Tag Archives: USM

12 Sep

golden touch

Several Southern Miss alumni enjoyed attention-grabbing performances in the minor leagues on Thursday night. Matthew Etzel, at Triple-A Jacksonville in the Miami system, went 3-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs in the Jumbo Shrimp’s 4-3 win over Memphis. Etzel, who has played in 84 games for four teams at three levels in 2025, is batting .256 with seven homers, 47 RBIs and 26 stolen bases. He is in his third pro season. Reed Trimble, who has also bounced around quite a bit, went 2-for-5 with an RBI, a run, a bag and an outfield assist for Triple-A Norfolk (Baltimore) in a 7-4 win vs. Durham. The injury-plagued Trimble, who started 2025 on the injured list, is batting .255 with 14 homers, 45 RBIs and 19 steals on the season. The Tupelo native was the 65th overall pick in 2021. Landon Harper, pitching at Double-A Columbus in Atlanta’s chain, worked 6 1/3 innings in relief (two runs) and notched the win against Pensacola. Meridian native Harper, in his fourth pro season, is 5-8 with a 3.59 ERA and two saves for the Clingstones (the former Mississippi Braves), working as both starter and reliever. Hunter Stanley, a 2021 draftee by Cleveland, made his 2025 debut at Double-A Akron and threw a scoreless inning against Harrisburg. Stanley had been on the IL since early August 2024. He has a 4.84 career ERA in 46 games. All the moments weren’t golden for former Golden Eagles on Thursday: In the independent American Association playoffs, J.C. Keys was charged with three runs in 1/3 of an inning and took the loss for Chicago against Kane County. The Hattiesburg native, in pro ball since 2019, had a 3.19 ERA and three saves in 38 games this season for the Dogs, whose pitching coach is ex-Delta State and MLB star Stewart Cliburn. P.S. On Wednesday, USM alum Walker Powell threw five shutout innings for Double-A Knoxville in the Chicago Cubs’ organization; the 6-foot-8 righty, who started the season on the IL, is 1-2 with a 3.45 ERA over 11 starts at three levels in his fifth pro season. … And today, MLB rookie Hurston Waldrep — who started his college career at USM — will start for Atlanta against a Houston team that has been caught by Seattle atop the American League West. Waldrep is 4-0, 1.33, in seven games for the Braves.

16 Aug

soaring ever higher

Third time was a charm for Hurston Waldrep, not that his first two MLB appearances this season were clunkers. The Southern Miss alum (3-0) hurled six shutout innings Friday night in Atlanta’s 2-0 win against Cleveland. The rookie right-hander gave up a run — just one — in each of his first two games and now has a 1.02 ERA over 17 2/3 innings. A 2023 first-round draft pick out of Florida who pitched well for the Double-A Mississippi Braves in 2023-24, Waldrep made two rocky starts in Atlanta last season and then went back to the minors. He spent the first four months of this season at Triple-A Gwinnett, refining his breaking stuff. That work appears to be paying dividends. “He’s a pitcher who knows who he is,” Braves catcher Sean Murphy said in an mlb.com piece. Featuring a brilliant splitter among other effective pitches, Waldrep allowed two hits with two walks and seven strikeouts vs. the Guardians. On the season, he has 17 strikeouts, five walks and an 0.79 WHIP. Waldrep went 7-2 with a 3.21 ERA in 27 games at USM in 2021-22, then helped Florida reach the CWS finals in ’23. … On the topic of former Golden Eagles pitchers: Nick Sandlin, on the injured list for Toronto since July 8, has begun throwing again, per reports, after a setback in his rehab work. In 19 games with the Blue Jays, Sandlin has a 2.20 ERA. … Dalton Rogers improved to 4-3 with a 4.43 ERA at Double-A Portland, yielding one run in 5 1/3 innings Friday against Somerset. Left-hander Rogers is in his fourth season in the Boston system. … Justin Storm, a 2023 draftee, notched his third hold of the season with two scoreless innings for High-Class A Beloit (Miami). The 6-foot-7 lefty has two wins, five saves and a 3.71 ERA. P.S. Ex-USM outfielder Matthew Etzel was promoted to Triple-A Jacksonville by Miami but did not play in Friday’s game. Etzel is batting .236 with five homers, 36 RBIs and 18 steals this season, having already played for three different teams and at two levels. The lefty-hitting Etzel, who goes 6-2, 211, was traded by Tampa Bay to Miami in July. Drafted by Baltimore in 2023, he was traded by the Orioles to the Rays last summer. It’s not like he can’t play: He is a .268 career hitter with 84 bags in 210 minor league games.

29 Mar

ring ’em up

For those aficionados of the game who consider a punchout by a pitcher as cool as a home run, Southern Miss’ J.B. Middleton produced a toast-worthy performance Friday. The junior right-hander struck out 12 batters over eight shutout innings in an 8-2 win against South Alabama at Taylor Park in Hattiesburg. It was the most strikeouts in a game for USM since the much-decorated Tanner Hall punched out 12 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette in 2023. Middleton, out of tiny Benton Academy, allowed just one hit and one walk against the Jaguars. He is 5-1 with a 2.20 ERA for the nationally ranked Golden Eagles (19-7, 6-1 Sun Belt). Middleton had a 4.34 ERA working mostly as a reliever in 2024. … Jackson State pitchers also enjoyed some K-rations, striking out 28 Grambling State batters in a doubleheader split at Braddy Field. Eric Elliott fanned 13 in six innings and Erick Gonzalez K’d four more in 1 2/3 in relief in the Tigers’ 6-3 win in Game 2. Elliott, who walked seven, is 4-0 with a 2.70 ERA and 51 strikeouts in 36 2/3 innings for JSU (15-10, 3-5 SWAC). JSU’s staff ERA is 5.72. … At Trustmark Park in Pearl, Belhaven got a dominant effort from Colton Sylvester in a 4-0 win that completed a twinbill sweep over Covenant College (Ga.). Sylvester punched out eight in six innings as he improved to 4-1, 2.79, for BU (16-9, 5-3 CCS). … Delta State relied on the home run to batter visiting Alabama-Huntsville twice at Ferriss Field in Cleveland, blasting seven long balls all told in winning 10-8 and 12-7. Dylan Coleman, from Madison via Hinds Community College, hit three out in Game 1, including a walk-off shot in the ninth. Coleman leads the NCAA Division II nationally ranked Statesmen (24-8, 17-3 Gulf South) with nine homers. Drew Capobianco, from Guntown via Itawamba CC, hit a three-run bomb in an eight-run sixth inning that decided Game 2.

18 Jan

globe-trotter

On the heels of a strong season in the Korean Baseball Organization, Kirk McCarty will travel over to Taiwan in 2024 to play for CTBC Brothers of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. The former Southern Miss standout and Hattiesburg native pitched in Major League Baseball for Cleveland in 2022. A diminutive left-hander, the 28-year-old McCarty went 9-6 with a 3.39 ERA in the KBO last season after going 4-3, 4.54, in 13 games for the Guardians the year before. He was released by Cleveland after the 2022 season. McCarty has a fairly impressive resume. He was an All-State performer and a strikeout machine at Oak Grove High, going 25-3 and winning a pair of state titles. He was a two-time All–C-USA pitcher at USM, going 22-4, 3.50, in three seasons in Hattiesburg. Drafted in the seventh round by Cleveland in 2017, McCarty was 23-28, 4.30, overall in the minors, 13-8 in Triple-A. He made his MLB debut on April 24, 2022. P.S. Today is the birthdate of another USM pitcher who made the majors: Hugh Laurin Pepper. Pepper, born in 1930 in Vaughan, died in 2018. A Mississippi Sports Hall of Famer, he was a baseball and football standout at USM, throwing a no-hitter in 1954 and rushing for 1,000 yards in 1952. He signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates in ’54 and played parts of four seasons in the big leagues.

05 Sep

if you like pitching …

Though the Mississippi Braves’ record (22-35, last in the Southern League South) isn’t good, the team’s pitching actually is. Heading into a six-game series against Tennessee at Pearl’s Trustmark Park, the last-place M-Braves sport the best staff ERA — 4.07 — in the Double-A league. The Smokies (32-25, first in the SL North), a Chicago Cubs affiliate, have the third-best at 4.52. The series, the M-Braves’ last at home in 2023, offers a couple of intriguing pitching matchups: On Thursday, Luis De Avila, Atlanta’s No. 14 prospect, goes against former Southern Miss star Walker Powell. De Avila’s 3.49 ERA ranks third in the league. The 6-foot-8 Powell leads the SL in wins with 11 and has the fifth-best ERA at 3.76. On Friday, Domingo Robles, with eight wins and the fourth-best ERA in the loop (3.62), faces Kohl Franklin, the Cubs’ No. 28 prospect. USM alum Hurston Waldrep, Atlanta’s first-round pick in July and its No. 2 prospect, makes his second Double-A start on Saturday; he threw three shutout innings last week. M-Braves veteran Alan Rangel, the SL’s reigning pitcher of the week (seven shutout innings, 12 strikeouts), will start on Sunday. P.S. Baltimore has promoted USM product Matthew Etzel, a 2023 draftee, to High-Class A Aberdeen. Etzel hit .33 with two homers, 23 RBIs and 18 stolen bases in 25 games at two lower levels.

13 Jun

cheers

Southern Miss turned the page Monday night on a glorious era. Scott Berry’s storied tenure started at Pete Taylor Park on Feb. 19, 2010, with an 11-0 win over Northwestern State. It ended on the same field with a 5-0 loss to Tennessee in Game 3 of the Super Regional — not the ending USM faithful had dreamed of for their retiring coach but not a terrible way to go out. The school’s all-time winningest coach doffed his hard hat and took a final curtain call as a gold-clad crowd of some 6,000 gave him a standing O. Berry won 528 games, made nine NCAA Tournament appearances, won five C-USA regular season titles and four tournament titles. In its first year in the Sun Belt Conference, USM finished second in the regular season, won the tourney title and then went off and won a regional on the road. Berry coached dozens of award-winning players and sent a bunch to pro ball. On top of all that, Berry is just a great guy, easy to root for. A trip to the College World Series would have been a more fitting finish, but for the second straight year, with Omaha in their sights, the Golden Eagles ran into some white-hot pitching. In 2022, it was Ole Miss, which went on to win the national title. This time, Vols pitchers blanked USM’s powerful lineup over the last 15 innings of the last two games. UT’s Chase Burns allowed one baserunner in the final 2 2/3 Monday. He got Dustin Dickerson on a line drive to end the game and the era. Christian Ostrander, the former pitching coach, is now the man in charge, and he has a lot to live up to. He follows Berry, who followed the legendary Corky Palmer, who took the Eagles to their one CWS appearance in 2009. Palmer succeeded Hill Denson, whose wins record Berry surpassed and whose name is on the field. Denson followed Pete Taylor, for whom the ballpark is named.

12 Jun

here and there

Southern Miss, which plays Tennessee today in Hattiesburg for a trip to the College World Series, isn’t just a Mississippi-based team. It’s a Mississippi-fueled team. Twenty Magnolia State natives dot the roster, including regulars Dustin Dickerson, Slade Wilks, Nick Monistere, Carson Paetow and Tate Parker. Today’s probable starter, Niko Mazza, is also a state product. Incidentally, USM’s 2009 team, the only one to make it to Omaha, also featured 20 Mississippi natives, most notably Brian Dozier, future big league star. … Also vying for a CWS trip today is Stanford, playing a Game 3 at home against Texas. Former Madison Central standout Braden Montgomery, an All–Pac-12 selection this year, is 4-for-9 with a walk and pair of runs in that Super Regional. … Former USM pitcher Hurston Waldrep, now at Florida, already has booked a trip to the CWS; he was brilliant (eight shutout innings, 13 strikeouts) in the Gators’ clincher vs. South Carolina on Saturday. … Twice on their just-completed homestand the Mississippi Braves took the field with a chance to reach .500 for the first time since mid-April. Twice they lost. Biloxi, which got five shutout innings from rehabbing big leaguer Wade Miley, beat the M-Braves 5-4 Sunday at Trustmark Park, dropping the home team to 27-29. The M-Braves started the season 3-2 but then went on an eight-game skid and have been fighting their way back ever since. … Mississippi native — and former M-Braves radio voice — Ben Ingram will do the TV play-by-play on Bally Sports South for Atlanta’s three-game series at Detroit. Ingram is moving over from the radio booth for this short road trip. … Congrats to Crystal Springs native Hunter Renfroe, who became a first-time father last week. The veteran outfielder out of Mississippi State returned to the Los Angeles Angels’ lineup on Saturday. … Tim Anderson, the East Central Community College product, got a (needed?) day off Sunday as the Chicago White Sox lost to Miami 6-5. Anderson went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and made a critical ninth-inning error that led to three unearned runs in the White Sox’s 5-1 loss to the Marlins on Saturday. Anderson, a 2022 All-Star, is hitting .263 with no home runs and has five errors in 46 games at shortstop with a minus-4 Defensive Runs Saved stat (per FanGraphs). BTW, former MSU star Kendall Graveman blew the save for the White Sox in Sunday’s loss; they are reeling again at 29-38. … MSU alum Brent Rooker hit his 13th homer for Oakland on Sunday as the woeful A’s (17-50) completed a three-game sweep at Milwaukee. After a prolonged cold spell, Rooker has six hits (two homers) in his last 19 at-bats.

10 Jun

what are the odds?

The oddsmakers don’t like Southern Miss’ chances of beating Tennessee in the best-of-3 Super Regional that starts today (2 p.m., ESPNU). The Vols are heavily favored. Even though: USM beat the odds to win the Auburn Regional through the losers bracket. Even though: USM is 26-5 at Taylor Park. Even though: Tennessee is 5-12 on the road and 7-14 away from home overall. Even though: It has been 31 years since a UT team ventured south to Hattiesburg. Even though: The Pete will be filled to the gills with extremely vocal gold-shirted cranks. Tennessee is favored. Even though: The Golden Eagles scored 40 runs in five games in the regional and had five hitters make the all-tournament team. Even though: USM has put up double-digit runs nine times at home this season. (“The park tends to play a little offensive, so they’ve always had good offenses,” Vols coach Tony Vitello said of USM’s lineup.) Tennessee is favored. Even though: The Eagles’ deep pitching staff features All-America right-hander Tanner Hall (12-3, 2.08 ERA), penciled in for Game 2 on Sunday. (“He takes advantage of hitters who are overzealous. Really preys on hitters who are overzealous,” the high-strung Vitello said of Hall.) Tennessee is favored. Even though: Eagles players desperately want to keep the season alive for their retiring coach, the beloved and respected Scott Berry. Yes, Tennessee has some power bats, five with 12 or more homers. And the Vols have two pitchers ranked by MLB Pipeline among the top 2023 draft prospects, including No. 6 Chase Dollander, expected to go Sunday. But these Eagles have a lot going for them this weekend, despite what the odds might say.

02 Jun

number crunching

Anything can happen on the field in a double-elimination tournament, but there are numbers on the stat sheet that bode well for Southern Miss’ chances in the Auburn Regional that starts today. In terms of run differential — a good measure of a team’s balance — USM, at plus-113, is far better than top seed Auburn (plus-69) or No. 3 Samford (plus-30), the Golden Eagles’ first-round foe. Penn, the 4-seed, has a plus-137, but the competition the Quakers faced in the Ivy League doesn’t compare to what the other three see in the baseball-crazy South. (The bottom three teams in the Ivy this season won a combined 24 games.) USM also has a far better staff ERA (4.60) than either Samford (6.00) or Auburn (5.80). Pitching coach — and head-coach-in-waiting — Christian Ostrander does a masterful job with young arms. Tanner Hall, the staff ace, is 12-3 with a 2.23 ERA. The junior right-hander, a virtual unknown at the start of the 2022 campaign, has won back-to-back conference pitcher of the year awards and has been a first-team All-America pick both years by Collegiate Baseball Magazine. But you gotta have some depth. USM can trot out four pitchers with sub-4.00 ERAs, an accomplishment in NCAA Division I ball. One of those four is closer Justin Storm, an intimidating (6 feet 6, 225 pounds) lefty who is 5-1 with eight saves, a 2.52 ERA and 59 strikeouts in 35 2/3 innings. Samford’s ace is Jacob Cravey (9-2, 3.19, CB second-team All-America, Southern Conference pitcher of the year), and the Bulldogs closer is Ben Petschke (14 saves, 4.29). Auburn’s top arm is starter Tommy Vail (5-1, 3.46). For the record, Auburn and Samford have a significantly better fielding percentage number (.978) than USM (.970), though the Eagles, with 41 wins, are hardly considered a poor defensive team. For what it’s worth, the Eagles have proven their mettle on the road, going 15-12 away from Taylor Park, including winning the Sun Belt Conference Tournament title in Montgomery, Ala. P.S. Kudos to Resurrection Catholic (Class 1A) and Lewisburg (6A) for winning MHSAA state championships on Thursday at Trustmark Park in Pearl.

29 May

road trip

Southern Miss will load up the bus and head east about 300 miles for its NCAA regional assignment. The Golden Eagles are the 2-seed in the Auburn Regional and will open Friday against Samford, another Alabama school. Top-seeded Auburn will play Penn on Friday. USM is 41-17 and champion of the Sun Belt Conference. Auburn (34-21-1) went 1-2 in the SEC Tournament. Samford, a 36-win team that won the Southern Conference Tournament, is led by John Anderson, who has 22 homers, and Jayden Davis, a .363 hitter. Also on the Bulldogs roster is Hinds Community College alum Josh Rodriguez (.271, 11 homers), an outfielder, and Kace Garner, a Northwest Rankin grad who played at Meridian CC and Mississippi State before landing at Samford. A backup catcher, he hit .143 in 19 games. One of Auburn’s big sticks is Bryson Ware, former Germantown High and Pearl River CC standout who was a second-team All-SEC pick this season. The Tigers are coached by Amory High and Itawamba CC alum Butch Thompson, a former Mississippi State assistant coach. The winner of the Auburn Regional will meet the winner of the Clemson Regional, which also includes Tennessee, in the Super Regional round.