Mississippi

Mississippi State Softball: Mississippi State’s Edwards, Sells playing in college summer softball leagues

Published

7 days ago

June 20, 2024

Mississippi State Softball: Mississippi State’s Edwards, Sells playing in college summer softball leagues

Summer leagues have been a college baseball institution for many decades, but college softball players did not have that same opportunity to keep working at their craft and playing the game they love after the school season ends until 2020, with the founding of the Florida Gulf Coast League.

Four years later, the FGCL is still going strong, and other leagues have been established in more recent years. Mississippi State’s Kylee Edwards and Kiarra Sells are taking advantage of those opportunities this summer, with Edwards playing for the FGCL’s Bradenton Slice and Sells joining the Texas Ninebands of the Lone Star State Collegiate League.

Edwards enjoyed a strong freshman year as the Bulldogs’ starting shortstop, batting .269 with eight doubles, five home runs and 23 runs batted in. She also struck out just 11 times in 134 at-bats, a 7.1 percent strikeout rate, although she did close the season without a hit in her last 10 at-bats in the conference and NCAA tournaments.

Through four games in Florida, Edwards is just 2-for-14 at the plate, but has a homer and a pair of RBI as well as a stolen base and three runs scored.

“I’m super excited to get back to work, improve my game and play with some of the best collegiate girls,” Edwards said in a news release.

Sells and the Ninebands have won their first five games of the season, with the rising junior utility player homering twice and driving in five runs along the way. Sells has not started a game in her two years with MSU but has been one of the Bulldogs’ most-used bench players, entering 33 games in 2024 as a pinch-runner, pinch-hitter or defensive replacement. She is yet to record her first hit in the maroon and white but scored 13 runs this past season.

Both leagues will run until mid-July, with games streaming exclusively on AthletesGoLive.com.

MSU

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Mississippi

Mississippi man sentenced for producing child porn

Published

6 hours ago

June 26, 2024

Press Room

Mississippi man sentenced for producing child porn

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (WJTV) – A Pearl River man was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison for production of child pornography.

According to court documents, Garald Benson Johnson, 43, admitted to filming himself having sexual intercourse with a minor.

Johnson was indicted by a federal grand jury on May 16, 2023. He pled guilty on August 29, 2023, to production of child pornography.

The Choctaw Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated the case.

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Mississippi

Mississippi man sentenced for transferring porn links to minor in Philippines

Published

13 hours ago

June 26, 2024

Press Room

Mississippi man sentenced for transferring porn links to minor in Philippines

GULFPORT, Miss. (WJTV) – A D’Iberville man sentenced to 120 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for transferring obscene material to a minor in the Philippines.

Jeffery Steward, 54, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Gulfport.

According to court documents, Steward used the internet and a social media account of a minor in the Philippines to transfer pornography links of obscene material to the minor victim via messages. They said he knew the victim was less than 16 years old.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the Cyber Crime Division at the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office and the Philippine National Police.

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Mississippi

Mississippi State’s Dakota Jordan named Baseball America third team All-American

Published

20 hours ago

June 26, 2024

Press Room

Mississippi State’s Dakota Jordan named Baseball America third team All-American

After a stellar sophomore season, Mississippi State outfielder Dakota Jordan has once again been recognized for his outstanding on-field performance.

Baseball America, a leading college baseball publication, named Jordan a third team All-American on Friday, Jordan’s second All-America honor of the season.

Jordan also won the Ferriss Trophy, presented annually to the best college baseball player in Mississippi, and was a semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award for the best amateur baseball player in the United States.

Jordan excelled for the Bulldogs in 2024, leading the team in home runs (20), RBIs (72), hits (85) and slugging percentage (.671). Jordan had the seventh-best batting average in the SEC, hitting .354. His 20 home runs are the eighth-most in a single season at Mississippi State and he led the team with 26 multi-hit games and 21 multi-RBI games. He was the only Mississippi State player to notch a five-hit game this season.

In two seasons, Jordan appeared in 107 games for State and had a career batting average of .336. He blasted 30 homers and drove in 112 runs along with scoring 86 runs. He had 132 hits for his career and 55 extra base hits. Jordan’s on-base percentage stands at .435 over his two seasons.

Jordan becomes the first position player since RJ Yeager in 2022 to earn multiple All-American honors in the same season and the first outfielder to do so since Tanner Allen in 2021.

Philip Poe is sports editor.

MSU

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