Mississippi
Baseball: Powell blasts three homers to bail out Mississippi State against North Alabama
STARKVILLE — Chris Lemonis isn’t sure what’s gotten into Joe Powell lately, but Mississippi State’s head coach sure hopes his senior catcher keeps doing whatever he’s been doing.
“Maybe he met a cute girl. She’s lucky,” Lemonis said. “I don’t know. I hope he keeps talking to her.”
Powell was out of baseball last season after three years at Cincinnati, and splitting opportunities with Johnny Long behind the plate, had not given the Bulldogs much in the power department. But after connecting on his first home run of the year Sunday at Arkansas, Powell hit three homers off three different pitchers Tuesday night, almost single-handedly saving MSU from a disastrous loss as the Bulldogs defeated North Alabama 8-4.
On a night where Nate Dohm, who opened the season as MSU’s Friday starting pitcher, returned to the mound for the first time in more than a month after battling an arm injury, his backstop stole the show with a solo shot in the third inning, a go-ahead three-run blast in the sixth and a two-run homer in the eighth. Powell also singled in the fourth for a perfect 4-for-4 night.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Powell said. “I made an adjustment in my swing and (I’ve) been seeing the ball well and swinging at good pitches.”
Dohm threw just two innings, as was the plan all along, retiring all six batters he faced with a pair of strikeouts on only 22 pitches. His fastball was sitting comfortably in the low-to-mid 90s, and Lemonis’ goal is to have him back at close to full strength for the postseason.
“It’s really good to have him back,” Powell said. “He’s looked really good. He’s had some ups and downs, but he’s a tough kid and it’s going to be big having him back down the stretch.”
The Bulldogs (34-18) took the lead in the first inning when Bryce Chance led off with an infield hit, moved up on a wild pitch and a passed ball and scored on David Mershon’s single. Powell’s first homer, a 436-foot blast to the back of the lounge in left-center, gave MSU a 2-0 lead, but the Lions (17-33-1) hung tough. They broke up the shutout in the fourth on Cal Cook’s solo home run off Colby Holcombe, then tied the game on Andrew Knight’s double in the sixth.
With runners at the corners and one out in the Bulldogs’ half of the sixth, Michael O’Brien’s grounder to the right side hit Ethan Pulliam on the foot as he was running toward second base for the second out, forcing Amani Larry back to third. That could have snuffed out the rally, but Powell turned on the first pitch he saw from Carson Howard and launched it to the second level of the lounge in left for a three-run shot, giving MSU the lead for good.
“I told him a couple weeks ago, I feel like he had finally gotten comfortable,” Lemonis said. “You come here, it’s a lot different from where he came from. He came from a good school, but this is the pinnacle. So (he’s) getting comfortable, relaxed, knowing his role. He’s a hard-working kid. He just shows up every day to hit, work, and you’re seeing that he’s playing pretty free right now.”
North Alabama drew closer in the eighth with two runs against Cam Schuelke, but Powell capped his career night with a 421-foot shot off the batters’ eye in straightaway center field in the bottom of the inning. The Bulldogs’ pitchers allowed eight hits but issued just one walk and recorded 11 strikeouts.
MSU concludes the regular season with a three-game series at home against Missouri starting Thursday evening. The Bulldogs will likely drop a spot or two in the RPI rankings just by playing the Lions, who entered the day at No. 280 out of 305 Division I teams, but Lemonis said he was not worried about whether the game would affect their chances of being selected as a top-16 seed and NCAA regional host.
“They’re going to reward us if we’re one of the best 16 teams to host,” Lemonis said. “We have to prove it on the field. I just felt like it was more important to play than to cancel our game. I know our group’s done enough. We have to play good baseball this weekend, but us playing tonight is not the reason we will host or not host.”
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JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Mississippi Valley State University’s band is set to perform at the 60th Presidential Inauguration Parade.
President-elect Donald Trump invited Valley’s “Mean Green Marching Machine” to perform at the event in Washington, D.C. on January 20.
The band has played on several stages, including NBA games, the Rose Bowl Parade, New Orleans Mardi Gras parades, and the National Showband Battle of the Bands.
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JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Miss Mississippi Becky Williams and Miss Mississippi’s Teen Brooke Bumgarner will head to Orlando, Florida Friday for the Miss America competition.
The national competition begins December 31st and Bumgarner hopes to make history by becoming the first national winner for this state in the teen competition. Williams hopes she will be the candidate to win Miss America since the last state winner in 1986 when Susan Aikin won the Miss America Crown.
On New Year’s Eve, the Miss America contestants, including Miss Mississippi Becky Williams will arrive in Orlando. Miss America 2025 will be crowned January 5th. There have been four winners from this state including, Mary Ann Mobley, Lynda Lee Meade, Cheryl Prewitt, and Miss America 1986 Susan Aiken.
Williams said, “The Miss Mississippi Corporation has changed my life. My experience in competing just these three years has been life-changing. I’m not the same person I was when I started and to even have the opportunity to compete at Miss Mississippi is one thing. To win is another and on top of that, I get to represent my entire state. I get to represent the volunteers of Miss Mississippi. I get to represent the state of Mississippi.”
Williams has been preparing for the national competition since she was crowned in June. She has also kept busy promoting her Community Service Initiative Make a Move.
“Preparing for Miss America has been a little different than getting ready for Miss Mississippi because now I am Miss Mississippi and it’s a full-time job. I’m on the road, I’m all across the state throughout my entire year, so these past six months I’ve been every which way but still fitting in time in dance studios across the state. I’m so thankful to my dance families in Meridian, in Hattiesburg, and in Jackson for giving me the space to practice, so that’s been really helpful but you know when it comes to interview prep, when it comes to doing the job of Miss America, I’m getting ready every single day because that’s what I do right now as Miss Mississippi”, said Williams.
The first night of the preliminary competition for Miss America’s Teen is New Year’s Eve. Brooke Bumgarner of Madison has been preparing and is hoping to make history as the first winner for Mississippi.
Bumgarner said, “She will win a $50,000 dollar scholarship which is an incredible blessing and she also wins a year-long of experiences that not everybody gets to take on and that’s such a rare opportunity and it’s been such an honor to watch the new leadership at Miss America really take our program to the next level and allow Miss America’s Teen to go through so many incredible life-changing experiences.”
Preliminary competition for Miss America begins New Year’s Night. The teen winner will be crowned January 4th.
“Only 51 girls a year are going to be able to go to the national pageant and that’s, it’s incredible to think that I am one of those 51 and I have the opportunity to make friends with people from all across the nation”, said Bumgarner.
The New Miss America will be crowned Sunday, January 5th.
Williams said, “You know it’s so humbling to be able to say that I’m the face of Mississippi when it comes to this competition so I get the chance to show everyone what we have to offer.”
The new Miss America will be awarded 60 thousand dollars in scholarships. This will be the 103rd Anniversary for Miss America which is the world’s largest scholarship program for women.
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Mississippi
Natchez man dies after jumping off overpass in Vicksburg – Mississippi's Best Community Newspaper
Natchez man dies after jumping off overpass in Vicksburg
Published 5:05 pm Thursday, December 26, 2024
NATCHEZ — A Natchez man Thursday morning jumped to his death from an overpass in Vicksburg, said Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten.
Patten said the Warren County Sheriff’s Office notified him of the incident this morning.
Gary Wills
“I received a phone call this morning from Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace about the incident that occurred in Vicksburg,” Patten said. “After Sheriff Pace described the incident that took place, we immediately sent deputies out to do a welfare check that turned into a death notification.”
The man, identified by Patten as Gary Wills, 57, had been missing from his family since Wednesday.
“This is not the kind of news you want to deliver to any family, but it has to be done out of necessity, and our hearts go out to his daughter and family,” he said.
Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said his office received a call at about 10 a.m. Thursday.
“We responded to do a welfare check on a white male pacing back and forth on the overpass that crosses over U.S. Highway 61,” Pace said, referring to the Culkin Road overpass “As deputies approached the individual to ask if he was OK, he jumped off the bridge, landing on U.S. 61 below.
“Deputies were able to get to him immediately, and an ambulance arrived within minutes. He was transported to Merit Health River Region Hospital, where he died a short time later,” Pace said.
He said a vehicle was found parked nearby.
“The registration of that vehicle led us to Natchez. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office was able to locate the family and positively identify the victim for us. He had no identification on his person,” Pace said.
Wills was the owner of Creative Exteriors in Natchez.
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