three cheers

A cheer for Mississippi State, which ended a five-game losing streak to Ole Miss with a 6-1 win in Tuesday night’s Governor’s Cup game at Trustmark Park in Pearl. State’s Jarrod Parks was named MVP, going 2-for-3 to lift his average to .402. The Bulldogs, at 23-14, appear headed for their first winning season since 2007, when they made a remarkable run to the College World Series. … A cheer for Belhaven, which rallied to beat Mississippi College 8-7 at Smith-Wills Stadium and, apparently, claimed the Maloney Trophy for 2011. The Blazers scored twice in the bottom of the ninth against MC’s ninth pitcher — Shane Bennett — getting a leadoff triple from Matt Discon, a sac fly from Paul Moreno and ultimately a game-winning single from Lake Eiland. BU went 3-1 in its Maloney games (2-0 vs. MC and 1-1 vs. Millsaps). Millsaps went 3-2 and MC 1-4 in the round robin (there seems to be some confusion as to which of the three Millsaps-MC games counted as Maloney games). … And a cheer for former Mississippi Braves standout Brandon Beachy, who earned his first big league win, throwing six shutout innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers as Atlanta won 10-1. M-Braves alums Martin Prado and Freddie Freeman homered in Tuesday’s game.
P.S. A boo for Ole Miss, which committed three costly errors in the loss to State and played like a team preoccupied with its looming SEC series at Auburn, which begins Thursday. The Rebels bused back to Oxford late Tuesday and were to bus to Auburn at midday today. A tough turnaround but still not an excuse for a lackluster effort.