Tag Archives: summer baseball

25 Jul

good old summertime

The Hattiesburg Black Sox, making their first trip to the National Baseball Congress World Series, play their second game in the storied amateur event tonight against the Great Bend (Kan.) Bat Cats in Wichita, Kan. Jaylyn Williams had a couple of hits and scored the game-winning run for the Black Sox in their opener on Sunday, a 5-4 win against the Inland Empire (Calif.) Golden Bears. Hattiesburg was held without a hit for the first six innings, according to the NBC website. Nathan Stewart got the save for the Black Sox, champions of the Magnolia Adult Baseball League and the Mississippi Semi-Pro State Tournament. … Playoffs get underway in the Cotton States League this week, starting with the Tupelo Thunder against the North Delta Dealers tonight in New Albany. The Golden Triangle Jets and Tippah County Tribe play Thursday. The Tallahatchie Rascals and HillCountry Generals, the top two in the regular season standings, await the winners in the Saturday semifinals. The Generals’ Luke Miller leads the college summer league in batting at .453. The Dealers’ Alan Rickman is the top pitcher, with a 5-0 record and 1.42 ERA. … Brandon High’s J.T. Ginn and Hattiesburg High’s Joe Gray are on the roster for Saturday’s Under Armour All-America Game, to be played at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The duo also was picked for the Perfect Game All-American Classic on Aug. 13 at Petco Park in San Diego. Both games will be televised by MLB Network. … Three Mississippians were selected for USA Baseball’s 14U National Team Development Program, which is being held this week in Cary, N.C. Logan Forsythe of Biloxi, Easton Hood of Tupelo and Collin Reuter of Olive Branch made the 40-man roster. (Noah Foster of Tupelo and Drew Tucker of Laurel were on the alternate list.) The program includes “skill development sessions, off-field education seminars and intrasquad games,” according to the USA Baseball website. … Dallas Woolfolk of Ole Miss registered four saves and a 0.87 ERA in 10 games for the Collegiate National Team, which went 15-5 this summer. Mississippi State’s Konnor Pilkington had a 2.65 ERA in five games (four starts).

10 Jul

summer stock

Yes, it’s been quite a summer for Ole Miss’ Ryan Rolison. The left-hander is 3-0 with a 1.88 ERA in three starts for Orleans, which is in first place (15-8) in the Cape Cod League’s East Division. Rolison threw five hitless innings on Sunday, striking out eight in the Firebirds’ 8-2 win over Chatham. Rolison has allowed just four hits with 22 strikeouts and four walks in 14 1/3 innings in the elite college summer league. As a freshman at Ole Miss last season, he went 6-3 with a 3.06 ERA. Mississippi State’s Luke Alexander is batting .311 with a homer and eight RBIs for Cotuit, which leads the CCBL West. Hyannis is having a tough season, but State’s Jake Mangum (.354) and Southern Miss’ Nick Sandlin (2.20 ERA in nine games) have performed well for the Harbor Hawks. … Closer to home, the Tallahatchie Rascals lead the New Albany-based Cotton States League standings with an 8-3-1 record. Blue Mountain alum Miciah Heard is batting .348 with 15 steals for the Rascals, and Benjamin Smith (Saltillo) and Wyatt Bailey (Coahoma Community College) are among the league’s ERA leaders. Hunter Bishop (Oxford) is batting .375 for the Tippah County Tribe, second in the league at 7-3-2. The CSBL’s top hitter is the Golden Triangle Jets’ Isaiah Eiland (East Mississippi CC), who is batting .486 with 11 runs and 10 steals. Luke Miller (EMCC) is batting .447 with 13 runs and Tucker Childers (Northeast CC) is at .433 with two homers and 11 RBIs. Both play for the Hill Country Generals. Alan Rickman of the North Delta Dealers is 3-0 with a 1.73 ERA and 34 strikeouts in 26 innings. … UM’s Dallas Woolfolk worked three scoreless innings for the Collegiate National Team in its recent five-game series against Cuba. Team USA won 3-2. State’s Konnor Pilkington made two starts but got no decisions while posting a 6.00 ERA. The team starts a five-game series against Japan on Wednesday.

12 Jun

summer stock

A boatload of players from the state’s Big 3 colleges appear on the preseason rosters for the Cape Cod League, the summer circuit that starts play on Wednesday. There are seven on the Hyannis roster, though one of those is Ole Miss’ Dallas Woolfolk, who is also on the roster for Team USA’s Collegiate National Team. The others are Mississippi State’s Jake Mangum (an MLB draft-eligible sophomore), Hunter Stovall and Trystan Barlow, Ole Miss’ Ryan Olenek and Connor Green, and Southern Miss’ Nick Sandlin. Other UM players on Cape rosters include James McArthur and Will Ethridge (Falmouth), Cooper Johnson and Ryan Rolison (Orleans), Thomas Dillard (Cotuit) and Andy Pagnozzi (Brewster). State’s Luke Alexander is also listed with Cotuit. Rosters will change as the season unfolds. … State’s Konnor Pilkington is also on the Team USA roster and USM’s Matt Wallner was invited to training camp in Cary, N.C. The team’s first game is slated for June 22. … Play is under way in the Cotton States League, the six-team, wood-bat circuit based in New Albany. Tucker Childers, a Northeast Mississippi Community College alum from Ripley, is off to a sizzling start for Hill Country: 7-for-10, two homers, seven RBIs in three games. … Joe Gray, a rising senior at Hattiesburg High, participated in a major tournament in Arizona over the weekend with his summer club, the EvoShield Canes National 18 Team. EvoShield Canes coach Jeff Petty told Baseball America Gray is “a very advanced player for his age. I feel he could settle in and play in professional baseball right now. With his athleticism I feel he’s a five-tool player. He’s got everything going for him.”

31 Jul

summer session

There’s a touch of Ole Miss-Mississippi State rivalry in the championship series of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League. Ole Miss’ Will Golsan, Nic Perkins and Will Stokes play for the Baltimore Redbirds and Mississippi State’s Cody Brown and Blake Smith for the Bethesda Big Train. The Redbirds and Big Train begin a three-game series today at Cockeysville, Md. Golsan is hitting .234, Perkins .278 (with 16 RBIs) and Stokes has a 2.12 ERA for Baltimore. Brown is batting .233 with 33 runs for Bethesda, and Smith has put up a 1.62 ERA. … Mississippi products were all over the highlights from Thursday’s Cape Cod League games. Errol Robinson of Ole Miss had three hits and three runs for Hyannis; he is still among the summer league’s batting leaders at .319. Mississippi State’s Jacob Robson, batting .318, got two hits and scored three runs for Bourne, which also got an RBI double from State’s Reid Humphreys. J.B. Woodman, another Bulldog, hit his first home run for Falmouth. And Bulldog tracks are all over the CCBL pitching stats. Dakota Hudson (1.08) and Vance Tatum (1.92), both with Hyannis, and Daniel Brown (2.13) of Cotuit rank among the league ERA leaders. … Southern Miss’ Daniel Keating, playing for Acadiana in the Texas Collegiate League, ranks second in the loop with 26 steals and fifth with a .303 average. He also has 17 RBIs and 27 runs.

14 Jul

field notes

Hot-hitting Adam Frazier, the former Mississippi State standout, is on the West Division roster for Wednesday night’s Eastern League All-Star Game at Portland, Maine. Frazier, playing shortstop for Pittsburgh’s Double-A Altoona club, is batting .373 with 16 RBIs and 33 runs in 51 games. He got a delayed start due to a spring injury this season, his third in pro ball. … Southern Miss’ Dylan Burdeaux was named the New England Collegiate Baseball League player of the week on Monday. Burdeaux, hitting .303 with three homers and 16 RBIs for the summer, will be joined by Golden Eagles and Ocean State teammates Tim Lynch and Chuckie Robinson in this Sunday’s NECBL All-Star Game at Sanford, Maine. … Matt Tracy, the former Ole Miss left-hander who was in the big leagues for one day in April, is back in Double-A and trying to find his form. Tracy, in the New York Yankees’ system, has a 2.89 ERA in four games at Trenton, including a quality start (one run in six innings) on Saturday. He was scuffling at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre with a 5.79 in 12 appearances over two stints there. He has a career 3.95 ERA working mostly as a starter. Tracy got a call-up from the Yankees on April 11, when they needed an extra arm. He pitched two innings against Boston at Yankee Stadium, allowing two hits, two walks and three runs (all unearned) in an 8-4 loss. … Melvin Rodriguez, the SWAC player of the year at Jackson State, is just 1-for-12 in his pro debut with Washington’s Auburn team in the New York-Penn League. Rodriguez batted .422 for the Tigers in 2015 with seven homers and 65 RBIs. P.S. Southwest Mississippi Community College alum Kade Scivicque already has earned a promotion from the Detroit Tigers. The fourth-round pick from LSU, who was hitting .406 at Connecticut in the short-season Class A New York-Penn League, has been bumped to West Michigan in the Class A Midwest League.

13 Jul

cotton pickin’

With about two weeks left in the season, the Tippah Tribe has emerged as the best team in the Cotton States League. The Tribe is 12-3 with five straight wins in the New Albany-based college summer league. Luke Stanley, a Delta State alum, went 2-for-4 with an RBI, a run and a steal to spark the Tribe to a 6-5 win over Tallahatchie on Sunday. Tallahatchie, 9-7 and tops in the Delta Division, gets another crack at the Deep South Division-leading Tribe on Tuesday. The Tribe’s Jerry Tatum has a 0.86 ERA and two saves over 21 innings. The Rascals’ Zach Phillips leads the CSBL in homers (four) and RBIs (20), and Payton Cain is 4-1. In other games on Sunday: Tyler Dowdy and Drew Carter combined on a one-hitter to lead Hill Country past Tupelo 1-0. Dowdy, a Mississippi Delta Community College product, earned his third win, Carter – an Itawamba CC alum — the save. Jordan Lambert, batting .524, scored the game’s only run. And Jon Marc Girardeau and Zachary Quillian combined for six hits, six RBIs and four runs to pace Golden Triangle over North Delta 13-1. Matthew Mills notched his fourth win for the Jets, who are 9-8 in the Delta Division.

07 Jul

summer session

Southern Miss stars Chuckie Robinson and Tim Lynch seem to be enjoying their summer vacation. Robinson was named New England Collegiate Baseball League player of the week on Monday; he hit .643 with four homers in a four-game stretch for Ocean State. The Golden Eagles catcher is batting .317 with six home runs and 14 RBIs. Lynch, also playing for Ocean State, is leading the NECBL in homers with seven and batting .313 with 17 RBIs. … Ole Miss’ Errol Robinson has a league-leading 17 runs and Mississippi State’s Dakota Brown has posted a 1.92 ERA in six games to help the Hyannis Harbor Hawks rise to the top of the Cape Cod League’s West Division. Robinson is batting .300. State’s Reid Humphreys, playing for Bourne in the CCBL, has three home runs, tied for fourth in the loop. … Bulldogs signee Tanner Poole, who played at Itawamba Community College this past season, leads the Southern Collegiate Baseball League in steals with 20, while batting .372 with 25 runs for Piedmont. Poole hit .378 with 26 steals for ICC. … Ole Miss’ Will Stokes has a 2.07 ERA and one save in six appearances for the Baltimore Redbirds, who have the best record (20-6) in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League. Fellow Rebels Nic Perkins (.276) and Will Golsan (.270) also play for the Redbirds. P.S. Hinds CC alums Casey Echols and Matt Jones have signed with Mississippi College and Tennessee Tech, the Raymond school announced. Echols, son of ex-State star Tracy, hit .296 with four homers this season, Jones .369 with 49 runs. The signing of Jones brings to 13 the number of Eagles bound for NCAA Division I schools this fall.

09 Jul

summer stock

Ben Hellums, a Northeast Mississippi Community College alumnus from Ripley, put up an interesting pitching line Tuesday in the Cotton States League. The 6-foot-8 right-hander worked seven innings (a complete game) for the Tallahatchie Rascals, allowed two hits, one run and eight walks with three strikeouts. He also hit two batters and had two errors committed behind him. But he got the win — he is 3-1 with a 2.43 ERA — in a 5-1 victory against the Tupelo Thunder. The Rascals are 10-5, best record in the New Albany-based CSL, a college summer league now in its sixth season. … Southern Miss senior-to-be Connor Barron and incoming junior Taylor Walker were selected to the Texas Collegiate League All-Star Game, which was played Tuesday night. Barron, from Sumrall, is batting .333 and Walker .284 for Acadiana. … Rising sophomore Zac Houston of Mississippi State was named the New England Collegiate Baseball League pitcher of the week on Monday. The Poplarville product worked five hitless innings with 10 strikeouts in three appearances for Plymouth. … Ole Miss rising sophomore Errol Robinson is batting .231 for Wareham in the Cape Cod League, and rising junior lefty Matt Denny, a Jackson Academy product, has a 1.17 ERA in three games for Hyannis.