Tag Archives: Southern Miss

02 Aug

cape crusaders

A handful of Mississippians are on playoff-bound teams in the Cape Cod League, which concludes its regular season today. The playoffs in the elite college summer league begin on Friday. Mississippi State’s Hunter Hines, the league home run and RBI leader, and former Madison Central High star Braden Montgomery play for Yarmouth-Dennis, which currently sits second in the East Division. Ole Miss’ Mason Nichols and Southern Miss’ Kros Sivley, J.B. Middleton and Will Armistead are on the Hyannis roster, second in the West. Hines is batting .262 with 12 homers and 43 RBIs. Teammate Montgomery, a current Stanford standout who played for Team USA earlier this summer, is hitting .319 with one homer and nine RBIs. He has pitched in three games, yielding three runs, all in a relief appearance on Tuesday. Nichols, who started Tuesday for Hyannis, is 1-1 with a 3.46 ERA in eight games. Sivley, who picked up the win on Tuesday, is 2-1 with a 4.35 in 11 games; Middleton has a 3.24 with a win and a save in six appearances; and Armistead has a 7.20 in six games. P.S. Ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn went seven innings Tuesday night to get the win against Oakland in his Los Angeles Dodgers debut. Lynn gave up three homers — including ex-MSU standout Brent Rooker’s 18th — and leads MLB with 31 bombs allowed. … George County High product Justin Steele notched his 12th win — tied for the MLB lead — for the Chicago Cubs in a beatdown against Cincinnati. … Alec Barger, who had a 3.29 ERA in 30 appearances for the Double-A Mississippi Braves, was dealt by Atlanta to Colorado for big league left-hander Brad Hand. … UM alum James McArthur (4.28 ERA at Triple-A Omaha) was recalled to the majors by Kansas City. … Ex-USM star Matthew Etzel went 1-for-3 with an RBI in his pro debut Tuesday for Baltimore’s Florida Complex League team, and ex-Golden Eagles standout Justin Storm threw a scoreless inning for Miami’s FCL team in his debut. … USM slugger Slade Wilks, who is not playing summer ball, is working as a hitting instructor at Alpha Academy in Columbia, his hometown, per a report by Hattiesburg TV station WDAM. Wilks hit .289 with 20 homers and was a Ferriss Trophy finalist in 2023. … The semi-pro Hattiesburg Black Sox, who won the Mississippi Baseball Congress championship, will begin play Thursday in the NABF Major Division World Series at Battle Creek, Mich. The Black Sox swept the individual honors in the MBC tournament, with Jake Lycette winning MVP, Ervin Simmons the top pitcher award and Marcus Ragan the batting title. … The Tupelo Thunder, with a roster stocked with Mississippi juco players, won the Cotton States League championship last weekend.

01 Aug

whatever happened to …

Drew Pomeranz, the veteran left-hander out of Ole Miss, has been throwing — not pitching — and still plans to rejoin the San Diego Padres this season, according to a recent report in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “I’m determined to get back to where I was,” Pomeranz said. Where he was in 2021 was in the Padres’ bullpen as a valued short reliever. He had a 1.75 ERA in 27 games that season before suffering a forearm injury in August that required surgery and kept him out most of 2022. He made five rehab appearances late last year and three more early this season before being shut down in May and having some cleanup surgery. The SEC’s pitcher of the year and the state’s Ferriss Trophy winner in 2010, Pomeranz was the fifth overall pick out of Ole Miss that summer by Cleveland. He has logged 851 1/3 innings in the big leagues, posting a 3.91 ERA, making an All-Star Game and winning a World Series ring. At 34, he is battling to get back, though there is no real urgency in San Diego, where the underachieving Padres appear to be out of playoff contention. P.S. Ex-Ole Miss star Lance Lynn is slated to make his Los Angeles Dodgers debut tonight against Oakland. He was 6-9 with a 6.47 ERA for the Chicago White Sox before being traded. … Former Mississippi State standout Brandon Woodruff is expected to make his third and final rehab start for Triple-A Nashville tonight and possibly return to Milwaukee’s active roster soon thereafter. He has been out since April. … MSU product Kellum Clark, a 20th-round pick by the New York Mets last month, went 1-for-3 in his pro debut Monday in the Florida Complex League. … Southern Miss alum Justin Storm, a seventh-round pick by Miami, has been assigned to the Marlins’ FCL team but hasn’t pitched yet. … Jacob Gonzalez and Calvin Harris, both drafted out of UM by the White Sox, have been moved up from rookie ball to Low-Class A Kannapolis. … Will Verdung, a 13th-round selection out of Itawamba Community College, is batting .357 (5-for-14) in five games for Atlanta’s FCL team.

31 Jul

minor matters

Landon Harper, the former Southern Miss closer, closed out a seven-inning no-hitter on Sunday for Low-Class A Augusta in the Atlanta system. Harper retired the last five batters, two via strikeout, for his second save as the GreenJackets beat Charleston 2-0. A 14th-round pick by the Braves in 2022, the right-hander has a 3.86 ERA and a 5-3 record in 22 games at Augusta. Harper pitched at Northeast Lauderdale High and Pearl River Community College before moving to USM in 2022; he had 12 saves for the Golden Eagles that season as they made their run in the NCAAs. … Former Mississippi State standout Jake Mangum extended his hitting streak to eight games with a knock for Triple-A Jacksonville (Miami system). Mangum has 13 hits during the streak and is batting .354 in July and .305 for the year. … Ex-State star Hunter Stovall scored the game-winning run for Triple-A Albuquerque (Colorado) to cap a six-run ninth inning in a 17-16 Pacific Coast League win against Sacramento. Stovall, batting .273 this year, entered the game late as a sub and drew an RBI walk as part of the wild ninth. … Mississippi College product Blaine Crim hit his 14th homer — No. 75 career — for Triple-A Round Rock (Texas). Crim is batting .278 with 52 RBIs. … Ex-MSU star Rowdey Jordan hit his 11th homer and stole his 23rd base for Double-A Binghamton (New York Mets). Jordan, who played on the Bulldogs’ national title team in 2021, is batting .252 with 44 RBIs in his second stint in Double-A. … Tim Elko, who played on Ole Miss’ national title team last year, finished July with a six-game hitting streak (12 hits all told) for High-A Winston-Salem (Chicago White Sox). He is batting .323 with five homers and 23 RBIs in 25 games at that level after belting 17 homers in Low-A. … Olive Branch native Kendall Williams took a tough loss (two runs in five innings) for Great Lakes (Los Angeles Dodgers) but has a 1.99 ERA in seven starts for the Low-A club. The 6-foot-6 right-hander was a second-round pick out of Florida’s IMG Academy in 2019. … Decatur native and Ole Miss alum Kemp Alderman went 0-for-4 for Low-A Jupiter (Miami) and is off to a 1-for-16 start in pro ball. He was a second-round pick this year after a monster season at UM.

30 Jul

stocking up

The big fish landed by the Texas Rangers in their trading frenzy are starters Max Scherzer and Jordan Montgomery. Not to be overlooked is Chris Stratton, the ex-Mississippi State star who’ll bolster the Rangers’ bullpen. Stratton joined Montgomery in moving from St. Louis to Texas. The right-hander from Tupelo has a 4.36 ERA and one save in 42 games for the Cardinals this season and a 4.50 career ERA over 280 games, most as a reliever. In 53 2/3 innings in 2023, he has 59 strikeouts and 17 walks and batters are hitting .231 against him. Stratton was the 20th overall pick out of MSU by San Francisco in 2012, shortly after winning SEC pitcher of the year honors, as well as the Ferriss Trophy. He joins Lance Lynn and Kendall Graveman as Mississippi college alums changing teams in the past couple of days. The trade deadline is Tuesday. P.S. Home run report: MSU product Hunter Renfroe’s 17th homer of the year Sunday was a game-winner for the Los Angeles Angels, coming in the 10th inning at Toronto; Renfroe is hitting .440 over his last seven games. Ex-DeSoto Central High star Austin Riley belted No. 24 in Atlanta’s 8-6 win over Milwaukee. Riley has eight homers in his last 15 games. And former Southern Miss standout Matt Wallner hit his fifth homer (in 62 at-bats) for Minnesota, accounting for the Twins’ lone run in a 2-1 loss to Kansas City; Wallner has four homers in his last five games.

30 Jul

present arms

Stars must have been aligned on Saturday night. By some cosmic coincidence, five Magnolia State college products got the ball as starting pitchers in minor league games, scattered from Double-A to Low-Class A. Collectively, they pitched pretty darn well, allowing five runs and striking out 21 batters over 25 innings all told. Only one got a decision, however, and that was a loss. Most impressive among the bunch was former Ole Miss star Gunnar Hoglund, who delivered four perfect innings, fanning three, for Low-A Stockton (Oakland system). The 19th overall pick in the 2021 draft (by Toronto), Hoglund spent several weeks on the injured list this season and has scuffled (6.32 ERA in nine starts) since his return. Saturday’s outing certainly was a good sign. The hard-luck loser on Saturday was Southern Miss alum Dalton Rogers. He threw 5 2/3 innings for High-A Greenville (Boston), allowing just two runs. He dropped to 1-3 with a 5.11 ERA; he had a 2.49 ERA in Low-A to start the season. Ex-Ole Miss star David Parkinson, in pro ball since 2017, worked 6 2/3 for Double-A Reading (Philadelphia), allowing a lone run with six strikeouts. He trimmed his ERA to 4.61. Former USM standout Hunter Stanley tossed 4 2/3 innings for Double-A Akron (Cleveland), giving up a lone run with four strikeouts. He trimmed his ERA to 5.02. Houston Harding, a Mississippi State and Itawamba Community College product, made his first start for Double-A Rocket City (Los Angeles Angels) in the Southern League and went four innings, allowing one run (a home run). Harding had a 1.32 ERA in A-ball this season but has not been as effective (12.42) in nine Double-A appearances. Saturday’s start was a positive step. P.S. A pair of Mississippians in the majors hit noteworthy homers: Tim Anderson belted his first in over a year and Brent Rooker hit his first since appearing in the All-Star Game. East Central Community College product Anderson, who has 98 career bombs, hit a leadoff shot for the Chicago White Sox, his first in 327 at-bats this season. Slumping for much of the season, Anderson is 20-for-57 (.351) since the All-Star break. Ex-MSU star Rooker’s homer was his 17th for Oakland but first in 20 days. His bomb at Colorado went 462 feet, longest by an A’s player this year. He is batting .269 since the break, .248 on the year.

27 Jul

hot take

Things got a little hot in Houston on Wednesday night. There were six home runs — one by hot-hitting former Mississippi State standout Nathaniel Lowe — two hit batsmen, two ejections, one benches-clearing incident and many angry words. When the final bell rang at Minute Maid Park, Texas had a 13-5 victory over rival Houston, salvaging the finale of the three-game series and leaving town with a 2-game lead in the American League West. Lowe had two of the Rangers’ 17 hits, drew two walks, drove in three runs and scored twice. He also had his tower buzzed on a ball-four pitch by erratic Astros starter Framber Valdez, who had surrendered the homer to Lowe in his previous at-bat. Lowe, who has 12 bombs on the season, is hitting .435 over his last seven games with 10 hits, eight walks, nine RBIs and eight runs. The Rangers (60-43) have scored 10 or more runs in 21 games and have won 20 of them. … Ex-Southern Miss star Matt Wallner also has swung a hot bat of late, but his two-homer game on Wednesday was not enough to push Minnesota past Seattle. The Mariners won 8-7, getting a pair of homers from Mississippi Braves alum Dylan Moore. Wallner is batting .320 over his last seven games and has four homers in 51 at-bats this season. The Twins saw their lead in the AL Central shrink to 2 games over Cleveland, which beat Kansas City 5-3 as ex-USM star Nick Sandlin picked up his fifth win in relief. P.S. Kemp Alderman, the Ferriss Trophy winner out of Ole Miss, went 1-for-6 in a doubleheader in his pro debut for Low-Class A Jupiter in the Miami system. Alderman was a second-round pick. … Former Biloxi High standout Colt Keith went 2-for-3 with his third homer for Triple-A Toledo in the Detroit chain. The 21-year-old Keith — the Tigers’ No. 1 prospect — is batting .290 with 14 RBIs in 19 games at this level; he hit .325 with 14 homers in Double-A.

26 Jul

deep in the heart …

In his first appearance in the Silver Boot rivalry, J.P. France kicked some butt. Ex-Mississippi State standout France threw seven sterling innings Tuesday night as Houston beat Texas 4-3, trimming the first-place Rangers’ lead to a single game in the American League West. “(P)ressure’s a privilege to be able to be in those situations,” France told mlb.com. The rookie right-hander yielded five hits, two walks and an unearned run, moving his record to 6-3 with a 2.87 ERA. He has posted a quality start in eight of his last nine outings. His ERA would rank third in the AL, but he doesn’t have enough innings yet to qualify for the list. Former MSU star Nathaniel Lowe went 1-for-3 with a walk for Texas, which will try to salvage a game in the series and keep its division lead in tonight’s finale at Minute Maid Park. P.S. Austin Riley, the DeSoto Central High alum, had a hand in Atlanta’s rare 8-3-5 triple play against Boston. It was the first TP of the season and first for the Braves in 19 years. Alas, they lost 7-1 at Fenway Park. … Southern Miss alum Matt Wallner’s second homer of the season gave Minnesota an early lead, but the first-place Twins ultimately lost to Seattle 9-7. … Ex-Madison Central High star Spencer Turnbull threw two scoreless innings on a rehab assignment in A-ball for Detroit. … Ole Miss product Derek Diamond went six innings for the win in his High-Class A debut with Greensboro in the Pittsburgh system. Diamond was 8-3 in Low-A. His former UM teammate Tim Elko, playing for Winston-Salem (Chicago White Sox), had two of the six hits Diamond allowed. … Kemp Alderman, a second-round pick out of Ole Miss by Miami earlier this month, was assigned to Low-A Jupiter but didn’t play Tuesday. … Former MSU pitcher K.C. Hunt recently signed as a free agent with Milwaukee and has been assigned to the Arizona Complex League; Hunt was drafted by Pittsburgh in 2022 but didn’t sign. … Ex-Bulldogs star Landon Sims, the 34th overall pick in 2022, has been moved up to Low-A Visalia in Arizona’s system. He had a 3.00 ERA in eight rookie ball appearances.

24 Jul

off to a good start

Will Verdung hit 25 home runs in two seasons at Itawamba Community College, tying former Indians slugger Tyreque Reed for the most in program history. So maybe it shouldn’t come as a surprise what Verdung did in his first at-bat in pro ball. The Corinth native hit a three-run homer today for the Florida Complex League Braves, Atlanta’s rookie-level affiliate. Verdung finished 1-for-3 against the FCL Orioles in Sarasota. Verdung, the MACCC’s player of the year for 2023, was drafted in the 13th round by the Braves earlier this month. A 6-foot-1, 185-pound third baseman, Verdung batted .389 with 15 homers and 65 RBIs this season and was a second-team NJCAA Division II All-America pick. He had signed with Southern Miss. … USM alum Hurston Waldrep, Atlanta’s first-round pick out of Florida, has yet to make his pro debut. More Braves stuff: Kudos to Mississippi Braves alum Daysbel Hernandez for picking up the win for Atlanta on Sunday against Milawukee. Hernandez struck out the side in his one inning of relief work. … Kudos to current M-Braves lefty Luis De Avila for being named Southern League pitcher of the week after tossing six no-hit innings with 11 strikeouts at Tennessee on Sunday. De Avila, 5-5, 3.04 ERA, has a current streak off 11 no-hit innings. … Atlanta traded prospects Victor Vodnik and Tanner Gordon, both of whom were on the M-Braves’ roster, to Colorado for major league reliever Pierce Johnson.

21 Jul

that’s more like it

After a sluggish start to his pro career, Tanner Allen’s numbers are starting to look more like what was expected. A fourth-round pick by Miami after a tremendous 2021 season at Mississippi State, Allen hit .183 and .201 in his first two pro seasons. After a two-hit game Thursday that included a game-deciding grand slam for High-Class A Beloit, the lefty-hitting outfielder is batting .284 with eight homers, 34 RBIs and seven stolen bases in 48 games for the Sky Carp. Things have really clicked this month; he is batting .345 with four homers in 13 July games. He hit .296 at Low-A Jupiter before a May promotion. Allen was a key figure in MSU’s 2021 national championship run, batting .383 with 11 homers and 66 RBIs. He reaped numerous individual rewards: a national player of the year award, first-team All-America honors, the SEC’s player of the year award, All-College World Series honors and the state’s Ferriss Trophy. Allen, 25, has not yet cracked Miami’s Top 30 prospects list, but his breakout season surely has put him on the radar. Perhaps a promotion to Double-A Pensacola in the Southern League is in the offing this season. P.S. Southern Miss products and 2023 MLB draftees Tanner Hall and Dustin Dickerson have signed pro contracts, as has Ole Miss alum Jack Dougherty. Hall, an All-America this year, and Dougherty inked with Minnesota and Dickerson with Kansas City. Eight of the 14 players drafted earlier this month have now signed. Ole Miss’ Kemp Alderman, second-round pick by Miami, is the highest draftee still unsigned. … Former Columbia High star Ti’Quan Forbes, who was having a standout season in the independent Frontier League, is now playing for Yucatan in the Mexican League. Forbes, who spent eight years in the affiliated minors, was batting .301 with 10 homers and 14 steals for New Jersey and had been named to the league’s All-Star game before his contract was purchased by Yucatan on July 5. Forbes is 3-for-25 in nine games in the unaffiliated LMB, which is generally considered Triple-A caliber. … Ex-Ole Miss standout Thomas Dillard hit three home runs, boosting his season tally to 27, for Lexington in a loss Thursday to Lancaster in the indy Atlantic League.

20 Jul

a july dog day

It was a good day to be a Bulldog in the big leagues. Six Mississippi State alumni played on Wednesday and all six celebrated a win. None was bigger than Baltimore’s 8-5 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers that moved the surging Orioles into first place in the American League East. Jordan Westburg went 2-for-4 for the O’s and contributed an RBI and a run in a four-run first inning. Rookie Westburg is batting .276 with seven RBIs and nine runs in 16 games since his June 26 call-up. The Orioles begin a series at second-place Tampa Bay today. The slumping Rays fell behind Baltimore in the standings after a 5-1 loss to streaking Texas; Nathaniel Lowe was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI for the Rangers, who’ve won six straight and lead the AL West. Lowe is hitting .280. The Los Angeles Angels completed their first three-game sweep of the last-place New York Yankees in 14 years, winning 7-3 as Hunter Renfroe drew a couple of walks and scored a run. The Angels climbed over .500 at 49-48. Brent Rooker was 0-for-2 for Oakland but did get to watch the lowly A’s beat Boston 6-5. In the National League, Dakota Hudson pitched three innings (two runs allowed) in his first start of the season for St. Louis and Chris Stratton pitched the ninth (one run) for his first save of 2023 as the Cardinals beat Miami 6-4 for their fifth straight win. Hudson has a 2.77 ERA in five games since being recalled from Triple-A; Stratton has a 4.17 in his 38 appearances. P.S. Former MSU standout Cade Smith has signed with the Yankees, becoming the fifth of the 14 players drafted out of Mississippi this year to sign. The right-hander was a sixth-round pick. … Former Southern Miss star Chuckie Robinson went 3-for-4 with four RBIs for Triple-A Louisville (Cincinnati system) and is batting .338 (sixth in the International League) with 52 RBIs. … Ole Miss product Mike Mayers gave up four runs in three innings and took the loss in his first game with Triple-A Charlotte; Mayers, an MLB veteran, was traded from Kansas City to the Chicago White Sox last week. … Jackson Prep’s Konnor Griffin has been invited to USA Baseball’s 18U national team tryout camp set for Aug. 21-25 in California. Those who make the final roster will compete for Team USA in the U-18 World Cup in Taiwan in September. … The Mississippi Baseball Congress (semi-pro) state tournament will be played this weekend at Mississippi College’s Frierson Field. Five teams, including the top-seeded Hattiesburg Black Sox and the Meridian Benchwarmers, are in the tournament, which starts Friday. Black Sox coach Trey Aby will be inducted into the state’s Semi-Pro Hall of Fame during the weekend.