the pitching news

There was a whole lot of pitching going on in the state the past few days. Among the Big Three NCAA Division I colleges, Mississippi State allowed four runs in 34 innings while sweeping SEC foe Tennessee three straight in Starkville; Ole Miss yielded two runs in 18 innings in taking the first two games of a three-game SEC set from Arkansas in Oxford; and Southern Miss checked C-USA rival Memphis on a single run in two Golden Eagles victories in Hattiesburg. … Meanwhile, in the big leagues, several Mississippi-connected hurlers also enjoyed some sweet results. On Saturday, MSU product Paul Maholm notched his first win as a Chicago Cub and ex-Ole Miss star Drew Pomeranz pitched an effective five innings for Colorado. He was denied a W when the bullpen blew a lead. Itawamba Community College alum Tim Dillard got the last six outs for Milwaukee in that one. On Friday, Lance Lynn won his third game (see previous post) for St. Louis and fellow ex-Rebel Matt Maloney picked up his first W as a Minnesota Twin. And ex-Bulldog Jonathan Papelbon went 3-for-3 in save chances during the week for Philadelphia. Mississippi Braves alums and current Atlanta starters Mike Minor, Brandon Beachy and Tommy Hanson beat Arizona in consecutive days; another ex-M-Brave, Randall Delgado, will try to make it four straight over the Diamondbacks today. M-Braves product Matt Harrison won his third game for Texas on Saturday, and ex-Jackson Generals ace Freddy Garcia was bailed out of a rocky start when the New York Yankees rallied from a 9-0 deficit to beat Boston 15-9. Also on Saturday, current M-Braves starter Zeke Spruill threw seven shutout innings at Birmingham to move his record to 2-1. … The news was not so good for Meridian CC product Cliff Lee, who went on the disabled list for the Phillies on Saturday, three days after his brilliant outing in San Francisco (see previous post).