Tag Archives: SEC

29 Mar

the late show

It kinda figures that closers will play a significant role in this weekend’s Mississippi State-Ole Miss series in Oxford. The Rebels (16-9, 3-3 SEC) have been offensively challenged (.246) all season, but they’ll be up against a State staff that has the second-worst ERA in the SEC. The Bulldogs (16-10, 3-3), led by the mashing of Brent Rooker, are a .300-hitting team, but they’ll be up against a UM staff that ranks second in the league in ERA. All this points to close games and late-inning drama, which is what everybody – well, practically everybody – would like to see at Oxford-University Stadium. As a bonus, both teams are well-armed at the back of the bullpen. Ole Miss’ primary closer is Dallas Woolfolk, a sophomore right-hander out of DeSoto Central High. He has six saves, a 1-1 record and has yielded just two runs in 18 innings. Will Stokes, a junior right-hander out of West Lauderdale, also gets some save opps – as he did last year behind Wyatt Short. Stokes has four saves, a 1-0 mark and a 3.29 ERA in 13 2/3 innings. For State, Spencer Price, a Meridian Community College transfer from Olive Branch, has taken on the closer job. The big right-hander has six saves, a 2-1 record and a 1.93 ERA. Though neither has a save, Jacob Barton (2.00) and Riley Self (2.45) also have been effective out of the Bulldogs’ pen. … The first two games of the series will be televised: ESPNU has the Thursday game at 7 p.m. and SEC Network the Friday game at 6. P.S. The new NJCAA Division II poll has four Mississippi schools in the top 20. Ironically, Pearl River Community College, the only team with a spotless MACJC record, isn’t among them. PRCC moved to 6-0 (15-5 overall) with a doubleheader sweep at Gulf Coast on Tuesday. Jones County, which lost for the first time last week, is still No. 1. The Bobcats are 25-1 and 7-1 in the league after sweeping No. 6 East Central (20-6, 6-2) in Tuesday’s marquee showdown. Itawamba (18-4, 5-1), which hosts PRCC on Saturday, is ranked ninth, and Gulf Coast (15-9, 4-4), just swept by The River on Tuesday, is No. 20.

16 Mar

hitters, ye be warned

It should be posted in the dugouts at Oxford-University Stadium this weekend as a warning to hitters: “Danger: High Voltage.” Ole Miss and Vanderbilt pitchers have been dealing electric stuff. Their staffs rank 2-3 in the SEC in ERA, first and fourth in batting average against and second and fifth in strikeouts. Ole Miss pitchers have thrown five shutouts in the team’s last six games. Rebels starters have worked 43 2/3 scoreless innings over those six games, one of which Ole Miss (12-5) actually lost. Regardless of the competition, that’s strong. The UM staff ERA has shrunk to 2.40. Opposing batters are hitting .185. Eight pitchers with at least 11 innings of work have ERAs under 4.00. Five are under 2.00, including Andy Pagnozzi (0.82) and Will Ethridge (1.15). David Parkinson (3-1, 2.52) is the reigning SEC pitcher of the week after tossing eight scoreless innings against Furman last Friday. Vanderbilt (12-6), which has a reputation for trotting out quality arms, has a 2.58 ERA, led by freshman starter Drake Fellows, who is 3-0 with a 1.00. Neither team has been a behemoth with the bats, but Ole Miss has been particularly puny. The Rebels have scored only 79 runs and rank 13th in the league in batting and last in slugging. So, if you like good pitching, this series should be crackling with excitement. P.S. Mississippi State (12-6) visits Arkansas to open SEC play in a series that matches the top two home run-hitting teams in the league. The Razorbacks have 25, the Bulldogs 19. Arkansas’ Dominic Smith and Grant Koch are tied with State’s Brent Rooker for second in the individual ranking with five homers apiece. … Southern Miss (13-4) is at Louisiana Tech to start C-USA play. Tech’s first year coach, Lane Burroughs, is a Mississippi College alum and former Southern Miss assistant. He also played at Meridian Community College when current USM coach Scott Berry was an assistant there.

10 Mar

leading men

The state’s college teams have played enough games to where the stats are starting to be meaningful. Mississippi State’s Jake Mangum, the 2016 SEC batting champ and Ferriss Trophy winner, isn’t experiencing any apparent symptoms of a sophomore slump. The Jackson Prep product currently leads the SEC in hits with 26; he’s second in runs (20) and fifth in hitting (.456). Brent Rooker sits third in the league with 18 RBIs. … Ole Miss pitcher Will Ethridge ranks second in the league in batting average against (.082) and fourth in strikeouts (26), while teammates Dallas Woolfolk and Will Stokes are tied for second with two saves apiece. … Southern Miss’ Taylor Braley is second in C-USA in on-base percentage (.542) and first in walks (12), while Mason Irby leads the loop in sacrifices with five. Hayden Roberts’ 25 strikeouts ranks second among C-USA pitchers. … Lamar Briggs is crushing it for Jackson State, leading the SWAC in batting (.429) and slugging (.571). The Tigers’ C.J. Newsome ranks first in runs (15), Jonathan Aponte first in wins (three) and Jose Tirado t-first in saves (two). … Alcorn State’s Jason Sanez is No. 2 in SWAC hitting at .375, and Mississippi Valley State’s Jackson Webb is second in slugging (.563). Webb and teammate Arrington Smith have two homers each, ranking second in the SWAC. … Delta State, 12-4 and ranked as high 18th in NCAA Division II, is led by Zack Shannon, whose 20 RBIs rank fifth in the Gulf South Conference; his .403 average is ninth. With four homers, Clay Casey is tied for fifth. Tre Hobbs’ 29 strikeouts is sixth-best in the league. … Mississippi College’s Casey Echols (son of former State star Tracy Echols) is seventh in the GSC with a .404 average while leading the Choctaws in hits and runs. … William Carey’s Tyler Graves tops SSAC hitters with a .443 average and is No. 2 in RBIs with 32. Adrian Brown is first in runs (28), Tyler James in stolen bases (19) and Lane Fazende in ERA (0.81). James Land’s four homers rank fourth. … Blue Mountain’s Miciah Heard is third in the SSAC with 17 steals, while teammate Caleb Leach, having a big year, is eighth in batting at .368. … Millsaps’ Jacob Mardick, a junior left-hander, leads the Southern Athletic Association with 31 K’s and is third in ERA at 2.28. He is 3-0 for an 8-8 team. … Belhaven’s Terrell Hodges is third in the American Southwest Conference with a .735 slugging average, and Daniel Ammirati is tied for second with seven doubles.

22 May

shades of maroon

It’s time for a Mississippi State flashback. The Bulldogs are SEC regular season champions for the first time since 1989. Yes, current State coach John Cohen was a player on that team, along with a host of others who surely hold a special place in the memory bank of Bulldog Nation. The ’89 team, which won 54 games under Ron Polk, had seven players picked in the MLB draft, including Pete Young, Jody Hurst, Richie Grayum, Barry Winford, Brad Hildreth, Bobby Reed and Jon Shave. (Reed and Shave returned to school.) Tommy Raffo, who went undrafted that year, led the Bulldogs with a .383 average, 22 homers and 80 RBIs. He was an All-America pick, along with Young, who played third base and closed. Raffo, Young, Hurst, Winford and Burke Masters made All-SEC. Reed, the staff ace who went 12-3, somehow did not make the all-conference charts. The ’89 Bulldogs clinched the SEC title in one of the more memorable games in school history, a 28-16 pounding of Kentucky in which they blasted six home runs. Tracy Echols had six of the team’s 30 hits. (It was the Gorilla Ball era in college baseball.) State did not win the SEC Tournament, bowing out in three games, but did host an NCAA regional. The Bulldogs won four times before huge crowds at Dudy Noble Field but ultimately were eliminated by North Carolina, which beat them twice. The 2016 Bulldogs will take an 11-game win streak into the SEC Tournament, which figures to be an absolute war. Like the ’89 team, State is in good shape to host a regional regardless of what happens in Hoover, Ala.

21 May

measuring stick

Big: Mississippi State beat Arkansas 5-1 on Friday in Starkville to keep pace with Texas A&M in the SEC. Both are 20-9, best in the West and overall with one game left in the season. State (39-14-1) last won a regular season title in the SEC in 1989. The Bulldogs go for the sweep of the Razorbacks today while also pulling for Ole Miss, which will try to salvage the series finale against Texas A&M at College Station. The Aggies are 5-0 against the Magnolia State this year.
Bigger: Delta State took down Tampa, ranked as high as No. 2 in NCAA Division II, on Friday to move to 2-0 in the South Region tournament at Tampa, Fla. There is still work to do, but DSU (40-15) is smelling what would be a 12th regional championship and a trip to the D-II World Series.
Biggest: East Central Community College topped Jones County Junior College 11-10 in the NJCAA Division II Region 23 Tournament on Friday at Decatur. The Warriors, MACJC champs, are in the championship round, awaiting the winner of an elimination game between No. 2 JCJC and No. 1 LSU-Eunice. The region champ gets a berth in the NJCAA D-II World Series.
P.S. The season ended on Friday for Jackson State and Alcorn State in the SWAC Tournament and for Northwest CC in the Region 23 tourney. William Carey’s season ended Thursday in an NAIA regional. … If you haven’t seen the catch made by former Mississippi Braves star Jason Heyward on Friday night in San Francisco, find the highlight. Playing right field for the Chicago Cubs, Heyward tracked down a fly ball into deep right-center, making what the Giants announcers on XM radio were calling the best catch they had ever seen.

24 Apr

around the horn

It’s a day for letting baseball just flow over you. … Rubber game today in Hattiesburg with the Conference USA lead at stake. Kirk McCarty (3-0, 3.51 ERA) for Southern Miss vs. Ricardo Salinas (6-1, 3.60) for Rice in what has been a pitching-dominated series at Taylor Park. … Mississippi State goes for a sweep at LSU. Reid Humphreys, the ex-Northwest Rankin High star, got an RBI and the save in Saturday’s 2-1 win. For the year, he’s hitting .328 with 15 doubles, four homers and 31 RBIs and he has five saves. … Ole Miss, going for a sweep against Auburn in Oxford, now has won 30 games for 19 straight seasons. Impressive. … Delta State left-hander Tre Hobbs beat Valdosta State in Cleveland on Saturday to improve to 11-1 with a 2.46 ERA and eight complete games. Nationally ranked in NCAA Division II, DSU is 32-13, 21-8 Gulf South. … There was a celebration in Itta Bena on Saturday. By Alabama State, which clinched the SWAC East with a 10-0 win over hapless Mississippi Valley State. ASU (17-0 in the league) won Friday’s opener 12-0. … William Carey University improved to 34-15 and 16-7 in the Southern States Athletic Conference by sweeping Brewton-Parker in Hattiesburg. The NAIA nationally ranked Crusaders are hitting .327 with 390 runs. … Millsaps’ season ended with a 13-11 loss to Birmingham-Southern in the Southern Athletic Association tournament. The Majors finished 20-21. … Belhaven lost its home finale to McMurry at Smith-Wills Stadium on Saturday, saying goodbye to 11 seniors and paying special tribute to Devin McCann, who died in a car accident just before the season began. … Mississippi College stopped an 11-game GSC losing streak with a 3-2 win against Lee in Clinton on Saturday. The Choctaws go for the series win today at Frierson Field. … Former Ole Miss star Chris Ellis, bucking for a call-up to the big leagues, threw six brilliant innings for the Mississippi Braves against Biloxi at Trustmark Park on Saturday. He got a no-decision in a game the M-Braves would ultimately lose but is 2-0 with a 1.16 ERA in four Double-A starts. He got a long look with Atlanta in spring training. … Ex-State standout Chad Girodo’s stay in MLB was short but sweet. He threw two scoreless innings in his debut for Toronto against Oakland on Friday but was shipped back to the minors on Saturday. … UM product Zack Cozart went 3-for-5 in Cincinnati’s 13-5 win over the Chicago Cubs on Saturday and is now batting .400 (20-for-50) on the year with a homer, five RBIs and 10 runs. … Anthony Alford, the former Mr. Baseball from Petal and a top-rated Toronto prospect, has not played since suffering a leg injury in his first game of the season at Class A Dunedin. The Blue Jays have been silent on his status.

01 Apr

hot spots

Opposing pitchers must be hard-pressed to find a soft spot in Delta State’s lineup. Every regular is hitting .300 or better, and collectively the Statesmen are batting .336 with 212 runs in 30 games. Will Robertson, a senior from Falkner who missed 2015 with an injury, has been hot from the jump and is batting .409. Trent Giambroni and Ben Pickard have seven home runs each. DSU also throws out a pair of aces: Left-handers Tre Hobbs and Dalton Moats are a combined 12-3 with a 3.02 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 107 innings. The sum of these parts is also impressive. The Statesmen, unranked in preseason, are now ranked in two NCAA Division II polls, No. 14 in one, 24 in the other. They’ll take a 20-10 overall record and a 13-5 Gulf South Conference mark into this weekend’s series against Christian Brothers at refurbished Ferriss Field. … Cleveland isn’t the only hot spot in the state this weekend. In Hattiesburg, at Wheeler Field, William Carey plays host to NAIA No. 3 Faulkner in a Southern States Athletic Conference series. The Crusaders are 23-11 and coming off what amounted to a batting practice session against Tougaloo on Wednesday. WCU won 18-3 and 16-0; Tyler Richardson had a day, going 4-for-8 with nine RBIs. Things will be a little tougher against Faulkner, which is 29-7, 11-1 SSAC and was ranked No. 1 last week before losses to Georgia-Gwinnett and Bethel. Carey, 7-4 in the league, is 18-5 overall at home. Faulkner is 4-3 on the road. … Of course, the hottest spot in the state this weekend is Starkville. Tonight’s pitching matchup is a dandy: Mississippi State’s Dakota Hudson vs. Ole Miss’ Brady Bramlett in the opener of the three-game series at Dudy Noble Field. Strong arms and good hitters abound on these two nationally ranked rivals. State (18-7-1, 4-2 SEC) is hitting .317 as a team, third in the league. Ole Miss (20-5, 2-4) has a 2.73 staff ERA, fourth in the league. The Bulldogs roll out the likes of Jacob Robson and Jack Kruger and Austin Sexton, each of whom has sparkling stats. The Rebels feature Tate Blackman and J.B. Woodman and Wyatt Short, among other stars. But many times the hero in a big series is someone you might not expect. Here’s a couple of candidates: Nathaniel Lowe arrived at State as a touted slugger, coming off a 17-home run season as an NJCAA All-America in 2015. The 6-foot-3, 245-pound Lowe is hitting .306 and is third on the team with 22 RBIs, but he has just one long ball. Who better to break out against than Ole Miss? The Rebels, meanwhile, have been waiting for Errol Robinson to break out. A highly rated draft prospect who made some preseason All-America teams, the junior shortstop is batting just .213 with four extra-base hits in 24 games. He batted .297 in 2015, with 31 runs and 30 RBIs in 58 games. Robinson had a big hit in a win against State last year; perhaps he can summon another.

27 Mar

scatter shots

A change of scenery might be what Tyler Moore needs, but a return to Triple-A Syracuse probably isn’t going to help. Moore, the former Mississippi State standout, was outrighted to Syracuse by the Washington Nationals on Friday after clearing waivers. Declaring free agency was not an option for the 29-year-old Moore, who doesn’t have enough service time. As a regular in the minors, Moore hit .271 with 107 homers, including back-to-back 31-bomb seasons, over 612 games. Playing irregularly in the big leagues, he has a .228 average and 24 homers in 277 games over four years. He is hitting .121 as a pinch hitter, and he struggled this spring. Moore, well-liked in Washington, needs an opportunity somewhere else. Maybe the Nationals will try to deal him. … Cleveland optioned Pascagoula’s Joey Butler to Triple-A Buffalo, but manager Terry Francona said he was “thrilled” that the Indians were able to keep the slugging outfielder in the organization. Butler, who flashed his potential with Tampa Bay in 2015, didn’t have a good spring with the Indians, but he’ll get another shot with them. … Delta State is suddenly cooking, with eight straight wins and back-to-back Gulf South Conference series sweeps. The Statesmen, after rolling over North Alabama on the road this weekend, are 20-9, 13-5. They’ll be climbing in the NCAA Division II polls. … This just in: Southern Miss can hit a little bit. The Golden Eagles mashed four home runs on Saturday to finish off a C-USA sweep of Texas-San Antonio and now have 33 homers in 25 games. Taylor Braley leads with eight and Dylan Burdeaux has seven for 19-6 USM. …. Big series. Big crowds. Big letdown in Oxford? After getting swept by South Carolina in a matchup of top 10 teams, Ole Miss finds itself with a 2-4 SEC record. It’ll be interesting to see how the Rebels respond. … Was anybody left at Dudy Noble Field on Saturday when Mississippi State’s game against Georgia ended? Was anybody awake? The home Dogs lost to the road Dogs 11-8 in a nine-inning game that lasted almost five hours and “featured” 22 walks and 10 pitching changes. State did win the first two games and is now 4-2 in the league. … Props to Itawamba Community College’s Rick Collier on becoming the school’s all-time winningest coach with 452 W’s in 14 years. The Indians, with two homers from Timothy Rowe, beat Meridian 10-3 in the second game of a twinbill on Friday to push Collier past Roy Cresap. … Nominee for Game of the Year: In Ellisville on Friday, Jones County Junior College got a game-tying three-run homer from pinch-hitter Marcus Hardy in the bottom of the ninth and a walk-off two-run shot from Erick Hoard in the 10th to beat Northwest 8-6. After completing the doubleheader sweep, Jones is 24-2 and 7-1, leading the MACJC standings.

23 Oct

campus notes

Circle the dates of March 6, April 22-24 and, most notably, May 13-15. Those are the dates when new Auburn coach Butch Thompson will send his Tigers out against Southern Miss, Ole Miss and Mississippi State in 2016. Aberdeen native and ex-Itawamba Community College star Thompson, a popular and well-respected assistant coach at State the previous seven seasons, has taken the reins on the Plains, where he was an assistant from 2006-08. Auburn will play USM in a tournament in Pensacola, Fla., in March, visit Oxford to play Ole Miss in April and host State in May in the next-to-last SEC weekend. … Ole Miss’ Will Golsan went on a tear in the Cal Ripken Baseball League playoffs back in the summer, batting .438 with six runs in five games en route to winning the championship. The sophomore out of New Hope High has had his moments during the Rebels’ fall ball scrimmages, as well, registering a four-hit game last weekend. UM has two more scrimmages slated for this weekend. … Southern Miss will begin its 5-game Fall World Series on Tuesday at Taylor Park. The last game is set for Nov. 3, which will conclude fall ball for the Golden Eagles. Senior pitchers Luke Lowery and Cody Livingston will manage the two squads in the World Series. … Jacob Barfield, a sophomore transfer from Wharton County (Texas) Junior College, put an exclamation point on Mississippi State’s Bulldog World Series with a three-run, last-inning home run for the Grays on Wednesday night. Cole Gordon homered for the Maroon team, which won the 5-game series. … Delta State concluded fall ball last weekend with the final two games of its Green and White Series. Compiling three-hit games were Luke Stanley, Erick Santiago and Josh Peden, while Westin Stringer, Itawamba CC transfer Brady Chambley and Dalton Moats, a former Coastal Carolina standout, delivered stout pitching performances.

25 Sep

campus notes

Ole Miss fans of a certain age will remember John Shaw, a star second baseman for the Rebels from 1968-70. Shaw is among the five athletes being inducted into the Ole Miss M-Club Alumni Hall of Fame this weekend. Shaw led the SEC in stolen bases three straight years, twice earned all-league honors and helped Tom Swayze’s team win the SEC championship in 1969. … Southern Miss will again host the C-USA Tournament at Taylor Park. Dates are May 25-29, 2016. USM has hosted the tournament five times previously but never won the title as the host school. The Golden Eagles’ lone tournament championship came in 2010, when the event was in Houston. … USM started fall ball on Sunday, with 16 newcomers joining a crop of returnees that includes five regulars – second-team All-C-USA pick Tim Lynch among them — from a 36-win team. … Mississippi State needed to do some rebuilding after last year’s disappointing finish, and coach John Cohen may have the parts to put together a better club in 2016. State’s recruiting class was ranked No. 3 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball. Among the 22 newcomers are three players who were drafted by MLB clubs and three state players of the year. Here’s one to watch: Nate Lowe, a first-team NJCAA All-America pick and the Florida juco player of the year. He hit .373 with 17 home runs and 53 RBIs at St. Johns River State College. … Ole Miss’ recruiting class was rated No. 23 by Collegiate Baseball, USM’s was not in the Top 25. … One of Jackson State’s big signees for 2016 was C.J. Newsome, a 5-foot-7 outfielder from Columbia High. Newsome, who batted .350 and stole 25 bags as a senior, was drafted by Miami in the 38th round in June. There must have been a big sigh of relief at J-State when Newsome didn’t sign.