trophy update

Led by Brett Hightower’s six-RBI game, Mississippi College squared its Maloney Trophy Series record at 2-2 with a 13-10 win over Millsaps on Tuesday. The Majors are 1-2 and Belhaven is 2-1 in the small college round robin competition. (BU plays at Millsaps next Wednesday.) Hightower leads MC (13-13 in a rollercoaster season) with four homers and 29 RBIs and is batting a robust .340. And yet, he trails Mike Kerdock by over 100 points in the Choctaws’ batting stats. Kerdock, 2-for-4 on Tuesday, is raking at a .449 clip, with 16 RBIs and 18 runs. MC needs better pitching and defense.
P.S. Former Mississippi Braves outfielder Gregor Blanco had two hits on Tuesday to lift his spring average to .356 with San Francisco. As ESPN analyst Aaron Boone said, Blanco has “kicked in the door” to the Giants’ outfield. A non-roster invitee to camp, he may be starter when the season begins next week. The speedy Blanco hit .252 with 12 triples for the M-Braves in 2005 and batted .287 in a half-season in Pearl in 2006. He had some success in Atlanta but was traded to Kansas City in mid-2010. He spent all of last season in the minors, batting .203 with Washington’s Triple-A club. What a comeback. … Ole Miss alum Seth Smith went 1-for-4 today in his Oakland debut as the A’s fell to Seattle 3-1 in 11 innings in Japan.