Tag Archives: Texas Collegiate League

11 Jul

summer stock

Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez is 1-for-7 for Team USA and teammate Hunter Elliott worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings in one of the team’s two games in a tournament in The Netherlands. UM coach Mike Bianco is managing the Collegiate National Team, 1-1 in the tournament with a win against Italy and a loss to Japan. They play Cuba today. … With five hits over his last three games, Kellum Clark has boosted his average to .270 in the Cape Cod League. The Brandon native, who batted .254 with 14 homers at Mississippi State last season, has driven in six runs and scored seven for Wareham. His MSU teammate Jackson Fristoe has a 11.11 ERA in four games for the Gatemen, and Southern Miss’ Niko Mazza, a Madison native, is 1-1 with a 3.37 for that team. Ole Miss catcher Calvin Harris is 5-for-13 since joining the Cotuit club. USM’s Isaiah Rhodes has a 2.07 ERA in three appearances for Hyannis, and UM’s Wes Burton is 1-0, 5.06 for the Harbor Hawks. … William Carey’s Patrick Lee is second in the Texas Collegiate League with a .361 average and tops the league in runs with 30. He is one of several Mississippians playing for the Acadiana Cane Cutters. … In the New Albany-based Cotton States League, the HillCountry Generals are off to a 14-3 start, far and away best in the five-team college summer loop. Evan Radford, a former USM player now listed with East Mississippi Community College, is batting .500 with three homers and 15 RBIs for the Generals. Also for the Generals: EMCC’s Zac Butler is batting .429 with 17 runs; Northwest CC’s Peeko Townsend leads the league with five homers; Pontotoc native Caleb Hobson has scored 22 runs; and Amory’s Brody Bickerstaff is 4-0 with a 3.01 ERA.

25 Jun

around the horn

As the weather has warmed in the Carolina League, so has Blaze Jordan, the ex-DeSoto Central High star. Jordan, playing for Boston’s Low-Class A Salem team, homered for the second straight day on Friday and now has eight homers on the season. But the 19-year-old third baseman, who famously has been winning home run derby contests since age 11, is doing more than slug. After a poor start in April, Jordan hit .323 in May and has really cranked it up in June: .421. Boston’s No. 6 prospect is batting .309 overall with a .361 on-base average, 20 doubles, 40 RBIs and 38 runs in 61 games. He has struck out just 44 times in 243 at-bats with 18 walks. In only his second pro season, Jordan is making big strides. … Look for Brandon Woodruff, the Mississippi State alum from Wheeler, to make a return to Milwaukee’s rotation soon, possibly Tuesday. On the injured list since late May, Woodruff threw a rehab game in A-ball on Thursday and pronounced himself healthy. He pitched five innings and allowed one run on two hits and a walk with seven strikeouts. The two-time All-Star is 5-3 with a 4.74 ERA for the Brewers this season. … Meanwhile, former State standout Hunter Renfroe, who has 13 homers this season, has missed Milwaukee’s last two games with a reported calf injury. It seems unclear how long Renfroe might be down. … Kudos to Jackson native and ex-big leaguer Stan Cliburn, whose Southern Maryland Blue Crabs clinched the Atlantic League North first-half title on Thursday. Cliburn’s club is 42-14. Among his best players are Mississippi products Braxton Lee (.305, 31 RBIs) and Bradley Roney (4-0, 4.21 ERA). … The Acadiana Cane Cutters, with a roster chock-full of Mississippians, lead the Texas Collegiate League with a 14-5 record. Patrick Lee, who plays for William Carey University, is batting .296 and has also pitched in five games for the summer league team. Carey’s Connor Adams is 3-0, 2.74 in eight appearances. Also on the roster are Casey Artigues (Southern Miss), Cade Crosby (Gulfport/Nicholls State), Vantrel Reed (Hinds Community College), Will Tynes (USM), Reed Vincent (Belhaven) and Justin Williams (Madison/Louisiana Tech).

11 Jun

summer session

The Cotton States League is back for 2021 with a whole new look. The wood-bat college summer league has added a Coastal division to go with its traditional New Albany-based North division. (There is also a high school league and a junior high league.) The Coastal teams, which began play last weekend, are the Biloxi Bacon, Gulfport Gamblers, Ocean Springs Ospreys, Bay St. Louis Seagulls, D’Iberville Dolphins and Pascagoula Pelicans. Games are being played at MGM Park, Biloxi High School and the AJ Holloway Sports Complex. The North, also just under way, includes the North Delta Dealers, Tupelo Thunder, Golden Triangle Jets, Woodall Mountain Lookouts, Tallahatchie Rascals, Tippah Tribe, BlackPrairie Mudcats and HillCountry Generals. North teams play at two fields at BNA Bank Park. … The Acadiana Cane Cutters of the Texas Collegiate League are stacked with Mississippi connections. Southern Miss’ Matthew Adams, Tanner Hall, Michael Latulas and Will Tynes, Ole Miss’ Ben Van Cleve, Belhaven’s Reed Vincent and Northwest Mississippi Community College’s Peyton Puckett are on the roster. The TCL season began this week. Tynes and Vincent pitched Thursday night. … The Cape Cod League, cancelled in 2020, opens its season on June 20, with a handful of Mississippi college players listed on the preliminary rosters. Bourne shows Mississippi State’s Will Bednar, Xavier Lovett and Cade Smith and Southern Miss’ Slade Wilks. Ole Miss’ Peyton Chatagnier and Derek Diamond are with Orleans. Falmouth has five state products: Bulldogs K.C. Hunt, Davis Rokose, Landon Sims and Mikey Tepper along with Bryson Ware, a Pearl River Community College alum now at Auburn. P.S. In the wake of the cancellation of the college season in 2020, several new summer leagues – Southeast Collegiate, Deep South Collegiate, Honor the Game — sprang up around the state, but it’s unclear if any will operate this year.

10 Jun

summer sessions

The New Albany-based Cotton States League is under way, with the Tippah County Tribe, featuring several Blue Mountain College players, off to a 3-1 start. Among the league’s top hitters to date are Northeast Mississippi CC alum Landon Wilkerson (.500, eight RBIs for the Tupelo Thunder) and Belhaven’s Nathan Herron (.500, homer, nine RBIs for the Golden Triangle Jets). Northeast CC alum Nikolas Wilcher is 2-0, 1.80 ERA for 3-2 Tupelo. This is the CSL’s 11th season. … In the Texas Collegiate League, the Acadiana Cane Cutters’ roster is replete with Mississippians: Southern Miss’ Hunter LeBlanc, Fisher Norris, Josh Lewis and Drew Boyd, Delta State’s Kris Peet, Hunter Stafford and Bailey Hargrave, Hinds Community College alum Noah Hughes and Jones JC product Trace Henry. … The Cape Cod League season starts today, though none of the Mississippi State or Ole Miss players slated for the high-profile summer league are there yet for obvious reasons. One of the main attractions in the Cape figures to be J.T. Ginn, who starred as a freshman (8-4, 3.36 ERA) for State this season after being a first-round MLB draft pick last summer. Ginn is ticketed to pitch for Orleans. After a star-studded career as a two-way player at Brandon High, Ginn was drafted 30th overall by the Los Angeles Dodgers but passed on the pro opportunity to play at State with no apparent regrets. The Hyannis team has a distinct Mississippi flavor, with three MSU players and one from Ole Miss listed on the club’s preseason roster. Bulldogs Tanner Allen, Rowdey Jordan and Jordan Westburg are joined by the Rebels’ Anthony Servideo. UM’s Tyler Keenan and former Ocean Springs High star Garrett Crochet, now at Tennessee, will play for Harwich, and State’s Justin Foscue is on the Wareham roster.

12 Jun

summer stock

Ole Miss players will be plentiful in the venerable Cape Cod League, which starts its 133rd season today. Greer Holston, Cooper Johnson and Grae Kessinger are on the roster of the Bourne Braves. Thomas Dillard is with Cotuit, Will Ethridge with Falmouth and Jordan Fowler and Houston Roth with Hyannis. Mississippi State’s Jordan Anderson is listed on the Falmouth roster, though Bulldogs players will be a little delayed in reaching their summer assignments. They have more pressing business, of course: the College World Series. … Southern Miss has four players, including outfielder Fred Franklin, with the Acadiana team in the Texas Collegiate League. … Ole Miss’ Parker Caracci and USM’s Matt Wallner are on the roster for Team USA’s college national squad. Caracci, drafted this month as an eligible sophomore by Toronto, had 10 saves and a 2.31 ERA for the Rebels in 2018. Wallner, a rising junior who batted .351 with 16 homers last season, has been projected to go ninth overall in the 2019 draft by an mlb.com writer. … The New Albany-based Cotton States League is up and running in its 10th season. The HillCountry Generals, featuring a bevy of Blue Mountain College players, are off to a 4-1 start. Ty Wooten, an Arkansas-Little Rock player, is hitting .467 for the Generals. In addition to BMC alums, players from Belhaven, Ole Miss, Mississippi Valley State, MUW and several state jucos are in the league. … Hinds Community College coach Sam Temple will be on the staff of the NJCAA National Team in the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita in late July. The all-star squad has yet to be announced. … Mississippi Gulf Coast CC’s Brandon Parker and Meridian CC’s Trace Jordan were named to the NJCAA Division II All-America first team and Pearl River’s Simon Landry to the second team. P.S. If anyone is wondering, former State star Rafael Palmeiro is batting .212 in 10 games for Cleburne in the independent American Association. The 53-year-old ex-big leaguer hasn’t homered since his one bomb on May 21 (see previous post).

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.