Rockies Archives - All Mississippi Baseball

02 Jul

who’s no. 1?

Fun facts: Raise a foam finger for the Detroit Tigers, ranked No. 1 again this week, a spot they’ve occupied for several weeks in the USA Today/Sports Weekly poll. Granted, an MLB poll doesn’t seem as significant as college football and basketball polls, but it does say something about the national perception of the 30 teams. And the Tigers, at 54-32 after an 11-2 win over Washington in Game 1 of a Wednesday doubleheader, do have the best record in the majors and a huge division lead. They also have a prominent Mississippian on their roster: Colt Keith, the former Biloxi High star now in his second big league campaign. After a 3-for-5 effort Wednesday from the leadoff spot, Keith is batting .254 with six homers, 13 doubles, 25 RBIs and 36 runs. It’s interesting to note that four of the top seven in the latest Sports Weekly poll have a Mississippi product on their active roster. (It’s also interesting, if that’s the right word, that seven of the bottom nine in the latest poll also deploy a Mississippian.) The No. 4 team is the Chicago Cubs (50-35 entering play Wednesday), who feature former Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz in their bullpen. The veteran lefty has not allowed an earned run in 25 appearances since he was acquired from Seattle. At No. 6 is the New York Yankees (48-37), who will trot out Jackson Prep product Will Warren (5-4, 4.37 ERA) in a big game Wednesday night against Toronto, 12th in the poll but just a game back of New York in the American League East. No. 7 is Tampa Bay, which improved to 48-39 with a 6-5 win against Oakland on Wednesday; former Mississippi State star Jake Mangum hit his second homer in that game and is batting .313 as a rookie. … Ranked ninth is Milwaukee, 48-37 after beating the New York Mets 7-2 in the first of two games Wednesday. The Brewers have penciled in ex-MSU standout Brandon Woodruff for his 2025 debut on Sunday; he is 46-26, 3.10, for his career but has been shelved (arm surgery) since September of 2023. For the record, third-ranked Houston (51-34 entering play Wednesday) has MSU alum J.P. France on the injured list but working his way back to active duty, which should come sometime after the All-Star break. … At the bottom of the poll is Colorado, 19-66 and threatening to post the worst record in modern MLB history, breaking the lowly mark set just last year by the Chicago White Sox. Former Ole Miss standout Ryan Rolison is a 27-year-old rookie pitcher for the Rockies, and he has a 7.78 ERA in 16 games, fitting right in on a struggling staff. Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet had the misfortune to pitch for the moribund ChiSox last year but has since escaped (via off-season trade) to Boston.

23 Jun

and they’re back

After a long road trip that lasted two weeks and rambled through four Midwest towns, the Mississippi Mud Monsters return to the sultry South for a six-game homestand that begins Tuesday at Pearl’s Trustmark Park. The independent Frontier League club, now 18-21 on the season, went 5-7 on the trip but did finish on a high note, beating Gateway 8-7 on Sunday. Nick Hassan hit his first homer of the season and drove in four runs as part of Mississippi’s 17-hit attack. Brayland Skinner continued to fuel the offense, going 3-for-6 from the leadoff spot. Luis Devers went seven innings for the win. Skinner, former Mississippi State standout, is hitting .300 with a team-leading 28 runs and a league-best 25 steals. Kyle Booker, a DeSoto Central High product, is batting .314 with three homers, 19 RBIs and 14 bags. Travis Holt (.268) leads in homers and RBIs with six and 22. Tyree Thompson (4-0, 2.84), Brian Williams (2-2, 2.97) and Devers (4-3, 5.21) have been effective starters for manager Jay Pecci’s club. Chris Barraza, who got the save Sunday, has three and a 0.50 ERA in 13 games. Sergio Sanchez has five saves despite a 7.07 ERA. The Mud-sters, fourth in the Midwest Conference South, will face a Down East team that is 14-23 and fourth in the Atlantic Conference East. The Bird Dawgs are managed by Brett Wellman, whose dad, Phillip, managed the Mississippi Braves to a Southern League pennant back in 2008. Brett served as a bullpen catcher at times during his father’s four seasons in Pearl. … Former Mud-sters lefty Zack Morris has made two appearances (2.25 ERA) for Colorado’s rookie-level team since being signed by the Rockies on June 13. P.S. Congratulations to Conner Ware, Germantown High and Pearl River Community College product and a member of LSU’s national title team. Ware, a junior, did not pitch in the College World Series. (Of note: Former Taylorsville High pitcher Aiden Moffett was on the LSU roster when the Tigers won the 2023 CWS crown; he was at Texas this season.)

18 Jun

around the horn

Flushing a night of frustration, Austin Riley hit a walk-off 10th-inning sacrifice fly Tuesday that gave Atlanta a 5-4 win over the visiting New York Mets. “Hopefully it’s some momentum to carry the rest of the series,” the DeSoto Central High product said in a postgame interview. The Braves are a wobbly 32-39 with two games left in the series against the Mets, who lead the National League East at 45-28. Riley, an All-Star candidate who has had his struggles both at the plate and in the field, was 0-for-4 with a strikeout when he came up in the 10th with the bases loaded and one out. He had popped up in a similar situation in the eighth when the Braves trailed 4-1. This time — with the score knotted thanks to Marcell Ozuna’s three-run double in the eighth — he drove a fastball to the warning track in center field, scoring the game-winner. It was the fourth walk-off RBI in Riley’s career, including one in the 2021 National League Championship Series. He is batting .277 with 11 homers and 37 RBIs this season. … Jordan Westburg, the ex-Mississippi State star, went 3-for-5 with two runs in Baltimore’s 5-1 win against Tampa Bay. Westburg is batting .385 with three homers and eight RBIs in seven games since coming off the injured list. The Orioles (31-41) are 5-2 in those games. … Will Warren, the former Jackson Prep standout, struck out a career-high 11 batters in six innings but took a loss as the New York Yankees were shut out — again! — by the Los Angeles Angels 4-0 at Yankee Stadium. Warren, who gave up three early runs, is 4-4 with a 4.83 ERA. … MSU alum Nathaniel Lowe hit his 10th homer for Washington, but Colorado blasted seven bombs — seven! — all told in a 10-6 win that sent the Nationals to their 10th straight loss. … Zack Morris, who demonstrated punch-out stuff with the Mississippi Mud Monsters, has signed with the Colorado Rockies and been assigned to the rookie-level Arizona Complex League team. Left-hander Morris, 24, a former Arkansas and TCU star, posted a 3.86 ERA over 16 1/3 innings for the independent Mud Monsters with 29 strikeouts and just three walks. “This is exactly the kind of moment we coach for,” Mud-sters manager Jay Pecci said in a team release. “Zack came in, did the work, and got better every time out.” Morris had a 5.48 ERA over five college seasons and pitched in the indy Frontier League last year with New Jersey. … Jackson State will be well-represented in the HBCU Swingman Classic, with six Tigers bound for Atlanta’s Truist Park on July 11. Robert Tate Jr., Jordan McCladdie, Joseph Eichelberger, Eric Elliott, Nkosi Didder and Erick Gonzalez are among the 50 HBCU players chosen for the third annual all-star game. Jaylon Burrell of Alcorn State and Kade Wood of Mississippi Valley State also have been invited, along with Chenar Brown, who played two years at JSU before transferring. Former Alcorn star Corey Wimberly is one of the coaches for the game. … Jackson State’s Omar Johnson is on the coaching staff for the Collegiate National Team’s training camp at Cary, N.C., USA Baseball has announced. The staff will be split into two units for the Stars vs. Stripes series, set for June 29-July 3 at sites in North Carolina. The roster of players has yet to be announced.

14 Jun

hard luck

Garrett Crochet, the former Ocean Springs High star, was two outs away from a shutout against the New York Yankees. Boston’s big left-hander was one strike away from punching out Aaron Judge for the fourth time on Friday night at Fenway Park. Then the Yankees slugger did his thing, pulverizing a 3-2 fastball 443 feet over the left-field wall, out of the park, tying the score. Exit Crochet. The Red Sox won the game 2-1 in 10 innings, but Crochet was denied his first career shutout. “Crochet deserved this win, but the team needed it more,” said Boston broadcaster Lou Merloni. The Red Sox are 35-36, in fourth place and 8.5 games back of the first-place Yankees in the American League East. Crochet, in his first year with Boston, has six wins, a 2.24 ERA and a league-leading 117 K’s, seven on Friday. … It was a hard luck day also for former Ole Miss standout Drew Pomeranz. Pitching the 10th inning for the Chicago Cubs, he was on the bump when Pittsburgh’s “ghost runner” — Mississippi State alum Adam Frazier — scored the go-ahead run on a double-play ball. The Pirates held on for a 2-1 win at Wrigley Field. Pomeranz, who had not allowed a run in 18 appearances overall before Friday, gets charged with an unearned run, per the extra-inning rules, as well as the loss. … More hard luck: Gunnar Hoglund, another Ole Miss alum, is done for the season after hip surgery; the right-hander, who made his MLB debut in May after four years in the minors, had a 6.40 ERA in six starts for the A’s. … Luck didn’t smile on ex-Ole Miss ace Ryan Rolison either. Colorado’s rookie lefty gave up four hits, a walk and five runs in the eighth inning at Atlanta during the Braves’ 12-4 win. It didn’t help that the woeful Rockies committed four errors in that frame. P.S. There’s a bundle of state products on the preliminary rosters in the Cape Cod League, which launches its season today. (Note: The rosters can and will change during the summer.) Mississippi State’s Ace Reese, Charlie Foster, Dane Burns and Duke Stone are on the Chatham roster, along with ex-Jackson Prep (and current South Alabama) star Duncan Mathews. Bourne lists Ole Miss’ Campbell Smithwick and Owen Paino and Southern Miss’ Grayden Harris. USM’s Josh Och is on Hyannis’ roster and UM’s Patrick Galle on Wareham’s. Former Mississippi Braves and MLB catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia will manage Falmouth, which lists Grayson Saunier, an ex-Ole Miss pitcher, on its roster.

14 May

three things

1 — William Carey University, 10th-ranked in NAIA, saw its season end on Tuesday with a 16-11 loss to Oklahoma Wesleyan in an elimination game in the Hattiesburg regional. A nine-run seventh inning doomed the Crusaders, who committed four errors and walked 11 batters in the game. Carey (38-14) was outscored 26-17 in its two losses. Oklahoma Wesleyan plays Indiana Southeast today with the winner then meeting British Columbia in the championship round.
2 — The Mississippi Mud Monsters finally got back on the field for the second game of their inaugural season, but the independent club fell to Gateway 8-5 at Trustmark Park. Newly activated Rodney Theopile, a 6-foot-6 Nicaragua native, pitched four strong innings before the bullpen faltered in a seven-run fifth. Kyle Booker, former DeSoto Central High star, went 3-for-4 with three RBIs for the Mud Monsters (1-1). Game 2 of the Gateway series is tonight in Pearl.
3 — Ryan Rolison, a 2018 first-round draftee, made his big league debut and Kendall Graveman, a veteran big leaguer who missed 2024 after arm surgery, made his season debut. Ole Miss alum Rolison, who has made 95 minor league appearances, got the last out for Colorado in a 4-1 loss at Texas. Graveman, ex-Mississippi State standout, pitched a scoreless inning for Arizona in a 10-6 loss at San Francisco.
P.S. In case you somehow missed it: Former Mississippi Braves star Ronald Acuna homered in his first rehab game for Atlanta’s Florida Complex League team. Former National League MVP Acuna has been out since last May because of a knee injury. On the undercard in that FCL game, Southern Miss product Dalton McIntyre went 1-for-3 with an RBI for the FCL Braves; he was a 19th-round pick last summer.

11 May

show time — at last

Seven years after he was drafted in the first round by Colorado, former Ole Miss star Ryan Rolison has been summoned to the big leagues. The 27-year-old lefty is 3-1 with a 3.72 ERA at Triple-A Albuquerque, working mostly out of the bullpen. Having battled injuries much of his pro career, the 6-foot-2 Rolison has 4.50 career ERA in 95 games covering 308 1/3 innings with 310 strikeouts. The Tennessee native won 16 games in his two years at Ole Miss. The Rockies, off to a 6-33 start, appear fairly desperate for pitching help. They surrendered 21 runs to San Diego on Saturday at Coors Field and have an MLB-worst 5.89 ERA entering play today. … Rolison is the fourth Ole Miss alum to get a big league call this season, following Doug Nikhazy, Gunnar Hoglund and Tim Elko.

18 Apr

answering the bell

Southern Miss, Ole Miss and Jackson State each dealt with a sense of urgency on Thursday. Two of them — USM and JSU — got the result they needed. In Hattiesburg, the Golden Eagles faced Georgia State on Hill Denson Bobblehead Night with an announced 5,408, including the former coach, on hand at Taylor Park. If ever there was a must-win game … . USM made the Hall of Fame coach proud with an 8-1 win, belting five homers to back the brilliant pitching of J.B. Middleton. Nick Monistere hit his 13th homer — fifth in three games — and Middleton (7-1) tossed eight innings (three hits, one run, 12 strikeouts) as USM moved to 26-12, 11-5 Sun Belt. At Braddy Field in Jackson, JSU, which had lost seven of eight, rode a dominant outing from Erick Gonzalez to a 2-0 victory against Alabama A&M. Gonzalez (4-3) worked 8 2/3, allowing six hits and punching out 10. The Tigers (18-17, 6-10 SWAC) cobbled together two runs in the second inning on a sac bunt, an error and a sac fly. Alas, Ole Miss, coming off a clunky home loss to Arkansas-Little Rock, went to Columbia, S.C., and dropped a 3-2 decision to South Carolina, one of the worst teams in the SEC at 3-13. Hunter Elliott (5-2) allowed three runs in 5 1/3 innings to take a hard-luck loss for the nationally ranked Rebels (27-11, 9-7 SEC). UM has lost three in a row and four of five. … Incidentally, d1baseball.com projects Ole Miss to host a regional that will include USM. The website also put Mississippi State in the 64-team field. The Bulldogs (23-14, 5-10) open a big SEC series today against Florida (25-14, 4-11) at Starkville. … Also on tap this weekend: William Carey University visits Blue Mountain Christian in an SCAC series. Ranked No. 9 in NAIA, Carey (31-9, 20-4) leads 34-8 in the all-time series with BMC. But the Toppers (21-22, 10-14) won the regular season series in 2024 before losing a league tournament game to the Crusaders. P.S. In MLB: Cool moment at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa on Thursday when Tampa Bay’s Jake Mangum faced former Jackson Prep teammate Will Warren, the New York Yankees’ starting pitcher, in the second inning. Mangum hit a high hopper that Warren fielded, but with no one covering first base for some reason, Mangum got an infield hit. That was the rookies’ only clash. Mangum had two hits to raise his average to .345; Warren (5.17 ERA) lasted just 1 2/3 innings, yielding one run. The Yanks won 6-3. … Former Jackson Mets and big league manager Clint Hurdle is the new hitting coach for Colorado, which dismissed Hensley Meulens on Thursday.

12 Dec

changing places

Having pitched for the worst team in modern big league history last season, Garrett Crochet is moving to a team with perpetually great expectations in the war zone that is the American League East. The Ocean Springs native, an All-Star with the Chicago White Sox in 2024, has been traded to Boston, where he’ll be a top-of-the-rotation starter for a Red Sox club that went 81-81 and missed the postseason for the third straight year. Left-hander Crochet went 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA for the lowly ChiSox last season in his fourth MLB campaign but first as a starting pitcher. The 11th overall pick in 2020 out of Tennessee, Crochet has a 3.29 career ERA. It’ll be interesting to see how he fits at Fenway Park. … Among the prospects moving from Boston to Chicago is ex-Madison Central High star Braden Montgomery, the 12th overall pick in the 2024 draft out of Texas A&M. The switch-hitting outfielder has yet to make his pro debut; he suffered an ankle injury with the Aggies late last season, when he batted .322 with 27 home runs. … Former Mississippi State standout Dakota Hudson, after a rough season with Colorado, has signed a minor league contract with the Los Angeles Angels. A former first-round pick, Hudson went 2-12 with a 6.17 ERA for the Rockies in 2024 and was cut loose after the season. He is 40-32, 4.21, overall in seven MLB seasons, the first six with St. Louis. … Grenada native Dave Parker, at long last, is going into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, having been elected by special committee. “I’ve been holding this speech for 15 years,” he told MLB Network. Parker, who collected all kinds of hardware – including two World Series rings – during a 19-year career, is the first MLB player born in Mississippi to make the Hall. Starkville’s Cool Papa Bell played in the Negro Leagues during the game’s segregated era. Parker, a .290 hitter with 339 homers, is the all-time leader among Mississippi natives with 1,493 RBIs.

02 Sep

small consolation

History will show that Ocean Springs native Garrett Crochet was the losing pitcher in the 2024 Chicago White Sox’s franchise-record 107th loss. From the Small Consolation Dept.: History will also show that Crochet tied an American League record by striking out the first seven New York Mets batters he faced in Sunday’s 2-0 loss at Guaranteed Rate Field. To be sure, there have been positives for Crochet in what has been an abject disaster of a season for his team. Starting for the first time since his college days at Tennessee (2018-20), the 25-year-old left-hander made the AL All-Star team in his fourth big league campaign. He has a 3.61 ERA (but just a 6-10 record) and ranks third in the league with 188 strikeouts. He won five times in a seven-game stretch in May and June, earning AL pitcher of the month honors for June. He celebrated his last win on June 7; that’s how bad the ChiSox have been. Sunday’s strikeout streak “was cool,” Crochet said in an mlb.com piece. “Sadly, I kind of wasted a lot of pitches in that time. So it kind of ate into my pitch count ….” Now on a strict pitch limit, he threw 56, one of which Francisco Lindor smacked out of the park, the lone run Crochet allowed in 3 1/3 innings. Former Southern Miss star Chuckie Robinson was behind the plate for Crochet’s stint. … For the record, Gulfport native Bill Melton was on the 1970 White Sox team that lost 106 games, hitting 33 home runs. P.S. Ex-Mississippi State standout Justin Foscue, back in the big leagues with Texas, started at first base Sunday, walked and scored a run in the Rangers’ win over Oakland. … Ole Miss product Lance Lynn’s rehab start with Triple-A Memphis didn’t go too well: five runs, eight K’s in 3 2/3 innings; he has been on St. Louis’ injured list since July 31. … With MLB rosters expanding to 28 this month, it would be nice to see Colorado give a call to Hunter Stovall, the former State star who has been in the system since 2018. The 5-foot-6 second baseman, who hit a walk-off homer on Saturday at Triple-A Albuquerque, is batting .280 with six homers, 35 RBIs and 11 steals. He isn’t on the 40-man roster, so his chances of a promotion are slim. … Southern Miss product Matthew Etzel, who has scuffled at Double-A Montgomery since being traded by Baltimore to Tampa Bay, banged out four hits on Sunday to lift his average to .242 with four homers and 13 RBIs in 27 games. He is batting .278 with 10 homers and 45 steals overall in his first full pro season.

12 Aug

short hops

Baseball is a non-contact sport, except when a 97-mph fastball hits you in the face. Blaze Jordan, the ex-DeSoto Central High star, took one just below his right eye on Friday in a game for Double-A Portland. “Baseball is rough sometimes,” Jordan said on X (Twitter). “Be back soon!” He went on the seven-day injured list with a nasty black eye. The 21-year-old Boston prospect is batting .253 with seven home runs and 51 RBIs in his first full year at the Class AA level. … Austin Riley, another DeSoto Central alum, blasted his 18th homer of the year – and fourth in August – but it was wasted in Atlanta’s “Nightmare on Blake Street,” a 9-8 loss Sunday at Colorado in which the Rockies scored seven times in the eighth inning. … One day after getting roughed up by Atlanta, former Mississippi State standout Dakota Hudson landed on Colorado’s IL with elbow inflammation. Hudson, who has a 6.17 ERA with the Rockies, was making his first big league appearance since July 3. He had been at Triple-A. … MSU alum Christian MacLeod made his Triple-A debut in the Minnesota system on Sunday, yielding four earned runs in five innings in a loss against Columbus. The 2021 draftee has pitched at three levels in 2024 and has a 3.26 overall ERA. … South Panola product Emaarion Boyd put up a four-hit game on Sunday for High-A Jersey Shore, scored twice and swiped his 20th bag of the season for the Philadelphia affiliate. Boyd, 20, the Phillies’ No. 18 prospect (per MLB Pipeline), is batting .241 for the year with 41 runs and 31 RBIs in 78 games. He has 84 steals in three pro seasons. … There is a new vibe at Alcorn State, where Carlton Hardy, a highly successful college coach, has taken the reins as the Braves’ head man. Hardy spent the last 18 years at Savannah State, where he won a couple of conference coach of the year awards and led the Tigers to a 31-17 record in 2024. The former Grambling State player takes over an Alcorn program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2009. The previous coach, Reggie Williams, went 16-122 in three years.