make room for ...

With the Mississippi Braves’ eighth season just a deep fly ball away — opening day at Trustmark Park is April 5 — it’s time to revisit the All-M-Braves team first presented in 2010 for the Double-A club’s fifth anniversary. At least two spots must change based on performances from a year ago. Ernesto Mejia’s monster season in 2011, when he batted .297 with team records for homers (26) and RBIs (99), displaces what Scott Thorman put up (.305, 15, 65) as the first baseman in 2005. And Tyler Pastornicky rates the nod at shortstop after batting .299 with six homers, 36 RBIs, 50 runs and 20 steals in 90 games last season. He was also as good or better defensively than Diory Hernandez, who batted .307 with seven homers, 59 RBIs and 22 steals in a full season in 2007. Brian McCann (.265, 6 homers, 26 RBIs in two months in 2005) still holds forth at catcher, though it’ll be interesting to see what young Christian Bethancourt does this summer. Second base still belongs to J.C. Holt, who hit .285 with 45 RBIs and 22 steals for the M-Braves’ 2008 Southern League championship club. Third base has not been a particularly hot corner for the M-Braves. Donell Linares batted .279 with seven homers and 62 RBIs last season. It’s a close call, but Wes Timmons’ overall production in 2005 was better. He was an on-base machine, hit .272 with 31 doubles, seven homers and 34 RBIs and played solid defense. In the outfield, the trio of Matt Young (.289, 10 triples, 81 runs, 42 steals in 2009), Brandon Jones (.293, 15 homers, 74 RBIs in 2007) and Jeff Francoeur (.275, 13 homers, 62 RBIs and 15 stolen bases in a half season in 2005) has not been unseated by anyone from 2010 or ’11. The All-M-Braves rotation also remains unchanged: Tommy Hanson, Todd Redmond, Chuck James, Jo-Jo Reyes and Matt Wright. And Luis Valdez (now known as Jairo Asencio) has not been eclipsed as the best closer since posting 28 saves in 2008. This all-time lineup is fluid, of course, and there are several players with the potential to break through in 2012.

transaction watch

Colorado optioned Drew Pomeranz to the minors on Friday. But the touted former Ole Miss star will only be gone from the big club for a short while. The Rockies, who open on April 6, won't need a fifth starter until April 15, and Pomeranz is penciled in for that day. He was 2-1 with a 5.40 ERA in four starts for the Rockies last summer after being acquired from Cleveland. ... In other recent moves: Kansas City optioned former Pillow Academy standout Louis Coleman to Triple-A; he pitched well for the Royals as a rookie in 2011. Outfielder Jarrod Dyson, a Southwest Mississippi Community College alumnus, also has been optioned out by KC. The New York Yankees sent Mississippi State product Craig Tatum to Triple-A; a waiver claim from Arizona, Tatum will await an emergency call-up as a reserve catcher. Cleveland reassigned veteran outfielder Fred Lewis, who has had an elbow injury, to minor league camp; the former Mississippi Gulf Coast CC standout finished last season in the minors with Cincinnati. Ole Miss product Matt Tolbert, in the Chicago Cubs' camp as a non-roster invitee, has been shipped out to minor league camp.

packing again

Former Mississippi State standout Craig Tatum is on the move again, having been claimed off waivers late Wednesday by the New York Yankees. Tatum was in camp with Arizona, which was attempting to stash the defensive-minded catcher in the minors. In just a few months time, Tatum has gone from Baltimore (where he hit .195 in 2011) to Houston to Arizona to New York. The Yankees now have four catchers on their 40-man roster, including Russell Martin, Francisco Cervelli and Austin Romine. They reportedly were looking for some veteran insurance when they snatched Tatum from the Diamondbacks. Romine has had injury issues this spring.
P.S. Itawamba Community College, freshly ranked No. 6 in the nation, split a non-division doubleheader with formerly fourth-ranked Hinds on Wednesday in Raymond. ICC is now 21-5. Hinds, which fell out of the latest NJCAA Division II poll, is 20-7. Jones County JC moved into the Top 20 at No. 16.

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.

on your marks

They start playing for keeps in MLB on Wednesday morning (Mississippi time), when Oakland and Seattle tangle in Japan. Seth Smith, the ex-Hillcrest Christian and Ole Miss standout, is expected to make his A’s debut — probably at DH, not left field. Oakland announced some time back that Yoenis Cespedes, the prized (and high-priced) Cuban defector, would start in center field, with Coco Crisp moving to left. Josh Reddick is slated to start in right. That leaves the DH role for Smith, a lefty hitter who should be in the opening lineup against Mariners ace right-hander Felix Hernandez. Smith is hitting .286 this spring, above his career average of .275. He hasn’t homered, but he’ll get some. He belted 15 for Colorado in 2011 and should get more at-bats with Oakland, though many of them will come in a park that’s tougher for hitters than Coors Field. Smith, a good athlete, will get some outfield time, as well. … Former Mississippi Braves third baseman Wes Timmons did not make the A’s roster for the two-game series in Japan. Timmons, who was on the inaugural M-Braves club in 2005, has played 998 minor league games without a taste of the majors.
P.S. Former Mississippi State left-hander Paul Maholm threw five shutout innings for the Chicago Cubs on Monday and lowered his spring ERA to 0.90 in 10 innings. The Greenwood native is slated to be the Cubs’ No. 5 starter, which is fine by him. “I’ll take the ball every fifth day and expect to win that day,” he told mlb.com. “The day you’re pitching, you’re the No. 1 guy.” It’s refreshing to hear an attitude like that.

painting by numbers

Here's a picture of the weekend in Magnolia State college baseball:

30 — Runs by Southern Miss in its C-USA opening series against Houston. Somehow, the Golden Eagles only won two of three.
15 — Strikeouts by USM's Andrew Pierce in Friday's 8-0 win over Houston.
5 — Hits by Ole Miss' Alex Yarbrough, helping the Rebels take two of three at Alabama. Yarbrough now has 37 hits on the year and a .407 average, both team-highs.
5 — Wins on the season, against no losses, for Mississippi State's Chris Stratton. He beat Arkansas on Friday, the only win for the Bulldogs in the SEC series.
9 — Saves for Belhaven's Josh Clarke, including one in Friday's victory over Spring Hill. BU (25-12) swept the series to get to 10-8 in the SSAC.
8 — Errors by Mississippi College in its series opening loss against Louisiana College. The Choctaws were error-free in Saturday's doubleheader sweep that moved them to 5-4 in the American Southwest Conference.
8 — Home runs this season for Jackson State's Kendall Logan, who hit two as the Tigers took two of three in a non-league series at Florida A&M.
4 — RBIs by Delta State's Jonathan Andrews in a much-needed 10-5 win on Sunday against Valdosta State; the Statesmen lost the first two games of the GSC series.
3 — Straight losses by William Carey in a home SSAC series against Faulkner. The Crusaders fell to 8-9 in the league.
37 — Points by which Millsaps' Wes Perkins lifted his batting average (to .337) as the Majors took two of three at Oglethorpe to start their final SCAC season.

lynn-sanity in st. louis

On Saturday, the day after St. Louis announced that ace Chris Carpenter would open the season on the disabled list, former Ole Miss star Lance Lynn endured a rather rocky outing against the New York Mets. Lynn, likely to fill Carpenter's spot in the rotation for the defending world champions, yielded four runs (three earned) in 4 2/3 innings. He walked two and allowed two home runs. In 15 2/3 spring innings, Lynn's ERA is a solid 2.87. But suddenly he has a larger role and, along with it, more pressure to excel. The Cardinals don't know how long Carpenter (nerve irritation in his right shoulder) will be out. Lynn was a starter at Ole Miss and in the minors, but the Cardinals used him mostly in relief when they brought him up last summer. In 18 appearances (just two starts), he notched a win, a save and a 3.12 ERA. The big right-hander also pitched very well in the postseason. A wild card in this Carpenter development might be unsigned free agent Roy Oswalt. The Weir and Holmes Community College product most recently has been linked to the Los Angeles Angels. But, remember, St. Louis was one of the teams he was said to be most interested in during the off-season. Might be something to keep an eye on.

scac swan song

Millsaps begins its last Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference campaign today when the Majors take on Oglethorpe in Atlanta. The Majors, who have won six SCAC baseball championships, will move next fall into the Southern Athletic Association, an eight-team NCAA Division III league made up mostly of current SCAC members, including Oglethorpe. Jim Page's 24th edition of Majors is off to a 13-8 start and, interestingly enough, is 10-2 away from home. Stephen Gates leads the Millsaps hitters with a .427 average and has two homers, half the team's total. Ryan Zemke is at .383 with a team-best 19 RBIs, and Samuel Doucet is batting .349 with 18 RBIs. Doucet doubles as a relief pitcher and has posted a sterling 1.59 ERA in 22 2/3 innings. The ace of this staff is Will Edwards, an East Mississippi Community College transfer who is 3-2 with a 2.92. Will Elmore is 1-3, 3.57.
P.S. The SAA was formed last summer when Millsaps, Birmingham-Southern, Centre, Hendrix, Oglethorpe, Rhodes and Sewanee announced they were leaving the SCAC, effective June 30, 2012. Berry College of Georgia will join them in the new league. Wonder why Mississippi College wasn't invited? Hmmm.

charting a course

Southern Miss and Houston, who meet in a Conference USA opening series this weekend in Hattiesburg, might just see the direction of their respective seasons determined by what happens at Pete Taylor Park. In many ways, they are sitting in the same boat. USM, relying heavily on newcomers, is 12-9 and coming off a blowout win at Ole Miss. Houston, also rebuilding to an extent, is only 9-10 but just won two of three at Oklahoma State. The Eagles and Cougars have played 52 times all-time; the series is deadlocked at 26-all. The last time they met was in the C-USA Tournament last May in Pearl, with Houston winning 7-6 in 14 innings. Freshmen Mason Robbins (.442 with an 18-game hit streak) and Connor Barron (.355) and juco transfer Blake Brown (.342, four homers, 24 RBIs) lead the Eagles' attack. They'll face a senior left-hander tonight: Jordan Lewis, who is 3-2, 2.81. The Cougars' pitching looks decent on paper. Their hitting doesn't scare anyone. Chase Jensen leads the offense with a .303 average. USM will open with Andrew Pierce, a sensation at Jones County Junior College in 2011 who is 2-1 with a 2.30 this year. This figures to be a tight series, and the winner should head off with wind in its sails.
P.S. Hinds CC, which is 18-5, has had some rather remarkable hitting performances to date. Beau Wallace is hitting .464, Caleb Baucum .493 (with four homers) and Tyler Atkins .507 (with three homers and 22 RBIs). Amazing.

cream rises

Jones County Junior College, which wobbled a bit to begin its campaign, is off to a 4-0 start in division play in the MACJC. The defending state and Region 23 champion Bobcats (16-8) swept Pearl River on Tuesday and hold a one-game lead on Southwest in the South Division. The Bears have a losing overall mark but are 3-1 in the division heading into a key series with Hinds on Saturday. The Eagles, ranked No. 4 in the most recent NJCAA Division II poll, are 18-5 overall but just 3-3 in the division, having been swept by East Central on Tuesday. In the North Division, Itawamba and Northeast are tied at 5-1. ICC (18-4) won a pair of one-run games against Northwest on Tuesday, while Northeast, which has a losing record, swept Holmes as freshman Kyle Robbins got a win and a save.
P.S. We are two weeks out from opening day at Trustmark Park. The Mississippi Braves play Mobile on April 5 to launch their eighth season in Pearl. Rosters aren't settled yet but still expect to see top 10 prospects Andrelton Simmons (if he doesn't make the Atlanta roster), Christian Bethancourt and Zeke Spruill on this year's club, along with Cory Harrilchak, Joe Terdoslavich, Todd Cunningham and possibly 2011 top pick Sean Gilmartin. It could be a very good team.

travel plans

It has been an impressive roll for Jackson State, which has ticked off 10 straight wins en route to a 14-6 record. The Tigers swept three from Alcorn State at Braddy Field over the weekend to reach 8-1 in the SWAC. Now, the Tigers take the show on the road, playing their next eight games away from home. This will be a test for coach Omar Johnson's club. Included in this trip is a game tonight at Southeastern Louisiana, two against Florida A&M and another at Ole Miss. Kendall Logan, from Natchez and Copiah-Lincoln Community College, has been JSU's heavy hitter, batting .414 with six homers and 23 RBIs. Three other regulars are hitting .300: Charles Epperson (.338, four homers), Glenn Walker (.328) and Frank Solis (.300). Desmond Russell is 4-1 with a 1.77 ERA, and Quintavious Drains is 3-3, 4.54. It'll be interesting to see what those stats look like after the road swing.
P.S. Ben Kingsley is emerging as a Ferriss Trophy candidate at Delta State. The junior out of Meridian CC has a 17-game hit streak and is batting .397 with 22 RBIs and 17 runs for the 16-5 Statesmen, who haven't had a Ferriss winner. ... Another potential Ferriss candidate is Belhaven's Anthony Doss, a former Southern Miss player who had a monster day (two homers, six RBIs) against Mississippi College on Tuesday. Doss is batting .424 with five bombs, 30 RBIs and 31 runs for a 22-12 team. ... With its 15-7 win on Tuesday, BU is now 2-1 in Maloney Trophy Series play; MC is 1-2. ... Shouldn't make too much of USM's 10-0 win at Ole Miss on Tuesday. It ain't football. One game doesn't mean a lot, though the Golden Eagles may have built some needed momentum for their Conference USA opener this weekend against Houston. UM was — and still is — smarting from losing its first SEC series to visiting Auburn.

twinkle, twinkle

It should be fun to watch Desmond Jennings this season. His star is definitely rising. The former Itawamba Community College standout, who'll break camp as Tampa Bay's left fielder and leadoff batter, is batting .381 this spring after banging out two more hits on Sunday. The former football player (see previous posts) apparently suffered no ill effects from a nasty collision with Rays teammate B.J. Upton on Wednesday. Major League Baseball Yearbook projects Jennings' 2012 numbers like this: .269, 15 homers, 50 RBIs, 96 runs and 45 steals. With his speed, he could hit much better than .269. Tampa Bay gave the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Jennings a look in 2010 and a much longer one last summer. He cooled after a hot start and wound up at .259 with 10 homers and 20 steals in 63 games. He might be an All-Star come July.

gotta have it

Pitching is the thing in baseball. Starting pitching. You cannot win without it. There were four excellent outings from Mississippi college hurlers on Friday, though only three of them were rewarded with a W. Raise a glass to Ole Miss' Bobby Wahl, Mississippi State's Chris Stratton, Jackson State's Desmond Russell and Mississippi College's Ian Underwood. Wahl went six innings in the Rebels' SEC opener and allowed one unearned run in the 2-1 victory against Auburn to improve to 4-0. Stratton made Bulldogs coach John Cohen look like a genius when he chose the junior right-hander from Tupelo for his first start of the season. Stratton allowed just one run over 8 2/3 innings with 17 strikeouts at LSU, which rallied in the 10th for a 3-2 win. Stratton had worked 21 innings in four relief appearances, notching four wins, before Friday's outing. JSU's Russell, a sophomore from the Bahamas, threw nine innings to beat Alcorn State in the opener of a key SWAC series at Braddy Field. Russell, now 4-1, allowed six hits and fanned seven in the 7-3 win that moved the Tigers to 6-1 in the league. MC won an American Southwest Conference road game, beating LeTourneau 5-1, as Ian Underwood tossed a complete game five-hitter. Underwood, a senior from Pascagoula, is 3-2 for the 9-10 Choctaws.

bring it on

The appetizers have been consumed. The main course for Mississippi State and Ole Miss begins this weekend, when the first SEC games come out of the oven. Unranked Auburn will be served up to the Rebels in Oxford; State's foe is a little less palatable — 10th-ranked (in one poll) LSU. And that three-game series, which starts Friday, is at the Tigers' place. The Bulldogs are 14-5 but are 0-2 on the road and have some injury issues. Demarcus Henderson is hitting .405 (with just three RBIs), and Adam Frazier (.354) and Wes Rea (.329, 16 RBIs) have been steady contributors. But the Dogs' hitting overall is still suspect, especially against an LSU staff that has posted six shutouts. State has an excellent staff ERA of 2.60, and yet there may be concerns about how the weekend starters will fare away from Dudy Noble Field for the first time. And the defense needs to tighten up: 27 errors are too many. It's hard to find nits to pick with Ole Miss (14-3). Zach Kirksey has eight home runs and 30 RBIs. Alex Yarbrough is batting an eye-popping .471 with 45 runs accounted for. Matt Snyder is hitting .410. Starting pitchers Bobby Wahl (3-0, 1.96) and R.J. Hively (3-0, 2.08) have been stellar, and closer Brett Huber has four saves in four chances. The Rebels have outscored their opposition 146-54. Ole Miss may really fatten up on Auburn, which brings a 10-7 record to Oxford-University Stadium.
P.S. Mississippi's four nationally ranked junior colleges began division play on Wednesday. No. 4 Hinds Community College and No. 19 Pearl River split an MACJC South doubleheader in Poplarville. The Eagles (16-3) had a 12-game win streak stopped in Game 2 when ex-Sumrall High star Brandon Pennington (4-0) tossed a shutout for PRCC (15-5). No. 13 Itawamba (14-3) swept Mississippi Delta in a North matchup, and No. 20 Copiah-Lincoln (13-4) split a South twinbill against Southwest. Jones County JC, which was ranked No. 2 in the NJCAA preseason poll, skidded to an 11-7 start and is playing Gulf Coast today in South Division action.

anybody worried?

The Atlanta Braves got a ninth-inning home run from Christian Bethancourt (a likely 2012 Mississippi Braves catcher) and salvaged a 2-2 tie with Miami in spring training play today. The Braves have won just once in 12 games. Once. Former M-Braves and expected regulars Brian McCann (.200), Jason Heyward (.143), Freddie Freeman (.136) and Tyler Pastornicky (.100) are scuffling. Heyward supposedly is healthy this spring and has made swing adjustments. But the results haven't been there. That goes for the whole team, really. Will things pick up for this bunch when the real games start? Or is it time to start worrying that the 2011 collapse will linger into 2012?

stepping up

There were several job openings in the Mississippi State lineup heading into this season, and Demarcus Henderson certainly seems to have latched onto one. The redshirt freshman outfielder out of Waynesboro is hitting a team-best .414 with an eight-game hit streak. The 5-foot-11, 174-pound Henderson was named the SEC freshman of the week on Monday. He might have been better known in high school as the Wayne County quarterback, but he had solid baseball credentials. He batted .455 with 10 homers as a junior in 2009 and was an All-State pick in 2010 after batting .492. Houston drafted him in the 43rd round in 2010. He played some at State early last season but then had corrective eye surgery and was shut down. He has been a revelation for the Bulldogs, who, despite some key injuries, are 14-3 and play their first road game of the season tonight at Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond. They open SEC play this weekend at LSU.
P.S. Mississippi College's use of 10 pitchers in its 8-6 win over Illinois Wesleyan on Monday was, for the most part, by design. Coach Brian Owens used one pitcher for one inning each until the ninth, when Andy Roberts ran into trouble and Scott Trousdale was summoned to get the last out. The Choctaws tied an NCAA record with the 10 pitchers. MC has a big American Southwest Conference trip coming this weekend at LeTourneau and Owens apparently is still trying to get his pitching staff (5.40 ERA) in order. Everyone should be well-rested, at the least. The Choctaws are 8-10, 1-2 ASC.

it ain't braggin' ...

Tony Sipp, the Pascagoula native and former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College star, was interviewed during MLB Network's delayed broadcast of today's Arizona-Cleveland game. Sipp, a lefty reliever who put up a 3.03 ERA in his third big league season in 2011, talked about last year's Indians relief corps, which was nicknamed the "Bullpen Mafia." He likes it. "When you give it a name, you have some responsibility," he said. Sipp also commented on his "low-key" off-season and his shaky golf game. He was asked if he was frustrated that Indians pitchers cannot swing the bat during plate appearances this spring. Sipp was a pretty good hitter as well as a pitching prospect at Moss Point High, MGCCC and Clemson. "I'm settling for telling guys what I WOULD do," Sipp said with a laugh. On the mound, he's been unspectacular this spring, allowing four runs in three innings of work.

big 5-0

Darryl Strawberry turns 50 today. Longtime Jackson area fans surely must find it hard to fathom that it was 30 years ago when Strawberry played right field for the Jackson Mets. He arrived in the Capital City with tremendous fanfare. He was the No. 1 overall pick by the New York Mets in the 1980 draft and clearly was on the fast track to the big leagues. He showed he was ready during that '82 season, batting .283 with a franchise-record 34 home runs, 97 RBIs and 45 stolen bases. His debut at Smith-Wills Stadium? Before a crowd of about 1,200 on a soggy April night, he doubled his second time up and scored the game's first run on a single by none other than Billy Beane, the No. 23 overall pick in 1980 who went on to carve out some fame of his own. The Straw took National League rookie of the year honors in 1983, batting .257 with 26 bombs, and he helped the Mets win the 1986 World Series. He had Hall of Fame talent, but his various off-field transgressions cut into his potential. Strawberry finished with a .259 average, 335 homers and 1,000 RBIs. Here's hoping he enjoys a nice, restrained celebration of the big 5-0.

spring has sprung

So much of the attention in Oakland's spring camp has centered on free agent outfielders Manny Ramirez and Yoenis Cespedes that Seth Smith has been able to very quietly get off to a good start with his new club. The former Ole Miss standout is batting .294 in 17 at-bats and is a good bet to be in left field when the A's open the season. Smith was acquired from Colorado in the off-season. He should play more regularly with the A's than he would have with the Rockies, but he's got to hit lefties better. Two weeks into spring training games, the stats are starting to mean something. That's good for some Mississippians, not so good for others. Delta State product Eli Whiteside, hoping to stick in the big leagues as San Francisco's backup catcher, is batting .364 with four RBIs in 11 at-bats. Ex-Ole Miss star Zack Cozart, coming back from shoulder surgery, appears to be settling in as Cincinnati's regular shortstop and is 4-for-12. Ole Miss alumnus Alex Presley, battling for an outfield job with Pittsburgh, is off to a .400 start in 15 ABs. Former Rebels pitchers Lance Lynn (St. Louis) and Matt Maloney (Minnesota) have been strong. Lynn, a postseason hero for the champion Cardinals, has a 3.00 ERA in three innings, and Maloney, a newcomer to the Twins, has not allowed an earned run in four IPs. DSU's Dusty Hughes has put up a 0.00 ERA in three innings for Atlanta; he's trying to stick as a lefty in the loaded Braves bullpen. (Can't help but notice that the Braves are 1-8 this spring.) Things are not going so well for Mitch Moreland, the ex-Mississippi State star. He homered in his second at-bat of the spring but that's his only hit in 16 ABs (.063). He had wrist surgery in the off-season. Former Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College standout Fred Lewis, in Cleveland's camp on a minor league deal, has only six at-bats and just one hit. Nettleton's Bill Hall, trying to make the New York Yankees as a non-roster player, is 1-for-11. Southern Miss alumnus Jarrett Hoffpauir, in a similar situation with Washington, is 1-for-10. There's a crowd at catcher in Arizona's camp, and MSU product Craig Tatum has gotten into only three games (0-for-3).

scatter shots

So far, so great for Bobby Wahl's move from the bullpen to the rotation at Ole Miss. The sophomore right-hander beat Houston on Friday night to move to 3-0 (in four starts) with a 1.96 ERA. He fanned a career-high 10. He had a 4.80 ERA in 18 appearances last season. ... Adam Frazier, replacing injured C.T. Bradford as Mississippi State's leadoff batter on Friday against Mercer, led off the first inning with a single, stole a bag and scored a run — and the Bulldogs (13-2) went on to win their seventh straight. ... Freshman Mason Robbins extended his hit streak to 11 games, but Southern Miss' pitching let it down in a 12-5 loss at Louisiana-Lafayette. ... Belhaven's top two hitters, Anthony Doss and Bud Britt, weren't in the lineup in the slumping Blazers' loss to Auburn-Montgomery at Smith-Wills Stadium. ... William Carey, which has won eight straight, hosts Mobile today and Sunday at Wheeler Field in Hattiesburg in a weather-delayed Southern States Athletic Conference series. The Crusaders are 14-7, 6-2. ... Mississippi College also pushed back its weekend series. The Choctaws will open American Southwest Conference play at Frierson Field in Clinton with a doubleheader today and a solo game Sunday against Texas-Tyler. ... Hinds Community College, 14-2 with 10 straight wins, hosts Tyler Junior College in a twinbill today at Moss Field in Raymond. Tyler Akins, a sophomore from Madison, is 2-1 with three saves as a pitcher and has also hit two homers for the Eagles.

crunch time

Belhaven has stalled a bit since its roaring start and faces a big series against league rival Auburn-Montgomery at Smith-Wills Stadium this weekend. After starting 10-3, the 15th-ranked Blazers are now 15-9 and just 4-5 in the Southern States Athletic Conference. Anthony Doss is still raking: .398 with 23 runs and 20 RBIs. Bud Britt is batting .354. But as a team, BU is hitting just .273 with no other regulars over .300. The Blazers have an excellent staff ERA of 3.07, but they'd like to see more consistency from starter Allen Johnson (2-4, 6.03) and closer Josh Clarke (6.43 ERA, with five saves). The Blazers are slated to play a single game today and a doubleheader on Saturday. UAM, ranked 13th in NAIA, is 16-9 and 7-2 SSAC.
P.S. Charles Epperson (.405, four homers, 11 RBIs) and Kendall Logan (.405, 2, 12) have been sizzling for Jackson State, which hosts Alabama State in a SWAC series at Braddy Field this weekend. The Tigers are 6-6, 2-1 in the league. ... Mississippi College plays its first American Southwest Conference series this weekend. The Choctaws (6-8) face Texas-Tyler (12-3) today and Saturday (twinbill) at Frierson Field in Clinton. UT-Tyler was the preseason favorite in the ASC East. ... The injury bug has struck Mississippi State hitting stalwarts C.T. Bradford and Daryl Norris. The latter reportedly could be out for an extended period.

crazy numbers - again

Ole Miss' Senquez Golson had an odd — but good — game on Tuesday. Golson was 0-for-7 but scored four times in the Rebels' 20-4 rout of UT-Martin, which made five errors. Golson, the highly prized two-sport star from Pascagoula, has scored 10 runs in nine games for the 10-2 Rebels. The freshman is also hitting .333 with four steals in five attempts. Alex Yarbrough is batting .413 with two homers and 16 RBIs, but the numbers that really jump off the Ole Miss stat page belong to Zach Kirksey. The senior, who struggled in 2011 after transferring in from juco power LSU-Eunice, is batting .500 (11-for-22) with five homers, 21 RBIs and a 1.364 slugging percentage. Kirksey blasted two homers against UT-Martin, including a grand slam, and has half the Rebels' team total.
P.S. Former Jackson Generals star Carlos Guillen announced his retirement on Tuesday. The number of ex-Gens still hanging around dwindles. Lance Berkman, Bobby Abreu, Freddy Garcia, Julio Lugo and Raul Chavez remain active. ... What a hard fall it's been for former Jackson Mets standout Lenny Dykstra, who was sentenced to three years in a California prison on Monday for car theft. When he arrived in Jackson in 1984, bursting with talent and confidence, he seemed to have the world in his hands.

double duty

Leadoff batter C.T. Bradford filled the box score for Mississippi State on Sunday, going 4-for-6 with a double, a home run (No. 1 career for the sophomore), a stolen base, three runs and six RBIs. Tonight, the 5-foot-8 left-hander from Florida gets a chance to fill an entirely different line on the stat sheet when he takes the mound against Penn State at Dudy Noble Field. (Yes, it’s the 13th straight home game for the Bulldogs, who are 10-2 and have entered the national rankings.) Bradford made a handful of appearances as a pitcher last season, working 8 1/3 innings. Of course, his first order of business this season is and will be swinging the bat. His big day in Sunday’s 16-6 win over Lipscomb lifted his average to .294 and his RBI total to a team-best 13. He was a freshman All-America pick last season after batting .303 and was the Atlanta Regional MVP.

pitching in

Delta State's hot start with the bats had grabbed a lot of attention, but it was pitching that carried the Statesmen in their first Gulf South Conference series of the year. DSU allowed just eight runs in taking two of three at Alabama-Huntsville over the weekend, a performance punctuated by Aaron Newcomb's five-hit, 12-strikeout effort in Sunday's third game. Newcomb, a senior right-hander, is 3-0. He took a 1.38 ERA into Sunday's game, and the only run he yielded in nine innings of the 5-1 win was unearned. The nationally ranked NCAA Division II Statesmen are 10-2 heading into a two-game set at Arkansas Tech on Tuesday and Wednesday.
P.S. Mitch Moreland homered in his second at-bat of the spring on Sunday. "The wrist is good," the Mississippi State product told mlb.com. Moreland had wrist surgery in the off-season after struggling down the stretch for the Texas Rangers in 2011. The lefty-hitting first baseman has 25 homers in 181 major league games and is a .258 hitter with a good glove. Still, the Rangers looked into signing Prince Fielder. ... Hinds Community College has moved to 12-2.

crazy numbers

In case you missed this late Friday night, Mississippi College beat Sul Ross State 36-9 in the second game of a doubleheader at Alpine, Texas. According to MC, the 36 runs are the most scored by the team since at least 1997, when the Choctaws moved to NCAA Division III (from D-II). The Choctaws had 28 hits and belted three home runs, two more than they had hit all season to that point. (They also benefitted from a jaw-dropping 12 errors by Sul Ross.) Senior Spencer Brunson went 4-for-7 with four RBIs and five runs. Jeremy Simmons, Mike Kerdock, Blaine Posey and Rob Thomas had three hits apiece, and Thomas, Daniel Wass and Zach Evans homered. MC only failed to score in one of the nine innings, the fifth. But here's the craziest part: The Choctaws had innings of one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight runs. Cannot imagine that happening too many times before at any level of the game anywhere. ... Alas, MC lost the non-conference series two games to one. The Choctaws (6-8) stranded 12 runners in the 12-6 loss in Saturday's rubber game.

that smarts

There may be bit more pressure on Southern Miss' touted freshmen to perform given the news out of Golden Eagles camp. Outfielder Kameron Brunty, a four-year starter, reportedly has a broken hand that could sideline him 6-8 weeks. That would mean missing the start of Conference USA play (Houston and Rice are up first) and possibly as many as five league series. That's a painful blow. Brunty was hitting .370 with a team-leading 10 hits in eight games for the 6-3 Eagles, who pounded Alabama on Wednesday. Brunty, from Gulf Breeze, Fla., batted .301 with five homers and 34 RBIs last year as USM's leadoff batter. He was in the 3-hole this season and was being counted on to carry a rebuilt lineup. The load just got heavier for freshmen Mason Robbins (.400 in seven games) and Connor Barron (.360 in six). They were the centerpieces in a recruiting class that was ranked in the top 15 nationally by two different publications.