Tag Archives: Southern Miss

07 May

on this date

Brian Dozier, who had been a four-year star at Southern Miss, made his major league debut on May 7, 2012, just 10 short years ago, launching one of the most productive careers ever by a USM alum. In that first game, Dozier went 1-for-4 as Minnesota’s shortstop in a loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Target Field. Dozier played only seven full seasons in the big leagues but touched all the significant bases: He was a record-setter, an All-Star, a Gold Glove winner and a World Series champion. He batted .244 with 192 homers and 115 steals in his career. His 42 homers in 2016 set a record for American League second basemen. He homered in his first postseason at-bat and later won a ring with the 2019 Washington Nationals. He retired, somewhat surprisingly at age 33, prior to the 2021 season after barely playing (for the New York Mets) in the COVID-19-shortened 2020 campaign. Drafted by the Twins in the eighth round in 2009 as a shortstop, Dozier didn’t stick at that position once he reached the majors. The Twins moved him to second base, which he had not played since he was a kid, after his 2012 big league trial, which ended abruptly in August. As time would tell, it was a salient move. P.S. Continuing a USM/Twins theme, Matt Wallner had a five-hit, two-homer day on Friday for Wichita in the Texas League. The 6-foot-5 left-handed slugger, the 39th overall pick by Minnesota in the 2019 draft, is batting .243 with six homers and 19 RBIs in his first Double-A season. He was scuffling along at .073 with one homer on April 21, but has gone 14-for-29 since, including the explosion in Friday’s doubleheader.

28 Apr

where are they now?

Will Bednar, one of the heroes of Mississippi State’s national title run last year, has made a smooth transition to pro ball. The right-hander, the 14th overall pick in the July draft, threw five no-hit innings Wednesday night for San Jose in the San Francisco system. “I don’t try to get too high or too low, but it’s definitely a confidence booster …,” he told milb.com after Wednesday’s outing. Bednar has yet to get a win in four starts for the Low-Class A club but has a 1.62 ERA and 19 strikeouts over 16 2/3 innings. He was limited to seven innings last summer after signing with the Giants as the top draft pick from the state. Among the other 2021 draftees: Gunnar Hoglund — taken 19th overall by Oakland out of Ole Miss — is still rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. … Ole Miss product Doug Nikhazy is 0-0 with a 3.86 ERA in three starts for High-A Lake County in the Cleveland system. … Reed Trimble, taken by Baltimore out of Southern Miss, is on the injured list (shoulder surgery) and has yet to play this season. He batted .200 in 22 games in his pro debut lat season. … Tanner Allen, SEC player of the year and Ferriss Trophy winner at MSU, is batting .255 with a homer and seven RBIs for Miami’s High-A Beloit team. … Eric Cerantola, MSU alum, is 1-1, 4.76 at Low-A Columbia in the Kansas City organization. … Ex-Bulldogs standout Christian MacLeod, a Minnesota draftee, is on the 60-day injured list at Low-A Fort Myers and hasn’t pitched in 2022. … Taylor Broadway, Ole Miss’ closer in 2021, is pitching at Double-A Birmingham, where he has made three appearances after a recent promotion. He has a 9.45 ERA overall in six outings. … USM product Ryan Och has worked nine innings and yielded one run for San Diego’s High-A Fort Wayne club. … Will Warren, a Jackson Prep alum drafted out of Southeastern Louisiana, is 1-1, 2.65 in four starts at High-A Hudson Valley in the New York Yankees’ chain. P.S. Former State standout Kendall Graveman got his first save for the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday, working two perfect innings as the ChiSox stopped an eight-game skid with a 7-3 win against Kansas City. Graveman, primarily a set-up reliever, has a 1.74 ERA in nine games. … Recent transactions of note: Chris Ellis went on the 10-day IL in Baltimore, Pittsburgh designated Anthony Alford for assignment, and Cleveland demoted both Konnor Pilkington and Kirk McCarty to Triple-A.

25 Apr

three things, college edition

The unquestioned top story in Mississippi college baseball in 2022 has been the steady rise of Southern Miss, ranked No. 6 in the country in the new Baseball America poll. Also high on the list: the struggles of Mississippi State and Ole Miss; and the resurgence of NCAA Division III schools Belhaven University and Millsaps College. To wit: USM swept Rice over the weekend, holding the once-mighty Owls to five runs in three games as starters Tanner Hall, Hunter Riggins and Hurston Waldrep took turns at dominance. The Golden Eagles (32-8, 16-2 C-USA) have won 14 straight games and can set a school record for consecutive W’s by beating Southeastern Louisiana on the road Tuesday. USM’s staff has a 2.80 ERA and 460 strikeouts in 363 innings. That kind of pitching is hard to beat. … Defending national champion MSU and Ole Miss, briefly ranked No. 1 this season, had fallen to the bottom of the SEC West standings when they met in Oxford over the weekend. Who saw that coming? But the outcome at Swayze Field was fairly predictable: The Bulldogs won their sixth straight series over the Rebels, with coach Chris Lemonis improving to 8-2 vs. UM. Rebels coach Mike Bianco is 38-48 vs. State. They meet again Tuesday at Trustmark Park in Pearl in the Governor’s Cup (nee Mayor’s Trophy) game with a huge crowd expected. Has the rivalry begun to wane, as some wonder? Not hardly. “I grew up hating those guys. This is awesome,” Brad Cumbest, who hit the game-winning homer for State in Saturday’s rubber game, told 247sports.com. … Millsaps swept Sewanee at home over the weekend to improve to 21-18 and 11-10 in the Southern Athletic Association. Jim Page’s Majors are the 6-seed in the conference tournament slated for Georgia later this week and will meet old rival Rhodes in the opening round. Belhaven took two of three from Ozarks (at Frierson Field in Clinton) over the weekend and is 24-13, 17-10 in the American Southwest Conference. Under third-year coach Kyle Palmer, the Blazers are currently third in the league with one series remaining before the tournament, which will be the team’s last in the ASC. BU moves to the Collegiate Conference of the South next season.

25 Apr

a memorable moment

For Michael Harris II, it was a minor milestone along what’s expected to be his route to the major leagues. For at least some of the smallish crowd at Trustmark Park on this lazy Sunday afternoon, it was one for the memory banks. Harris, Atlanta’s No. 1 prospect, hit his first Double-A home run on Sunday, a towering, pull-side shot that landed in the Farm Bureau Grill behind the right-field wall. Over the 17 years the Mississippi Braves have played in Pearl, fans have been treated to memorable moments from a long list of touted hitting prospects who made The Show: Brian McCann, Jeff Francoeur, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jordan Schafer, Jason Heyward, Freddie Freeman, Evan Gattis, Austin Riley and Ronald Acuna, to name a few. Now there is Harris. The 21-year-old outfielder is batting .317 with 13 RBIs, eight runs and six stolen bases, one of the few bright spots for a scuffling (4-11) M-Braves club. Braves fans be advised: Get out to the TeePee to see him soon. He might not be there very long. P.S. In other long-ball news: Riley, the former DeSoto Central High standout, hit his second homer since becoming a dad in Atlanta’s loss to Miami on Sunday, and East Central Community College alum Tim Anderson hit his 14th career leadoff bomb for the Chicago White Sox in a loss to Minnesota. … Former Southern Miss star Kirk McCarty made his big league debut Sunday for Cleveland, giving up two homers and four runs all told in relief in a loss to the New York Yankees. McCarty, a Hattiesburg native, becomes the 19th USM product to play in the majors. … Ex-George County High standout Justin Steele also had a tough day on the bump, yielding four hits, four walks and three runs in three innings in the Chicago Cubs’ loss to Pittsburgh. Steele is 1-2, 5.40 in three starts. … Faring even worse on Sunday was Ole Miss alum Chris Ellis, who faced five batters, retired none and left with shoulder discomfort in Baltimore’s loss to the Los Angeles Angels. Charged with five runs, Ellis saw his ERA climb to 10.38 in two appearances.

23 Apr

denied

The anticipation was high. Kirk McCarty, the ex-Southern Miss star from Hattiesburg, was scheduled to make his big league debut today, starting on the bump against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. It’s not happening. Cal Quantrill has come off the COVID-19 list and will get the ball for Cleveland. McCarty, brought up from Triple-A earlier in the week, might still get in the game as a reliever, of course, but a start against Aaron Judge and Co. would have been so much cooler. (In Friday’s game, a Cleveland loss, Mississippi State alum Konnor Pilkington threw two scoreless innings in relief for the Guardians in his third big league game. He has yet to yield a run.) … In other MLB news: Former State standout Nathaniel Lowe extended his hit streak to eight games, raised his average to .412 — tops in the American League — and belted his first home run in Texas’ win against Oakland. … Anthony Alford, the former Mr. Baseball from Petal, made his 2022 debut for Pittsburgh, coming off a rehab assignment, and went 0-for-3 as the leadoff batter at Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The Pirates won the game over the Cubs 4-2, with ex-State star Chris Stratton getting the save. … Ex-East Central Community College standout Tim Anderson was handed a one-game suspension for flipping off the Cleveland crowd in a game on Wednesday. Anderson issued an apology, then appealed the suspension and played Friday. He went 0-for-4 and his eighth-inning throwing error — his sixth E in three games — proved costly in the Chicago White Sox’s 2-1 loss to Minnesota. MSU alum Kendall Graveman suffered the blown save and took the loss in that game.

22 Apr

and that happened …

On a night when Houlka native Tyreque Reed decked an opposing pitcher and sparked an ugly, benches-clearing brawl in a Double-A game, there were more than a few uplifting developments Thursday involving Mississippi-connected players. To wit: At Trustmark Park in Pearl, Atlanta prospect Darius Vines went 6 1/3 innings to post his first win of the young season as the Mississippi Braves beat Chattanooga 4-3. Vines, the Braves’ No. 14 prospect (per MLB Pipeline), has a 2.51 ERA in three starts in his first Double-A campaign. In that game, ex-Southern Miss star Chuckie Robinson, the Lookouts’ catcher, went 1-for-4 with a run and Gulfport native Jacques Pucheu worked two scoreless innings for the visitors. … Former M-Braves standout Cristian Pache, shipped to Oakland in the Matt Olson trade, hit his second homer of the season for the A’s. … Shea Langeliers, another M-Braves product also moved to Oakland in the Olson deal, belted his fourth homer for Triple-A Las Vegas. The highly regarded catcher is batting .341. … Petal High alumnus Anthony Alford, on a rehab assignment for Pittsburgh, homered for the second straight game at Triple-A Indianapolis. … Ex-Mississippi State standout Justin Foscue hit his first homer of the year — a grand slam — for Double-A Frisco in the Texas system. … Meridian native LeDarious Clark hit an opening day bomb for Lancaster in the independent Atlantic League. … MSU product Nathaniel Lowe went 3-for-4, boosting his average to .396, and helped Texas rally to beat Seattle in MLB. … And last but certainly not least, Ole Miss’ Dylan DeLucia tossed a five-hit, eight-strikeout complete game to beat Mississippi State 4-2 in the series opener in Oxford. For State, Kellum Clark homered on his 21st birthday. P.S. Reed, playing for Portland in the Boston system, will surely get a suspension for his actions in the brawl. The fifth-year pro, originally drafted by Texas out of Itawamba Community College, is 3-for-11 this season and carries a .278 average with 58 homers for his minor league career.

21 Apr

play ball

It’s opening day in the independent Atlantic League, where Jackson native Stan Cliburn will manage his 3,570th minor league game when his Southern Maryland Blue Crabs meet Lexington. Cliburn’s club includes former Ole Miss star and onetime big leaguer Braxton Lee and Southern Miss product Bradley Roney. Cliburn, entering his 33rd season as a pro manager, was the Atlantic League’s manager of the year in 2021 when he steered the Blue Crabs to a 63-57 record and into the playoffs with a late surge. Forest Hill High alum Cliburn had a long playing career in pro ball and spent part of the 1980 season with the California Angels. Lee, a lefty-hitting outfielder from Picayune, played in the Cincinnati system in 2021, batting .224. A former Southern League batting champ, he got 17 at-bats with the Miami Marlins in 2018. Roney, a right-hander, pitched in the New York Mets’ system last season, finishing at Triple-A. Roney, who pitched for the Mississippi Braves in 2016, ’17 and ’19, has a 3.71 career ERA in pro ball. … Also in the ALPB is former East Mississippi Community College standout LeDarious Clark, an outfielder with Lancaster. P.S. Mississippi State product Nathaniel Lowe snagged a screaming line drive Wednesday night and started 3-6 triple play, the seventh in Texas Rangers history. Caught up in the tri-killing was ex-State star Adam Frazier, who redeemed himself quite nicely by going 3-for-4 with a walk and a run in Seattle’s 4-2 victory. Frazier is batting .294 as the Mariners’ new leadoff man.

20 Apr

three on a match

The Cleveland Guardians’ bullpen is well-stocked with former Magnolia State college stars for today’s doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox. Southern Miss product Kirk McCarty was added to the roster and joins former USM teammate Nick Sandlin and ex-Mississippi State standout Konnor Pilkington on the Guardians’ 28-man club. Hattiesburg native McCarty, a 5-foot-8 left-hander, was brilliant in three starts at Triple-A Columbus this season, posting a 0.79 ERA in 11 1/3 innings. A seventh-round pick in 2017, he is 19-26 with a 4.31 ERA in his minor league career. One report said McCarty is a candidate to start against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium this weekend. That would be quite the debut. Pascagoula native Pilkington debuted last weekend (see previous post). Sandlin, a Georgia native, debuted in 2021 and pitched well (2.94 in 34 games), though he has an 8.31 in 4 1/3 innings in 2022. Also on the Cleveland roster is Harrison Central High product Bobby Bradley, a first baseman who has seen limited playing time this season.

28 Mar

let’s get some runs

The focus here is on runs. Not home runs. Not RBIs. Just runs, which, when you get down to it, is what baseball is all about. Alcorn State scored eight runs on Sunday, just enough to win for the first time this season after 16 consecutive losses in which the Braves rarely scored. (They actually scored nine times on Saturday but, curse their luck, managed to lose 10-9.) So give a shout-out to first-year Braves coach Reggie Williams, the ex-big leaguer, and to Jamil Betancourt and Garrett Palladino, who each scored twice in the 8-7 win at Prairie View A&M. Alcorn’s leading scorer this season is Clayvonje Wright, who scored once on Sunday and now has six of the Braves’ 37 runs on the season. Ole Miss could have used a few more runs against Tennessee, scoring just seven all told in losing three times in Oxford. Jacob Gonzalez leads the Rebels (16-7) in runs with 28, though he never touched home plate in the UT series. Leading scorers in baseball don’t get the attention that they do in basketball or soccer or hockey. Doesn’t seem right. Here’s a tip of the cap to Mississippi State’s runs leader, Hunter Hines, who has 30 as a freshman for the 15-10 Bulldogs and ranks second in the SEC. Southern Miss (17-7), which tallied 35 times in a sweep at Western Kentucky over the weekend, is led by Christopher Sargent and Slade Wilks with 22 runs apiece. Jackson State (12-12) is led by Ty Hill with 29 runs. Mississippi Valley State (6-9-1) is topped by Maury Weaver with 13 runs. Chad Ragland is the leading scorer at Delta State (16-8) with 28, and Mississippi College (11-19) is led by Caleb Reese and Markarius Lee with 22 each.

18 Mar

let’s get it started

There is no more emphatic way for a player to step up than to lead off a game with a home run. As the second season — conference play — got under way Thursday for the state’s NCAA Division I schools, Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez hit a game-opening bomb to start the Rebels on their way to a 13-6 SEC win at Auburn. Ole Miss, ranked No. 1 in one poll, is now 13-3 overall. Gonzalez, a freshman All-America shortstop in 2021, was just 2-for-12 over his previous four games and had seen his average drop to .234. He was due for a step-up performance, and he delivered, going 2-for-4 with two homers, a walk and three runs against the Tigers. “He was a superstar today,” UM coach Mike Bianco said in a postgame interview. Who’ll step up today when Mississippi State, Southern Miss and Jackson State begin league play? Here are some ones to watch: For the Bulldogs, who take an 11-7 record and four-game win streak into their opener at Georgia, Luke Hancock needs to supply some power. The Houston native, who hit 10 homers for the national champs a year ago, has one this season, that coming on Feb. 27. A 2-for-13 slide has dropped his average to .266, and he has just seven RBIs. He knocked in 63 last season. For the Golden Eagles, Christopher Sargent, the usual cleanup batter, is hitting .197 with three homers and eight RBIs. Heading into a C-USA series at home against Florida Atlantic, USM (11-6 and coming off a big win vs. Alabama) could use a step-up effort from Sargent. He produced 16 homers and 57 RBIs in 2021, second on the team in both categories to departed star Reed Trimble. For JSU’s Tigers (10-7), who open SWAC play at Bethune-Cookman, keep an eye on Jatavis Melton, their leadoff batter. Melton, from Natchez, is batting .293 with 14 stolen bases and 18 runs. He has stalled out a bit of late, 5-for-22 with four runs in the last six games. JSU needs Melton to get on base and spark its attack. … Mississippi Valley State (4-5-1) hosts Alabama A&M this weekend, and Alcorn State (0-11) hosts Texas Southern. The Delta Devils and Braves would welcome more production from any- and everyone in their lineups.