Picayune native has 44 strikeouts in 57 2/3 innings in 11 games. … No. 38 on the list is Ke’Bryan Hayes, son of former Hattiesburg High and MLB star Charlie Hayes. The younger Hayes is a high school third baseman in Texas.

23 Apr

the odd couple

The schedule brings Belhaven and William Carey together at Wheeler Field in Hattiesburg. In the Southern States Athletic Conference standings, the old rivals are far apart. With the SSAC Tournament looming next week, Carey is 16-9 and in third place. Belhaven is 10-16 and clinging to seventh. The teams are slated for a doubleheader today and a single game Friday. It’s been sort of an odd season for both. Carey (26-20 overall) lost its first five games, then went on a 10-game win streak that included coach Bobby Halford’s 1,000th career victory. The Crusaders were 13-8 in early March when they endured another five-game skid. But … they’ve swept three SSAC series and took two of three from Faulkner when it was No. 2 in the nation in NAIA. Carey’s offense has been sparked all season by Tyler Richardson, who is batting .382 with 45 runs. The Crusaders (.285 as a team) have two other regulars hitting above .300: Cody Christian and Petal’s Larson Barkurn. Pitching hasn’t been a strength of this club, which has a 4.56 ERA, but the Crusaders do have a potentially dominant ace to throw in Gavin Culpepper. The 6-foot-8 right-hander is 7-2 with a 3.21 and has 88 strikeouts and 22 walks in 73 innings. Belhaven (32-20), which saw coach Hill Denson notch his 1,000th college coaching victory this season, has been on a rollercoaster, as well. After a 9-4 start, the Blazers were swept in a three-game series at home by SSAC foe Mobile in late February. They were on an 8-1 roll when they were swept at home by Auburn-Montgomery in late March. They also were swept at home by Faulkner earlier this month. BU hits .302 as a team and, led by Adam Kowalczyk’s 12 bombs, is second in the SSAC with 28 home runs. What the Blazers do best, however, is steal bases. They lead the league with 170 and have three of the top six individual base burglars. Reagan Rutledge leads the pack with 49, Emilio DeSilva has 33 and Paul Pickerrell 27. BU’s most reliable starting pitcher has been Ben Allison (7-3, 3.52). The team’s ERA is a shaky 4.52, but its defense has been a bigger issue: 106 errors, most in the SSAC, and 71 unearned runs allowed. P.S. In what has been a down year for Pearl River Community College, sophomore shortstop Derrick Mount has been tearing it up. Mount, a former Harrison Central High star, hit three homers and drove in 10 runs in a doubleheader against Co-Lin last week, earning MACJC player of the week honors. Mount is batting .359 with 10 homers and 39 RBIs for the Wildcats (13-27, 7-17 MACJC). Jones County JC’s Will Hazen, a sophomore left-hander out of St. Stanislaus, was named pitcher of the week on the basis of his two-hit, nine-strikeout effort in a 1-0 win over Mississippi Delta last week.