the beat goes on

This time a year ago, Chris Stratton was a junior at Mississippi State, dominating hitters in the Southeastern Conference en route to earning the league’s pitcher of the year honor and the state’s Ferriss Trophy award. Much has changed. Well, maybe not that much. A first-round MLB draft pick (read: healthy bank account) last June, Stratton is now in the Class A South Atlantic League, pitching for the Augusta GreenJackets, a San Francisco Giants affiliate. He’s still dominating hitters. Through four starts, Stratton is 2-1 with a 2.38 ERA. He has 28 strikeouts and just eight walks in 22 2/3 innings. The strapping right-hander, the 20th pick overall, put up a 2.76 ERA in a rookie season that was curtailed in mid-August when he was conked in the head by a batted ball. No worries. He was fine, and he entered this season already rated the No. 3 prospect in the Giants system by Baseball America. He hasn’t disappointed. It may seem like a long way from low-A ball to The Show, but for Stratton, it’s probably not.

state of the state

It’s time for eyes to focus on prizes in college baseball. Delta State and Jackson State clinched titles over the weekend, and Millsaps College stayed in the hunt for another one. The junior college playoff matchups are set. Postseason play is about to flow over us. … DSU, which won the Gulf South Conference regular season title with a 19-4-1 record, will play 8-seed Christian Brothers in a league tournament opener on Thursday in Chattanooga, Tenn. … JSU swept three games from rival Alcorn State to wrap up the SWAC Eastern Division title. The conference tournament is still a couple of weeks away, set for May 15-19 in Fort Worth. With games still left on the slate, Alcorn is third in the East at 11-10 and Mississippi Valley is fifth (last) at 1-16. … Millsaps, which had fallen into the losers bracket of its league mini-tournament, beat Hendrix twice at Twenty Field on Sunday to survive and advance to the Southern Athletic Association championship series. The regular-season champion Majors (32-11) will host Birmingham-Southern in a best-of-3 on May 7-8. … Belhaven, which lost two of three to William Carey over the weekend, heads to the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament as the 4-seed. The Blazers play Southern Poly on Tuesday at Columbus, Ga. Carey, seeded third, meets Mobile on Wednesday. … In the MACJC, ninth-ranked Pearl River Community College (36-10) won the South Division and will host Itawamba in a best-of-3 on Friday and Saturday. North champ Northeast hosts Gulf Coast. South No. 2 East Central will be at home to play Mississippi Delta and North No. 2 Northwest gets a visit from Jones County. … Blue Mountain will play top-seeded Bethel on Tuesday in the first round of the NAIA TranSouth/Gulf Coast Unaffiliated Group Championships. … Southern Miss tightened its grip on first place in Conference USA with a sweep of UAB at Taylor Park in Hattiesburg. The Golden Eagles are 13-5 in the league with two series to play. … With three SEC series remaining, Ole Miss (11-10) is fourth in the West and Mississippi State (10-11) is fifth. The Rebels lost two of three to Kentucky over the weekend, while State was getting swept by Vanderbilt.

crunch time

Mitch Moreland has been given a fair chance as the regular first baseman in Texas – and he is finally starting to heat up. The former Mississippi State star from Amory entered Sunday’s play with 10 hits over his last seven games. His average has risen from .157 to .225. Moreland, a left-handed hitter, has been a consistent power source since he crashed the big leagues in 2010. He belted 15 home runs last year and has 43 all told in roughly a thousand at-bats. Of course, his well-documented problem has been hitting lefties. And that problem hasn’t gone away. Through Saturday, Moreland was 6-for-34 (.176) vs. lefties this season, and that was after getting two hits off former Mississippi Braves portsider Scott Diamond on Friday. There was a lot of talk heading into spring training about Texas possibly moving Ian Kinsler to first base to open up a spot at second for rising prospect Jurickson Profar. The Rangers also had a talented first base prospect, right-handed hitting Mike Olt, in camp. Switch-hitting Lance Berkman even played some first base in the Cactus League. But Moreland held onto his job with a strong spring, and Rangers manager Ron Washington made a comment at the start of the regular season about giving players 100 at-bats or so to find a groove. Moreland’s at 80 ABs. He might have found his groove just in the nick of time. P.S. Ex-Ole Miss standout Cody Satterwhite, a former second-round draft pick whose career was derailed by injuries, has signed with the independent Sioux City Explorers.

ding, ding

William Carey University landed the first punch. The scrap between Carey and Belhaven University resumes today with a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m. at Smith-Wills Stadium. There’s not a title on the line, but this matchup is always compelling just the same. The schools are old rivals with proud programs and outstanding coaches in Bobby Halford and Hill Denson. The teams entered Thursday’s game tied for third place in Southern States Athletic Conference at 17-10. Belhaven (35-18) is ranked No. 21 in the latest NAIA poll. Carey (32-19) has been ranked much of the season. SSAC Tournament seeding hangs in the balance today. The host Blazers need to KO the Crusaders with a sweep to claim the 3-seed (behind national powers Faulkner and Lee). Carey’s Jake Fabre shut down BU 6-0 on Friday, allowing just four hits and fanning nine. The Blazers still have ace Chris Good (12-3, 2.37 ERA) to throw today. Still in the Crusaders’ stable are Vito Perna (6-3, 3.42) and J.D. Little (6-1, 2.89). Both clubs have hitters, too. Scott Fabre leads Carey with a .397 average and seven homers. Perna is a .360 hitter. BU is led by Jason Hicks (.359, six homers), Bud Britt (.301, eight homers) and Dominic Francia and Reagan Rutledge (41 stolen bases apiece). This ought to be good.

down to the wire

In juco land, the spotlight is on Pearl River Community College and Northeast Mississippi CC. Pearl River can clinch first place in the MACJC South Division with one win in Saturday’s doubleheader against Southwest in Poplarville. The Wildcats, ranked ninth in NJCAA, are 17-5 in the division after an impressive sweep of Jones County (15-9) on Tuesday. Ryan Deemes and Christian Talley, both 7-game winners, threw shutouts for PRCC. Second-place East Central (15-7) has a shot but needs to sweep Hinds (8-14) and hope PRCC gets swept. Gulf Coast is currently fourth in the South at 10-12. … Meanwhile, Northeast, which is 16-6 in the North, can win the division crown with one win against Mississippi Delta in Booneville on Friday. If Delta (14-8) sweeps, Northwest (17-7) will win the division. Northwest scored walk-off wins in both games of a doubleheader against East Mississippi on Tuesday. Jay King’s homer won Game 1, and Kramer Hollenbach’s RBI double ended Game 2. Itawamba is 11-11 in the North and needs to win one of two against Holmes in Fulton on Friday to claim fourth place and a 14th straight postseason berth. … The top four teams in each division make the playoffs, with the best-of-3 opening-round series starting next week.

something completely different

Millsaps College won the Southern Athletic Association regular season title to earn the right to host a four-team tournament this weekend at Twenty Field in Jackson. The Majors (28-10) are 16-4 at home this year and 9-0 overall against the other three teams in their pod. (No. 2 seed Birmingham-Southern is also hosting a four-team tournament.) The Majors, led by Wes Perkins (.420) and Keith Shumaker (.392), can flat-out hit (.346 team average), and they’ve got a pair of stalwart starting pitchers (Shumaker and Will Edwards). They should be feeling pretty good about their chances to win this tournament and advance to the SAA’s best-of-3 championship series. But that’s the thing about postseason baseball. It’s different. It feels different. The end of someone’s season is always lurking. Every pitch, every at-bat, every play in the field can be a season-changer. We’ll see how the Majors handle it. They open with 8-seed Sewanee at 6 p.m. on Friday. With a win, they’d play at noon on Saturday against the Hendrix-Oglethorpe winner from Friday. The championship round is Sunday.

the bottom line

“Finding a way to win” is a somewhat hackneyed explanation for a team’s success. But how else to describe what the Mississippi Braves have been doing of late. The M-Braves won their sixth straight Sunday, beating Mobile 3-1 on the road, and climbed over .500 at 9-8. J.R. Graham, the highly touted right-hander, went seven innings for the W — the first win for an M-Braves starter this season. Even with early season pitch counts, that’s crazy. Overall, the pitching has been good but not great. The staff ERA of 3.60 ranks in the lower half of the Southern League, though that has kept them in most games while the bats have sputtered. The .231 average is near the league bottom and the team is last in home runs (with four). But they’ve shown a remarkable knack for late-inning magic. The only .300 hitter at the moment is Christian Bethancourt, the prized catching prospect who is batting .341. Minor league vets Jose Martinez (.296) and Kyle Russell (.292, a homer, seven RBIs) have been solid. Third base prospect Edward Salcedo (.255, one homer) hasn’t really gotten it going, nor have several others. Still, the M-Braves have found a way to put together this six-game winning streak, the team’s longest since July 2010. Perhaps they can ride that wave a little longer over the rest of the 10-game road trip. The next game at Trustmark Park is May 1. P.S. Add Brett Oberholtzer to the list of M-Braves who’ve risen to the big leagues. The left-hander, a 9-game winner for M-Braves in 2011, made his first appearance for Houston on Sunday. He joins Evan Gattis and Paul Clemens as ex-M-Braves to make MLB debuts this season.

best in show

The anticipated duel between Mississippi-connected pitchers Cliff Lee and Lance Lynn didn’t materialize on Saturday. Oh, former Ole Miss star Lynn was outstanding for St. Louis. But Lee, the veteran lefty from Meridian Community College, was out of sorts in Philadelphia’s 5-0 loss at Citizens Bank Park. Lee, who had allowed just one walk in his first three starts, walked three in the third inning alone, and the Cardinals capitalized for four runs, all they would need. Lee lasted five innings and was charged with all five runs. He is 2-1 with a 2.83 ERA. Meanwhile, Lynn blew through Philly’s lineup for seven innings, yielding just one hit and striking out eight to improve to 3-0, 3.68. Another Mississippian who started on Saturday, Paul Maholm, also had a disappointing result. The former Mississippi State standout, who had not allowed a run for Atlanta in 20 1/3 innings this season, saw that streak end in the sixth inning at Pittsburgh. The Pirates, Maholm’s original club, put up three runs and went on to a 3-1 victory. Maholm, now 3-1, 1.03, went six innings and yielded four hits and three walks with five K’s. P.S. UM alum Drew Pomeranz, sent to the minors this spring by Colorado, is 2-0, 3.31 in three starts for Triple-A Colorado Springs. ... Also there is Meridian CC product Corey Dickerson, who is batting .389 with two homers and six RBIs. Dickerson impressed the Rockies in spring training and is now banging on the door for a call-up. … Former Taylorsville High star Billy Hamilton is scuffling a bit at Triple-A Louisville in the Cincinnati system. He is hitting just .224 in 15 games, though he does have 11 steals in 12 attempts. … Today mark’s the 40th anniversary of Mississippi native Dave Parker’s big league debut. Parker, who broke in with Pittsburgh, played until 1991 and posted numbers worthy of Hall of Fame attention: .290 average, 2,712 hits, 339 homers, 1,493 RBIs. He won an MVP award (1978) and finished in the top three in the voting three other times. He also had off-field issues (drugs mainly) that tainted his career. It seems unlikely he’ll ever get to Cooperstown.

weekend watch

Jackson State is second in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in hitting, slugging, runs and stolen bases. Who’s first in all those categories? Alabama State, which comes to Braddy Field this weekend for an Eastern Division showdown. JSU is 21-16, 15-3. The Hornets, who also lead the SWAC in ERA, are 24-17, 13-5. Of note: Tigers two-way star Desmond Russell is out with a leg injury. … Mississippi State (30-9, 8-7 SEC), trying to sustain its climb in the West, is hosting Auburn this weekend. (Thursday night’s game was suspended by weather and will be resumed today.) Keep a watch on Bulldogs slugger Hunter Renfroe, who leads the SEC in hitting (.429) and slugging (.865) and is tied for the lead in homers (13). … Ole Miss (26-12, 7-8), also on the rise, throws ace Bobby Wahl at Tennessee tonight. Wahl is 7-0 with a 1.40 ERA. … Southern Miss (19-17, 8-4 C-USA) puts its eight-game win streak on the line tonight at old rival Memphis. … Delta State, leading the Gulf South Conference with a 15-2-1 mark, welcomes West Georgia to Ferriss Field in Cleveland this weekend. The highly ranked Statesmen (32-5-1) lead the league in ERA (2.89), and top starters Josh Branstetter and Michael Manley are a combined 12-1. … Mississippi College, eliminated from American Southwest Conference postseason contention last weekend, ends its conference season against Ozarks at Frierson Field in Clinton. The Choctaws (15-20, 5-10) will recognize 11 departing seniors, including top hitter Josh Perez, before Saturday’s twinbill. … Millsaps (25-9, 15-3), in the driver’s seat in the Southern Athletic Association race, takes on old rival Rhodes in Memphis. … Belhaven is 32-16 and 15-9 in the Southern States Athletic Conference heading into a series at Emmanuel in Georgia. The Blazers get mash from Bud Britt (eight homers) and dash from Reagan Rutledge (41 steals in 42 attempts). … William Carey, ranked No. 17 in NAIA, is 31-16, 17-7 SSAC with Mobile coming to Hattiesburg. The Crusaders’ Vito Perna ranks among the conference’s top hitters (.378) and pitchers (3.12).

purple and gold

It has been a heckuva week for Millsaps College. And, of course, week ain’t over yet. On Sunday, the Majors completed a three-game sweep of nationally ranked Birmingham-Southern to take first place in the Southern Athletic Association standings at 15-3. Then, the Majors swept the league’s pitcher and player of the week honors: Will Edwards, who beat BSC with a two-hit, 12-strikeout shutout last Friday, and Wes Perkins, who had a 7-for-12, seven-RBI week, were the honorees. Edwards, a senior from Kosciusko, is 6-1 with a 2.65 ERA and 63 strikeouts. Perkins leads the SAA in hitting at .434 and is second in homers (4) and RBIs (43). The celebrating continued when the Majors cracked the Top 25 in the NCAA Division III poll for the first time this year. At 25-9 (following an inconsequential loss to NAIA Belhaven on Tuesday), the Majors are ranked 23rd. Millsaps will take a Rhodes trip (to Memphis) this weekend with a chance to win the league’s regular season championship or at least nail down one of the top two seeds for the SAA postseason. Each of the top two will host a four-team tournament, with the winners then meeting in a best-of-3 for the inaugural SAA Tournament title. ... Flash back: Roughly a month ago, Southern Miss was in a major tailspin. Flash forward: The 2-1 victory over Ole Miss in Pearl on Tuesday was the Golden Eagles’ eighth straight and boosted their overall record to 19-17. Pitching has keyed this turnaround. USM’s staff ERA is down to 3.47 from 4.58 in mid-March. Andrew Pierce (7-1, 1.83) has been consistently fantastic, and Conor Fisk (3-1, 2.38) and Jake Drehoff (1-4, 3.57) have stabilized the rotation. Jay Myrick is 3-0, 2.23 working out of the pen. USM, 8-4 in Conference USA, is on the road against league rival Memphis this weekend.

follow the leaders

The finish line draws near on the state junior college regular season. Pearl River Community College and Jones County Junior College, who have a rather large showdown looming next week, are running neck-and-neck in the MACJC South, while Northeast Mississippi CC has pulled ahead in North. Northeast swept past East Mississippi and Northwest last week to move to 13-5 in the division and 22-13 overall. The Tigers’ Justin Neal, the MACJC player of the week, went 9-for-18 with four homers and 14 RBIs in a monster five-game stretch. Northeast hosts Coahoma for a pair today. Pearl River (30-10), ranked ninth in the last NJCAA Division II poll, got a grand slam and six RBIs all told from Nathan Pugh in a sweep of Mississippi Gulf Coast on Saturday and stands at 13-5 in the South, tied with No. 17 JCJC. The Bobcats (25-11) whipped Copiah-Lincoln twice on Saturday, fueled by homers from Alex Shermer and Jordan Stark. PRCC hosts Hinds today, and JCJC gets Gulf Coast at home. The South leaders meet next Tuesday in Ellisville. The regular season ends next weekend.

just keeping track

Needing another left-handed hitter, Pittsburgh has recalled Ole Miss alumnus Alex Presley from the minors, but he is not in the lineup for today’s game against St. Louis. The Pirates sent down ex-Rebels righty Phil Irwin, who made his major league debut (4 2/3 innings, four earned runs) on Sunday against Cincinnati. Presley hit .237 with 10 homers and nine steals in 346 at-bats for the Pirates last season after hitting .298 in 215 ABs in 2011. … Former UM star Seth Smith is batting a robust .448 for Oakland, which is humming along at 10-4, the best record in the American League. … Mississippi State product Tyler Moore, whose playing time has been limited with Washington, picked up his first three RBIs of the year in the Nationals’ 10-3 victory over Miami on Monday. … Meridian Community College product Cliff Lee finally walked a batter on Monday. He had a streak of 169 batters faced without issuing a pass (dating to 2012) before walking Jay Bruce in the seventh inning of Philadelphia’s 4-2 loss to Cincinnati. Lee, who also threw a wild pitch that plated a run, did not get a decision.

pitching in

It took Cliff Lee some three months to get his first win in a hard-luck 2012 season. After two starts this year, the veteran left-hander from Meridian Community College is 2-0, with a 1.08 ERA, for Philadelphia. Lee went 8 2/3 innings to beat the New York Mets on Tuesday. In 16 2/3 innings, he has 14 strikeouts and no walks. … Former Holmes CC star Roy Oswalt, who is unsigned after last year’s rough go (5.80 ERA) in Texas, reportedly tweeted in response to a fan’s question that he would “love to come back to Philly.” The Phillies, even with Roy Halladay scuffling, apparently aren’t interested in Oswalt, who pitched for them in 2010-11. … Ole Miss product Lance Lynn was in fine form for St. Louis on Tuesday. The big (though not as big as last year) right-hander retired the first 10 Cincinnati batters he faced — former Rebels teammate Zack Cozart ended the streak with a single — and wound up fanning 10 in six innings in a 5-1 win. “He’s good. He comes right at you,” Cozart told mlb.com. … Note, also, that former Mississippi State standout Paul Maholm is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA for red-hot Atlanta. … Remember Matt Maloney? A 2005 third-round pick by the Phillies, the ex-Ole Miss left-hander signed with Boston in the off-season. He is still recovering from Tommy John surgery last July.

paper work

Mississippi-connected players reeled in a nice haul of conference honors based on last week’s work. Mississippi State’s Kendall Gravemen, who beat Florida with a complete game effort, was named the SEC pitcher of the week. Southern Miss’ Conor Fisk, who threw a complete game to beat Tulane, was C-USA co-pitcher of the week. Delta State’s Michael Manley, from Raymond by way of Meridian Community College, threw a complete game at Shorter to earn Gulf South pitcher of the week honors. And Darren Farmer, a former West Lauderdale High and MCC star now at Grambling State, took the SWAC hitter of the week award. Worth mentioning here also is Northeast Mississippi CC’s Will Robertson, a sophomore from Falkner who went 9-for-14 with two homers and nine RBIs last week to earn MACJC hitter of the week laurels. Robertson’s 42 RBIs entering this week ranked third in the nation in NJCAA Division II. P.S. A belated congrats to Blue Mountain College. The NAIA school, fielding a team for just the third year, beat Mississippi Valley State last week, its first win over an NCAA Division I program.

looking ahead

Mississippi College and Millsaps College are slated to meet today at the Majors’ Twenty Field in a Maloney Trophy Series game. But pardon the two NCAA Division III rivals if they are a tad distracted. Conference play is winding down, and both have big series coming up. Millsaps, 22-8 with 10 wins in its last 11 games, is 12-3 in the Southern Athletic Association. First-place Birmingham-Southern (14-1) comes to Jackson for a three-game set starting Friday. The SAA doesn’t have an automatic D-III Tournament bid, making this series a possible key to the at-large hopes of both schools. MC, meanwhile, is wobbling along at 14-17 and 4-8 in the American Southwest Conference. The Choctaws are sixth in the ASC East and visit fifth-place East Texas Baptist (6-6) this weekend. Only the top four teams in each division get into the league’s postseason tournament. Time grows short for MC to make a move. P.S. Former Mississippi Braves starter Paul Clemens was called up to the big leagues by Houston on Monday. Clemens, who went 6-5 for the 2011 M-Braves before being dealt away in the Michael Bourn trade, is the 70th alum to reach The Show. … Former M-Braves standout Mauro Gomez was claimed by Toronto on waivers from Boston and sent to Triple-A.

the start of something

We all know the old saying: It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. True, and yet, there was something special about the way the 1993 Jackson Generals started their season — and it seemed to pave the way for a special finish. Twenty years ago this month, the Generals, Double-A affiliate of the Houston Astros, won their first five games. That had not been done in the franchise’s previous 18 seasons. The 1981 JaxMets — Davey Johnson’s club — had started 4-0 and went on to win the franchise’s first Texas League title. The ’93 Gens would pull off the same feat, winning the city’s first championship since 1985. It was also the first championship for Houston’s Double-A club since Columbus (Ga.) won the Southern League title in 1986; the franchise moved to Jackson in 1991. All five wins in the season-opening streak came at Smith-Wills Stadium, against Tulsa, which was managed by Jackson native Stan Cliburn. The Gens outscored the Drillers 41-5. It was impressive stuff. Managed by Sal Butera, the ’93 Generals roster included a wealth of good talent: Roberto Petagine won league MVP honors and the batting title; Brian Hunter led the league in steals; Jim Dougherty led in saves. Other memorable standouts included Lance “Bam-Bam” Madsen, Chris Hatcher, Dave Hajek, former Jackson Murrah star Fletcher Thompson, Jim Bruske, Mike Groppuso, Scott Makarewicz, Alvin Morman and Ray Montgomery, whose dramatic ninth-inning home run at Smith-Wills clinched the TL East first-half championship. The Gens also captured the league title at the old ballpark on Lakeland Drive.

you can't have enough

The Mississippi Braves’ rotation has lived up to expectations so far. Through three games, M-Braves starters have not allowed a run in 13 innings. Today, Gus Schlosser, the 2012 Carolina League pitcher of the year, gets the call, following Aaron Northcraft, J.R. Graham (KO’d after two innings Friday by a line drive off his leg) and Alex Wood. Gary Moran, the Southern League ERA champ from last year, will start on Monday in the series final against Mobile. M-Braves manager Aaron Holbert said he can’t imagine that there’s a better starting five in the SL than his group. Now if the hitters can just provide some run support … . P.S. In an MLB matchup of former M-Braves aces on Saturday, Tommy Hanson of the Los Angeles Angels beat Matt Harrison of Texas. Harrison, who got a fat contract after a stellar 2012 campaign, has allowed 10 runs in his two starts this season, both losses.

a warming trend

Zack Cozart didn’t want to dwell on his 0-for-11 start to this season. “But you’re going to think about it,” the former Ole Miss standout and current Cincinnati Reds shortstop told mlb.com. Cozart has something else to think about now – he hit two home runs and picked up a career-best five RBIs on Friday as the Reds crushed Washington 15-0. … Southern Miss product Brian Dozier, also off to a sluggish start, went 2-for-4 for Minnesota and drove in three runs, his first RBIs of the year. … Still looking for a hit is ex-Mississippi State star Mitch Moreland, who is 0-for-13 for Texas. Moreland won the Rangers’ first-base job with a great spring, but he might be feeling some heat now. P.S. There can’t be a player in Mississippi having a better year than Tim Anderson of East Central Community College. The sophomore shortstop, a UAB signee, was named NJCAA player of the week on Thursday and is batting .495 with 20 RBIs and 25 steals in 31 games. The Warriors, tied for first in MACJC South with Jones County (both 9-3), play big doubleheaders today at Pearl River (8-4 South) and at home against JCJC next Tuesday.

back to reality

Remember the good old days? Way back on March 15, Ole Miss was 18-1 and Mississippi State was 18-2. Sizzling was the word. Then Southeastern Conference play began – and the sizzling starts were doused. Gut checks are now in order. Both the Rebels and Bulldogs host conference series this weekend, and it’s time to get busy. UM is 23-6 overall and 4-5 in the SEC, fifth in the West, with East leader Vanderbilt coming to Oxford-University Stadium. State is 24-8 and 3-6, sixth in the West, with ever-dangerous Florida up next at Dudy Noble Field. Yes, the going gets tougher in the SEC, and it shows in the numbers. Ole Miss, batting .285 overall, is at .220 in SEC games. The Rebels’ staff ERA is 3.94 in SEC play, 2.77 overall. State has had similar struggles. The Dogs are batting .298 overall, .244 vs. the SEC. Overall staff ERA: .255. Against the SEC: 3.91. P.S. Tyler Aldridge’s Delta State-record 28-game hit streak ended last Friday, but he hasn’t had a chance to start a new one. Weather has kept the Statesmen, 24-4-1 and ranked No. 1 in one NCAA Division II poll, off the field ever since. They’ll play — they hope — Gulf South Conference newcomer Shorter this weekend in Cleveland. Aldridge — they hope — will get a shot at improving his .426 average.

magical moments

Evan Gattis’ home run for Atlanta on Wednesday night wasn’t as jaw-dropping as the bomb he hit at Trustmark Park on Saturday, but it was more significant, of course. Wednesday’s game counted, and it was Gattis’ first in the big leagues, completing his improbable oddysey. From out of the game to homering off Roy Halladay in four short years. Gattis, who hit nine homers in a partial season with the Mississippi Braves last season, is the 69th M-Braves alumnus to make the majors – and not the only one to make magic happen right off the bat. Brian McCann was the first, back in 2005. Called up straight from Double-A, McCann debuted on June 10 and got a hit in his first at-bat. He homered in his second big league game. Jeff Francoeur joined McCann in The Show later that summer and homered in his first big league game. Jordan Schafer and Jason Heyward did Francoeur one better, homering in their first MLB at-bats, Schafer in 2009, Heyward in 2010.

double dipping

Vito Perna, a junior DH/pitcher at William Carey University, has pulled off a neat double play. On Tuesday, he was named the Southern States Athletic Conference player of the week. In mid-February, Perna was the conference pitcher of the week. The former Jones County Junior College star from Laurel hit .600 last week with 10 RBIs and for the season is at .372 with two home runs and 27 RBIs. On the mound, he is 4-2 with a 3.25 ERA. He is not the Crusaders’ ace, however. That label would have to go to sophomore left-hander J.D. Little, who is 6-0 with a 1.15. Carey, which hopped into the NAIA Top 25 last week, is 27-11 and 15-6 SSAC. The pitching-rich Crusaders host Emmanuel College in a league series this weekend.

a kind of hush

Opening day (or days) 2013 was kinda lackluster for Mississippians in the majors. Desmond Jennings, the former Itawamba Community College standout, takes best in show; he went 2-for-4 with an RBI, two runs and a steal in Tampa Bay’s loss today to Baltimore. Ole Miss product Seth Smith was 2-for-3 in Oakland’s loss on Monday, but he was the only other Mississippi native or college alum to get a hit in an opener. Brian Dozier, the Southern Miss product now starting at second base for Minnesota, was 0-for-3 with a walk; UM alum Chris Coghlan was 0-for-4 for Miami; ex-Rebels star Zack Cozart was 0-for-4 for Cincinnati; and, in Sunday’s MLB lidlifter, Mississippi State alum Mitch Moreland put up an 0-for-4 for Texas.

second chance

There is a bundle of prospects on the 2013 Mississippi Braves’ roster. J.R. Graham, Christian Bethancourt, Alex Wood and Edward Salcedo are highly rated by one publication or another. Yet it would not be terribly surprising if the key player for this team is an ex-prospect, a soon-to-be 27-year-old outfielder who was recently released by another organization. Kyle Russell was signed by Atlanta about a week ago and assigned to Mississippi. Russell was an All-American outfielder at Texas who led the nation in home runs with 28 in 2007. The Los Angeles Dodgers drafted him in the third round in 2008, and he blasted 26 homers in A-ball in 2009, his first full pro season. But his progress stalled when he reached Double-A in 2010. Even though he hit a combined 30 homers at Double-A Chattanooga in 2011 and ’12, his strikeout numbers apparently were troubling for the Dodgers. The 6-foot-5, 195-pound lefty hitter has a cryptic 666 whiffs in five pro seasons. The Dodgers cut Russell loose in late March. Atlanta, seeking some power for its Double-A club, is giving him a second chance. Sometimes that’s all a player needs.