Mississippi

What we learned from Mississippi State baseball, Justin Parker’s SEC series sweep vs Kentucky

Published

2 weeks ago

May 4, 2025

What we learned from Mississippi State baseball, Justin Parker’s SEC series sweep vs Kentucky

STARKVILLE — The start of Justin Parker as interim Mississippi State baseball coach couldn’t have gone much better.

The Bulldogs (29-19, 10-14 SEC) are 4-0 since firing coach Chris Lemonis on April 28. They swept Kentucky (25-20, 10-14) at Dudy Noble Field, MSU’s first SEC series sweep of the season.

MSU run-ruled the Wildcats 14-4 in Game 1 and won with a Joe Powell walk-off single in Game 2 after the May 2 game was postponed. It won again on May 4, 6-1, to clinch the sweep.

“We’ve been through a lot,” Parker said. “It’s a tough and resilient group. They’re proving it.”

Here’s what we learned from the series.

Mississippi State baseball is playing with new energy under Justin Parker

Parker said he didn’t notice a difference in Mississippi State’s demeanor in the four games following Lemonis’ firing, but it’s hard to deny something has changed.

The energy, the motivation, the confidence, the urgency all felt elevated in the four games at Dudy Noble Field. The in-game coaching decisions paid off. So many of them this season under Lemonis backfired.

“It’s not a completely different club, and there’s not a whole lot of different moves being made,” Parker said. “We’re fairly consistent as a staff. I think it was just guys believing in themselves and getting a little bit of wake-up call and responding to it.”

It’s not uncommon in sports for a team to play with some extra juice shortly after a coach is fired. Will it sustain? That’s the big question.

But for now, Mississippi State deserves credit for not folding. The Bulldogs have said all along that the NCAA tournament is still the goal. They did a lot to keep those hopes alive by sweeping Kentucky.

Mississippi State’s bullpen responded against Kentucky

MSU’s bullpen was a strength of the team early in the season but ran into trouble the last two series.

Against Kentucky, the Mississippi State bullpen didn’t allow a run in 15 innings.

“You don’t just overnight lose your bullpen,” said Parker, who’s also the MSU pitching coach. “There’s good arms in there, there’s good competitors and there’s really good stuff. It was just a matter of going back out there and believing in it and competing.”

Two relievers, Ben Davis and Luke Dotson, pitched twice. Dotson earned the win in Game 2 and Davis got the win in Game 3 after three scoreless innings. The Bulldogs got two important long relief outings in Game 2 from Ryan McPherson and Nate Williams, combining for 6⅓ innings with one hit, three walks and no runs.

“We got to get ahead for strike one,” Dotson said. “And then, we just can’t waste any pitches.”

Bryce Chance is playing a great center field

Center fielder Bryce Chance got two ovations from the Mississippi State crowd during the series.

The first one came after a sliding catch in left-center field in the fifth inning of Game 1. The game was close at the time, with MSU leading 5-4 and two runners on base. The difficult catch likely prevented two runs from scoring, and Chance received a standing ovation while running back to the dugout.

One inning later, Mississippi State scored eight runs for the comfortable lead on Kentucky.

In Game 3, Chance made a leaping catch at the wall in the first inning to perhaps save a home run or at least prevent the runner at third base from scoring. The out ended the inning, and Chance once again got an ovation.

Chance scored the winning run in Game 2 and hasn’t committed an error in 45 starts this season.

Joe Powell is turning into a clutch hitter

Powell started all three games of the series at catcher and played well in the field and at the plate.

In Game 1, he batted 3-for-3 with a home run, a walk, three RBIs and three runs. He had only one hit in Game 2, but it was the big one, a walk-off single in the 11th inning. Powell provided another clutch hit on May 4, punching a two-run single in the sixth inning for a 4-1 lead.

In the field, Powell threw out a runner attempting to steal a base in Game 3 and limited Kentucky, which leads the SEC in stolen bases, to just two in the series.

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

Mississippi State Run-Rules Mizzou Baseball for Series Victory

Published

8 hours ago

May 17, 2025

Press Room

Mississippi State Run-Rules Mizzou Baseball for Series Victory

After allowing 25 runs in Game 1 of the series, the Missouri Tigers pitching followed suit from the day before.

The game was put out of reach quite early. The Tigers briefly fought back against the Mississippi State Bulldogs, but then ended the game quietly in a 13-3 run-rule for the series loss. f

By the end of the second inning, the Tigers were already down 8-0. Five runs crossed in the first inning from back-to-back doubles followed by two singles, a hit-by-pitch and a homer. Missouri starter Tony Neubeck then went back out for a second inning and allowed a two-run homer after an error plated the sixth run.

After the ball was turned over to reliever Brock Lucas, the Tigers has one clean inning before the scoring began again. The Bulldogs sent their 10th homer of the series out of the park in the fourth inning.

The 11th of the series made it 12-3 in the third inning and was the last batter that Lucas faced. The Tigers then went to reliever Ben Smith to close out the sixth before handing the ball to usual starter Wil Libbert. Libbert was not expected to pitch in the series, as he was being held for the upcoming SEC tournament.

Run-rule range was achieved in the seventh inning. Libbert allowed the run after back-to-back singles, a walk and then a sacrifice fly brought a Bulldog home.

The Tigers were able to bring home two runs on a pop-up from right fielder Cayden Nicoletto that was dropped by Mississippi State’s shortstop in the bottom of the third inning. This somewhat broke open the Mizzou offense. The Tigers tagged on another run in the fourth and stranded two after two singles and a hit-by-pitch.

The Tigers (16-37, 3-26) will look to avoid a series sweep against the Bulldogs (33-20, 14-15) in Game 3 at 2 p.m. on Friday.

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Mississippi State scores 25 runs in big win against Missouri

Published

1 day ago

May 16, 2025

Press Room

Mississippi State scores 25 runs in big win against Missouri

For a brief moment it looked like the ghosts of Mississippi State’s past had come back to haunt the Bulldogs.

Missouri, who hadn’t won an SEC game until last weekend, trailed Mississippi State 12-0 headed into the bottom of the sixth inning. Then, like several other Mississippi State opponents have done this season, the Tigers started a comeback.

The Tigers scored seven unanswered runs, avoiding a run-rule defeat and putting them within striking distance (12-7) of a win. That must’ve woken the Bulldogs back up because what happened next wasn’t pretty.

Mississippi State scored three runs in the eighth inning to rebuild its lead and then went on to score 10 more runs in the ninth inning (in such a fashion to make one wonder, can we just offer mercy and be done?) and finish with a season-high 25 runs scored.

The Bulldogs set the single-game school record by slugging eight home runs in a 25-7 nine-inning victory over the Tigers at Taylor Stadium.

Reed Stallman, Ace Reese and Hunter Hines all hit two home runs with Hines’ second blast tying him with Rafael Palmeiro (1982-85) for the most career homers in MSU history at 67. Noah Sullivan and Joe Powell also went deep for the Bulldogs in their season-high 23-hit attack.

Sullivan finished the night 3-for-5 with homer and two RBIs while Reese, Hines and Bryce Chance were 3-for-6. Reese and Hines both added doubles to their two-homer games with Reese driving in four and Hines three. Chance provided three singles and had two RBIs. Stallman went 2-for-3 with two homers and three RBIs, Gatlin Sanders went 2-for-4 wtih two singles and an RBI while Sawyer Reeves was 2-for-5 with two singles and drove in one.

Steven Spalitta added a pinch hit two-run triple and Gehrig Frei doubled as State improved to 32-20 overall and 13-15 in conference play.

Stone Simmons picked up the win in 1 1/3 innings of relief to up his record to 4-2 on the year. Nate Williams earned his first save as a Bulldog after working the final three frames.

State continues the series with Missouri on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. with both games streamed on SEC Network+.

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Record number of Mississippi third-graders pass reading assessment; see how local districts performed – Mississippi's Best Community Newspaper

Published

2 days ago

May 15, 2025

Press Room

Record number of Mississippi third-graders pass reading assessment; see how local districts performed

Published 12:48 pm Thursday, May 15, 2025

NATCHEZ – A record high number of Mississippi third-graders passed the state reading assessment on the first attempt this spring, prompting praise from statewide education leaders.

“These results are outstanding. The MDE applauds all educators and families across the state that make literacy a priority,” said Dr. Lance Evans, state superintendent of education. “With a continued emphasis on the science of reading as well as implementation of high-quality instructional materials, we believe Mississippi students will continue to make progress.”

A total of 32,839 third graders took the assessment. In 2023-24, 75.7% of third graders passed the initial administration of the reading assessment. After the final retests in 2023-24, 84% of third graders passed the test.

In accordance with the Literacy-Based Promotion Act (LBPA), third graders who do not pass the initial administration of the reading test are given up to two attempts to retest. Students who did not pass the initial reading assessment retested in early May. The second retest window is June 16 – 27.

Area district performance included:

Natchez-Adams County School District

McLaurin Elementary School, 74.2% pass rate

Amite County School District

Amite County Elementary, 61.5% pass rate

Claiborne County School District

A.W. Watson Elementary, 64.4% pass rate

Franklin County School District

Franklin County Lower Elementary, 82.2% pass rate

Jefferson County School District

Jefferson County Elementary, 84%

Wilkinson County School District

Wilkinson County Elementary, 45% pass rate

The LBPA became law in 2013 to improve reading skills of kindergarten through third-grade students in public schools so every student completing the third grade is able to read at or above grade level. The LBPA requires Mississippi third graders to pass a reading assessment to qualify for promotion to fourth grade. Some students may qualify for good cause exemptions to be promoted to fourth grade.

An amendment to the law in 2016 raised reading-level expectations starting in the 2018-19 school year, requiring third graders to score at level three or higher on the reading portion of the Mississippi Academic Assessment Program (MAAP) English Language Arts (ELA) assessment.

Click here to see the district- and school-level initial pass rate report for 2024-25.

Final district-level pass rates will be published this fall in the Literacy-Based Promotion Act Annual Report of Performance and Student Retention for the 2024-25 school year.

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