Mississippi
Neil Price named Mississippi State baseball radio voice after Jim Ellis’ retirement
Watch Mississippi State baseball coach Chris Lemonis preview 2025 season
Watch part of Mississippi State baseball coach Chris Lemonis’ press conference previewing the 2025 season.
The new voice of Mississippi State baseball was announced on Thursday.
Neil Price has been named the new radio play-by-play announcer. He’s a familiar figure for Bulldogs fans as he’s also currently the voice for MSU football and men’s basketball.
Price takes over for Jim Ellis, who announced his retirement in December after 46 seasons calling Mississippi State baseball.
“It is an honor to be named the broadcaster for one of the most iconic programs in college baseball history,” Price said in a statement. “It is humbling to follow Jim Ellis in this role. Jim’s broadcasts set the standard for college baseball on the radio.”
Price has been with Mississippi State since 2017 and is also a host of the weekly “Dawg Talk” radio show. He’s previously been a broadcaster at Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State.
The Mississippi State baseball season begins Friday, Feb. 14, against Manhattan at Dudy Noble Field.
The Bulldogs and seventh-year coach Chris Lemonis returned to the NCAA tournament last season after missing it in 2022 and 2023.
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
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Mississippi
Hundreds race in the 18th Mississippi Blues Marathon
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JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – It was a cold morning for the annual Mississippi Blues Marathon, but that did not stop the excitement.
“I want to thank my team today for helping me complete this 10k—the Mississippi Army National Guard. I wouldn’t be able to do this without them,” one runner said.
There were five different races for runners: the marathon, a half marathon, a 10k, a 5k, and the kid’s fun run.
“I’m so glad that I was invited by my friends to do this today, and I am elated that I finished the race,” Linda Green said after completing the 5k race.
Runners from across the country came out for Saturday’s race. Some of them are always looking forward to their next race, so the preparation never stops.
“We start at 4:30 in the morning training. We just got back from Atlanta doing the hot chocolate race, and we just enjoy being out here doing this,” Pamela Dean said.
This is the 18th year for the marathon, and this year was special as they celebrated the 100th birthdays of B.B. King and Medgar Evers. Blues artist Castro Coleman tributed King during his national anthem performance.
“I was honored and then to play one of BB’s guitar, just oh my God, just mind-blowing,” Coleman said.
Coleman is a Mississippi native, and he would like to see the state continue to find ways to spotlight blues music.
“Mississippi has a lot of great artists that come from here, and then they’re birthing a lot of great artists, so just more blues festivals, more events that showcase the talent that comes from Mississippi,” he said.
Along with a chance to see exhibits from the B.B. King Museum, those who came out got to check out different fun, food, and health vendors while enjoying live music from the Sole Shakers.
“It’s a good chance for people to come together in our great city and have a chance to see the city if they have never been here. It doesn’t cost anything to come out and be a part of this amazing event, so we’re just excited to be here,” Cara Coleman, with Stretch Zone in Madison, said.
“We do this every year,” Barbara Green said before running the 5k. “We just love coming out here. It’s good for the soul in the city with soul.”
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Mississippi
Fears scores 27 as Oklahoma knocks off No. 21 Mississippi State 93-87 to snap a 5-game skid
NORMAN, Okla. — Jeremiah Fears had 27 points and a career-high 10 assists, and Oklahoma defeated No. 21 Mississippi State 93-87 on Saturday to snap a five-game losing skid and revive its NCAA Tournament hopes.
Fears, an 18-year-old freshman, made 7 of 12 field goals and 11 of 14 free throws. It was one of his most efficient performances overall and his second-best scoring effort of the season.
Jalon Moore scored 15 of his 18 points in the second half and Sam Godwin had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Sooners (17-10, 4-10 Southeastern Conference).
Josh Hubbard scored 19 points and KeShawn Murphy added 16 for Mississippi State (19-8, 7-7), which was coming off wins against ranked opponents Mississippi and Texas A&M.
Mississippi State led 37-34 at halftime, despite 15 points from Fears.
Moore made a 3-pointer, then dunked on a fast break to put the Sooners up 44-41 early in the second half. He hit another 3-pointer to push the margin to 53-48.
Oklahoma’s Brycen Goodine hit a 3-pointer from the corner and was fouled with 4:50 remaining. He made the free throw to put the Sooners up 81-69.
Mississippi State forward RJ Melendez (22) looks to shoots against Oklahoma forward Jalon Moore (14) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in Norman, Okla. Credit: AP/Gerald Leong
Mississippi State kept scrapping. Claudell Harris Jr. made a contested corner 3 to cut Oklahoma’s lead to 90-87 with 28 seconds remaining.
Takeaways
Mississippi State: The Bulldogs had 20 offensive rebounds and 21 second-chance points yet shot just 39.7% from the field.
Oklahoma: The Sooners, who have struggled with mistakes this season, committed just 11 turnovers.
Key moment
Moore collected a defensive rebound in traffic and was fouled with 11.3 seconds remaining. He made the first of two free throws to give Oklahoma a 93-87 lead.
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Mississippi State guard Riley Kugel (2) goes for a free ball against Oklahoma forward Sam Godwin (10) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in Norman, Okla. Credit: AP/Gerald Leong
Key stat
Oklahoma shot 68% from the field in the second half and 52.7% overall.
Up next
Mississippi State visits No. 4 Alabama on Tuesday night.
Oklahoma hosts No. 17 Kentucky on Wednesday night.
Mississippi
Mississippi Protestors Decry DOGE and Trump’s Policy Barrage
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JACKSON, Miss.—Anna Corcoran had grown exhausted with just complaining about national politics. She wanted to share her frustrations in a way that felt meaningful.
Although the 18-year-old Brandon, Miss., native grew up in a staunch Republican household, she found herself at odds with President Donald Trump’s policies targeting immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and women’s reproductive rights.
So on Feb. 5, she took to the streets for a protest outside the Mississippi Capitol Building in Jackson, Miss. She joined about two dozen other demonstrators who wanted to express their outrage over Trump’s policies.
As other protestors shouted in unison that “no one is illegal on stolen land” and to “never forget January 6,” Corcoran told the Mississippi Free Press that it was her first time exercising her First Amendment Right to protest.
“I’m here to fight not only for myself and my sister but all of those who can’t fight. I grew up thinking that voting red was the Christian vote but I don’t want to let that man in office represent what a Christian is,” she said, standing with fellow protestor, 18-year-old Leslie Reeves.
While the Trump administration appears “focused on immigrants and abortion,” they should be drafting policies to tackle “mass shootings and climate change,” Corcoran added.
The protesters also expressed their frustration with the involvement of tech billionaires like Elon Musk in the federal government’s affairs. “It’s been three weeks and we’ve gotten rid of essential departments in unconstitutional, unlawful moves that should not be allowed to happen,” a protester named Samantha, who only wanted to share her first name, told the Mississippi Free Press. “We’ve got things challenging in court, but where are our representatives?”
Musk leads The White House’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, commonly known as DOGE. With a purported mission to slash government spending, DOGE has led the mass layoffs of workers across the federal government, including an attempt to eliminate the federal humanitarian agency, USAID. Musk has drawn heavy criticism, with people accusing him of having a conflict of interest and of using DOGE to attempt to access private data about citizens.
A federal judge on Tuesday, Feb. 18, declined to immediately block Musk and DOGE from accessing government data systems or laying off federal workers but expressed concerns about the scope of his role—a role Congress did not approve in which he leads an entity that Congress did not create.
“Plaintiffs legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight,” U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote in her ruling. “In these circumstances, it must be indisputable that this court acts within the bounds of its authority.”
Attacks on Diversity, Trans Americans
Several of the demonstrators gathered outside the Mississippi Capitol Building on Feb. 5 told the Mississippi Free Press that they were not representing any particular organized group. But the protest in Jackson was one of many anti-Trump rallies that took place around the country on the same day.
Donald Trump has signed a litany of executive orders since his second term began on Jan. 20. He has focused on repealing Biden-era policies, such as those designed to foster diversity, equity and inclusion in the federal government.
Since Trump took office, a flurry of companies—including Google, Amazon and Target—have announced plans to modify or eliminate initiatives furthering DEI in the workplace. Other companies, like Costco and the Atlanta-based Delta Airlines, have openly declared that they will keep their DEI policies in place.
Though Trump claimed during his campaign to have had no knowledge of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 agenda, many of his executive orders have lined up with directives outlined in the document—including orders to advance “school-choice” initiatives, impose sanctions on countries that refuse to accept deportees and change U.S. foreign aid policy.
In an effort to prohibit federal recognition of transgender people’s gender identity, Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 proclaiming that the United States government will recognize only two biological sexes, male and female. Weeks later, on Feb. 5, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. Mississippi lawmakers previously banned transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports in 2021.
Trump’s Feb. 5 order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” allows the U.S. Department of Education to ensure that schools receiving federal funding under Title IX are penalized for not aligning with Trump’s priorities.
“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump declared at a signing ceremony, the Associated Press reported on Feb. 5.
‘What We’re Becoming’
That same day, as protestors rallied outside the Mississippi Capitol Building, Rev. Jim Becker told the Mississippi Free Press that he joined the demonstration in solidarity with those who are too afraid to protest themselves.
Becker leads the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson and said that many of the families in his congregation are fearful of how rhetoric and policies targeting transgender people will impact them.
“We have transgender folks in our congregation (and) non-binary (folks). … We have some parents with trans children and some of them are living in fear,” Becker told the Mississippi Free Press. “I said as the minister I will not be afraid to talk; I will not be afraid to be arrested.”
“What he’s done in just three weeks … it’s amazing what we were and what we’re becoming. It’s absolutely tragic,” Becker continued, adding that he hoped the demonstration would inspire more people to organize and not let Trump’s policies go unchallenged.
“We need to double, triple, quadruple this. Week after week we’re going to see more and more stuff going on and it’s going to hit closer and closer to home for a lot of people,” he said.
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