| Thursday, June 21, 2018 |
| Alum, convenience store owner gives away Rally Bananas to Mississippi State fans in Omaha | |
 | DeLone Wilson wanted it known that Mississippi State baseball fans joining him in Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series were specifically welcomed in his convenience stores, and he hung a banner outside his downtown storefront to prove it. His wife went a step further: Why not feed the Rally Banana craze by giving MSU fans free bananas? The Cubby's parking lot has been packed ever since. Wilson is a MSU grad who is president of Cubby's, a chain of convenience stores throughout Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota with 36 locations, according to its website, most of them around the Nebraska-Iowa border Omaha occupies. Their downtown store on the corner of South 13th and Jackson streets, about a mile from TD Ameritrade Park, has been flooded with MSU fans seeking to join the Rally Banana faithful. |
| Mississippi State recognized as 'Military Spouse Friendly' school | |
 | Mississippi State University has been listed by Victory Media as a "Military Spouse Friendly" school for 2018. The honor is included in an annual companion list to the company's "Military Friendly" schools, which also recognized MSU for its veteran-oriented campus culture. Brian Locke, director of the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Center for America's Veterans and retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, said the recognition is another accolade that showcases MSU's veteran-friendly culture. "I believe that the services we proudly provide to our military family members are unmatched by any other university," Locke said. "I can speak with certainty of the sacrifices made by military spouses because on several occasions, my spouse was a sole parent of three children while I was deployed for a year or more." |
| Soybeans in slow-motion fall as tariff war with China heats up | |
 | Mississippi farmers can do nothing but wait and see how the futures market plays out as China's threat to place a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans on July 6 approaches. It's been like watching a pickup plunge off a bridge in slow motion for the farmers. Since May 25, a contract for November delivery of soybeans is down $1.30 a bushel -- from $10.49 to $9.29, Dr. Josh Maples, assistant professor for agricultural economics at Mississippi State University, said on Monday. The Chinese tariff threat comes as a result of a 25 percent tariff imposed March 1 by the United States on Chinese steel imports and a 10 percent add-on on aluminum products from that country. Soybeans are the biggest row crop in Mississippi. It was valued at $1.7 billion in 2017. |
| Area unemployment spikes, still lower than last year | |
| Although unemployment rates spiked in Clay, Lowndes, Oktibbeha and Noxubee counties in May -- increases of anywhere from 1 percent to 1.7 percent compared to April -- data released by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security suggests that the unemployment rates have flattened after a steady increase over the past year. The jumps in unemployment in May most likely reflect the end of the school year, when students begin looking for summer jobs, a situation that regularly sees jobless rates jump as students compete for limited job opportunities. Yet compared to May 2017, the numbers suggest that the unemployment rate is stabilizing, with all four counties showing May jobless numbers that are only slightly lower than those of last May. |
| Jennifer Prather named interim CEO of The Partnership | |
| The Partnership has officially named Director of Tourism Jennifer Prather as its interim CEO after the news Scott Maynard would resign last week. Maynard announced his resignation on June 14 to assume a position with the Florida State University Career Center. The Partnership Board of Directors has engaged Logan Development Group to begin a national search to fill this position. Chairman of The Partnership Board of Directors Jerry Toney said Prather is a proven team player and committed to the vision of the Partnership. Prather has been with The Partnership since January 2013, beginning as special events and projects coordinator by directing and overseeing numerous special events. In August 2017, Prather was promoted to director of tourism, focusing on the enhancement of the Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau and Starkville Main Street Association. |
| Master plan commissioned for park complex at Cornerstone | |
| Starkville aldermen approved a $61,000 contract with Memphis architecture firm Dalhoff Thomas for a master plan of an athletic complex at Cornerstone Park off Highway 25. Ward 4 Alderman Jason Walker said the contract will build off the master plan the city already has for its parks system as a whole. He said it will speak specifically to the construction of a proposed complex at Cornerstone Park, which should help expedite construction, should the city move ahead with it. Mayor Lynn Spruill said the city could receive about 114 acres in Cornerstone Park from the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority. She said OCEDA has shown a willingness to give the land to the city, as with other economic development projects. |
| Director candidates revealed for Parks and Recreation | |
| The Starkville Board of Aldermen set a special call meeting to hold interviews with four applicants for the vacant Parks and Recreation Department director position during its meeting Tuesday night. The board unanimously approved to hold in-person interviews with the four candidates at 3 p.m. on July 10 in the boardroom. The four candidates are Reginald Burton, of Merrillville, Indiana, Gerry Logan, of Starkville, Edward Smith, of Jackson, Tennessee and Digby Whyte, of Bordeaux, France. During the meeting, Mayor Lynn Spruill said three of the four candidates are from out of town, which makes it "problematic" for them to be in Starkville for the interview. Spruill said her plan was to hold an elimination round of interviews, which would have candidates from out of town interview via Skype. |
| Bridging the gap between doctor and patient | |
| "(In Mississippi) we always get to be at the top of the list that you don't want to be at the top of and the bottom of the list that you don't want to be at the bottom of," Mississippi Rural Physicians Scholarship Program executive director Wahnee Sherman told the Columbus Rotary Tuesday. "We have the highest physician shortage rate in the country." Funded by the Mississippi Legislature, MRPSP awards four-year scholarships of $120,000 for medical students in the state who open practices in rural areas with small populations and either aging doctors or no doctors at all. The idea is to mitigate a critical shortage of doctors in the state, especially in small communities. Since the program began, the Legislature has awarded $12.6 million in scholarships and has placed 25 physicians in different areas around the state, including West Point, Amory and Columbus. Dozens more are in the pipeline once they complete medical training. |
| Supreme Court rules that states may require online retailers to collect sales taxes | |
 | A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that states may require online retailers to collect billions of dollars of sales tax revenue owed to them. The decision was 5 to 4. More than 40 states and the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to overturn its 1992 decision in Quill v. North Dakota that restricts states from collecting sales tax from retailers without a physical presence in those states. They said a decision in a case involving mail-order catalogues is obsolete in an era of e-commerce. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who wrote Thursday's majority decision, had earlier called for the court to reconsider the decision. Kennedy wrote that dramatic technological changes had made the court's previous ruling obsolete, and that it unfairly disadvantaged traditional brick and mortar stores. |
| What will collecting internet sales taxes mean for Mississippi? | |
 | The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling allowing states to collect online sales tax should mean an injection of $50 million to $75 million to state coffers, the state's tax chief said Thursday. It also is likely to stem sales losses and closures of mom-and-pop retailers across the state to the growth of online shopping. And it will most likely prompt Gov. Phil Bryant to call the state Legislature back to Jackson for a special session in coming weeks. This is expected to provide lawmakers another crack at providing more money for the state's crumbling road and bridge infrastructure -- something over which they've unsuccessfully haggled for more than three years. |
| Mississippi regulators could approve sports betting rules | |
 | Mississippi gambling regulators are set to vote Thursday on whether to approve final rules allowing sports betting, clearing the way for sports books to open in the state's 28 casinos in July. The state Gaming Commission has placed the rules on its agenda for consideration Thursday. Commission Executive Director Allen Godfrey said commission staff will propose some slight tweaks to the rules that were published for public comment in May. If approved, the rules would take effect in 30 days. Some sports betting service providers, though, must be licensed by the commission before betting begins. |
| Governor tabs prosecutor in Mississippi congressional runoff | |
| Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is endorsing a prosecutor in a Republican congressional runoff. Michael Guest of Brandon, who won 45 percent of the vote in a six-person field on June 6, announced Bryant's endorsement Wednesday. The 48-year-old district attorney for Rankin and Madison counties faces Madison Republican Whit Hughes in a runoff Tuesday. Hughes won 22 percent of the vote. The 43-year-old former state development official later worked as fundraiser for a Baptist hospital system. Republican Bryant says Guest will be a supporter of President Donald Trump. |
| Whit Hughes: 'Ready to Fight' in Congress | |
 | Native Jacksonian Whit Hughes was born in the old Baptist Hospital, was a basketball player at Mississippi State, and cut his political teeth working with the Republican National Committee and helping Republican stalwart Haley Barbour become governor of the state on a small-government, anti-regulation platform. Now, he's borrowing from that tried-and-true strategy in his race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper's seat in Congress. In a recent interview with the Jackson Free Press, Hughes did not veer far from the established Republican line his mentor Barbour made popular---low taxes, scant regulations (including on guns), no abortion rights, and less reliance on federal educational standards. Guest declined to do an interview because he did not have time, Communications Director Rob Pillow said. |
| Run-Off Blues: Inside the Playoff to Challenge Roger Wicker | |
| Democratic U.S. Senate contenders David Baria and Howard Sherman share a common interest in basketball, at least for campaign metaphor purposes. Speaking after a campaign lunch June 11 with state Democratic lawmakers at the King Edward Hotel in downtown Jackson, Baria compared the run-off election to the first game of the NBA finals, which turned the interaction between J.R. Smith and Lebron James into a meme overnight. "I talk about it like a sports analogy, like the Cleveland Cavaliers before they got Tyronn Lue. Or the Warriors before Steve Kerr became the coach. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson were there," Sherman told the Jackson Free Press. The June 26 run-off election is a bit like the final playoff game in a tied series. Both candidates are vying to be the Democratic challenger to Sen. Roger Wicker, who holds a strong 11-year grip on his Senate seat and is now the ranking Mississippi senator since Sen. Thad Cochran's retirement. |
| Three local Democrats endorse Baria for Senate | |
 | Lauderdale County Democrats Weston Lindemann, John Flowers and Cornelius Parks, from the Lauderdale County Democratic Party Executive Committee, endorsed David Baria Wednesday for the U.S. Senate seat in his primary race against Howard Sherman. The Lauderdale County Democratic Party as a whole doesn't endorse candidates until the general election, according to the Lauderdale County Democratic Party vice president Syria Sturdivant. Baria and Sherman will face each other in a runoff election on Tuesday for the Democratic nomination. The winner will face Roger Wicker, the incumbent Republican senator, in November. Baria said he would focus on public education, fixing the state's roads and bridges as well as replacing Mississippi's state flag. |
| Sherman campaign puts focus on business background | |
| From a young age, Howard Sherman says he's always had a knack for seeing the bigger picture. It's a talent he shares with his wife, actress Sela Ward, telling Mississippi Today that she can transform the words on a script into a three-dimensional moment on screen. "I was blessed with the kind of aptitude that I could look at something and see what isn't there, what's possible," he said. "That same gift I have in the business world --- I can see the genesis of an idea. I can see what we need to bring together." In his quest to be the Democratic challenger to face U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker in November, Sherman, a 63-year-old venture capitalist from California who lives in Meridian, has built a campaign that plays up his businessman bona fides. |
| Trump immigration reversal followed pressure from Melania, Ivanka and GOP lawmakers | |
 | For President Donald Trump, cracking down on illegal immigration is good politics, but separating families in the process is not. Trump signed a slapped-together executive order after days of protests from across the political spectrum, including Republican lawmakers who expressed concerns about their re-election prospects, according to current and former administration officials. Pressure also came from within his own family. Ivanka Trump had been working with top GOP lawmakers -- including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine -- to find a way out, said a White House official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive discussions within the first family. |
| America's white population shrinks for the first time as nation ages | |
 | The number of non-Hispanic white people in the United States decreased for the first time in the nation's history between 2015 and 2016, according to new figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The data show the nation's white population is aging rapidly, as Americans delay their decision to have a family and as the flow of foreign immigrants from European countries ebbs. At the same time, minority populations are growing much faster, hastening a demographic shift that has been decades in the making. The average non-Hispanic white American is 43.5 years old, according to the new data. The average Hispanic American, by contrast, is 29.3 years old. Demographers say the decline in the white population has been coming for decades, as Americans decide to have children at later ages and as the baby-boom generation moves toward retirement. |
| Where are the millennials of insurance? Ole Miss teams with industry to replenish ranks | |
| The prospect of calamities has kept insurance executives from sleeping easy since way back in the 1300s when enterprising Genoans began insuring ships and cargo. Nowadays, insurance execs are trying to head off a modern-day calamity of not having new blood to carry the industry forward as baby boomers retire from the field in droves. Their efforts are getting much-needed help from several universities around the country that have become critical supply lines for moving millennials into the industry. In the Southeast, the University of Mississippi is a prominent contributor, as are the University of Georgia and Florida State University. |
| Itawamba Community College building a new 'front door' on Tupelo campus | |
 | The Itawamba Community College campus in Fulton provides room and board to about 1,000 students. At its campuses in Tupelo and Belden, every student travels to and from class. For those commuters, ICC is taking large steps to give them comfortable surroundings that foster productivity during their school days. Currently at the Tupelo campus, work crews are more than one-third of the way through the construction of a new academic and student services building. "In one simple concept, this building will be the new front door of the Tupelo campus," ICC president Dr. Jay Allen said. "It will be visible right there on Eason Boulevard and will be a great facility to welcome people to campus." The new building, which has not yet been given an official name, will be just under 48,000 square feet. It will house a book store, cafeteria, coffee shop with Starbucks, study lounges, 14 classrooms, two computer labs, administration offices and safe room. |
| New Chick-fil-A, Panera headline 11 additions to U. of South Carolina's restaurant lineup | |
 | University of South Carolina students will have nearly a dozen new food choices when they return to classes in August. The new restaurants -- which include barbecue, sushi, ice cream, pizza, tacos, Asian cuisine, southern cooking and more -- will be housed on the first and second floors of the Russell House student center, which is undergoing a $9.5 million renovation. Aramark, which runs USC's dining through subsidiary Carolina Food Co., will pay the cost of the renovation, USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said in an email. The company decided on the 11 restaurants using surveys, focus groups and tastings, Aramark spokeswoman Faren Alston said in an email. "We wanted to establish a balance between industry leading brands like Chick-fil-A and Panera Bread and localized brands, like Congaree River Smokehouse and Horseshoe Deli, to provide diverse menu offerings and a unique dining experience to the University of South Carolina," Alston said. |
| LSU official asks visitors to be careful when 'playing' with Mike VII after viral video | |
 | After a video of LSU's Mike the Tiger "sneaking up" on some visitors at his habitat went viral recently, his caretakers are urging the public not to provoke him to jump at the glass because he could hurt himself, according to a report. Ginger Guttner, communications manager for the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine, told WBRZ that when people turn their backs to the glass at Mike's enclosure, it makes him want to pounce because he's "an ambush predator." Guttner said that if Mike does pounce at the glass, he could break a tooth, which would make him unable to eat or possibly require dental surgery. Tooth loss is also the No. 1 cause of death for tigers in the wild, Guttner told WBRZ. |
| U. of Florida freshman retention rate highest in state | |
 | The University of Florida has consistently had one of the nation's highest freshman retention rates. There are 34 colleges ranked by U.S. News and World Report that have a 96 to a 99 percent freshman retention rate between fall 2012 and fall 2015. UF has had a 96 percent retention rate from 2013 to 2017 except in 2016, when the retention rate was 97 percent. It has the highest freshman retention rate of Florida schools. The freshman-retention rate has risen over time, from about 89 percent in the mid-1990s. Angela Lindner, associate provost for undergraduate affairs, said keeping freshmen invested in the university begins at admittance. "First and foremost, we bring in excellent students," Lindner said. |
| A&M professor, Texas distiller researching university's thousands of corn varieties for new whiskey flavor | |
 | A Texas A&M professor and Fort Worth distiller are looking to add more identifiable flavors to the whiskey market by generating unique corn varieties in Texas. For the past three years, A&M professor and corn breeding specialist Seth Murray has advised doctoral student Rob Arnold on research into how the genetic makeup of corn can produce different flavors in whiskey. "The goal overall is to really facilitate a paradigm shift in the way we think about corn in [the whiskey] industry," Arnold said. Their research has found that whiskey using hybrid corn, or cross-produced inbred corn, produces a greater diversity of flavors than commercial yellow corn, which most large-scale distilleries use because of its high-yield potential, Arnold said. |
| $1 million grant to help U. of Missouri diversity science education | |
 | The University of Missouri is one of 33 colleges selected to receive a $1 million, five-year grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in support of the Inclusive Excellence initiative for 2018 meant to increase . The money will be used to increase diversity among science students through partnerships with community colleges, historically black colleges and Columbia Public Schools, MU said in a news release. The university will also focus on peer mentoring, leadership development and extracurricular programming. "Mizzou has actively engaged in bringing diversity into the sciences and, in order to achieve scientific merit, various viewpoints must be considered when finding creative solutions to the challenges facing Missouri and beyond," Kevin McDonald, UM system chief diversity officer and MU vice chancellor for inclusion, diversity and equity, said in the news release. |
| New complex will offer U. of Missouri System faculty opportunities to collaborate on research | |
 | Faculty from across the University of Missouri System said Wednesday they believe the best way to provide treatment for diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease and Alzheimer's is through collaborative research and individualized treatment. One way they plan to accomplish this is through the Translational Precision Medicine Complex, a $200 million research facility expected to be completed in the next three years. Speakers at the Precision Medicine Summit at MU said the complex will be a great opportunity for researchers to collaborate and find treatments for various diseases. The complex will allow researchers of different disciplines and locations to come together, said Peter Tonellato, the director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics Research at MU. |
| Missouri's enrollment chief leaving to run community college | |
| Pelema Morrice, the University of Missouri's vice provost for enrollment and strategic management, announced Wednesday he is leaving MU to become president of Great Bay Community College in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, starting in August. During his tenure, Morrice re-energized MU's recruitment efforts and helped to organize more personal outreach events, attending high school events and college fairs and recruiting out-of-state students. "Morrice has been an integral part of Mizzou since he joined us in 2016," MU spokesperson Christian Basi said. "We are certainly going to miss him and have appreciated all the work he has done since he's been here." Morrice accepted the enrollment position at MU two years ago, after serving as chief enrollment officer at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. |
| More college students attending summer classes thanks to yearlong Pell Grants | |
 | For many college students, summer is a time to pursue internships, work full-time or otherwise take a break from classes. Not so this year for many students at Louisiana community colleges. The state's system of two-year institutions has seen a 10 percent increase in enrollment over this time last summer and a 17 percent increase in credit hours pursued, said Monty Sullivan, president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System. He attributes that jump to the first full summer of year-round Pell Grants since Congress restored the aid last year. "That just doesn't happen without some type of change in policy or resources that spurs it," Sullivan said. "There's no question in my mind that it is directly related back to the year-round Pell issue." |
| Community college enrollment rates expected to keep falling | |
| Community colleges are used to declining enrollments when the economy is strong and unemployment is low. But some researchers are warning colleges that future declines are only expected to get worse amid cuts in state funding and more pressure on institutions to produce measurable outcomes. "They absolutely need to be worried right now," said Christina Hubbard, director of strategic research at EAB, an educational research and technology services company. "We're in an OK spot until 2025 and then a cliff is going to happen. We're already struggling financially, and with the federal government pulling back so much funding from higher education, and when you add the changes happening in enrollment, we have a major problem coming very fast." Two-year colleges have been coping with declining enrollments since around 2010. |
| Teaching soft skills critical for tomorrow's workforce | |
| Scott Waller, president and CEO of the Mississippi Economic Council, writes in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: "Many of Mississippi's high-school students are planning to enter the workforce after graduation, and it is fair for them to wonder: 'Do I have what it takes to get a job?' A group of business leaders in the Tupelo area helped provide answers about what it takes to be job-ready without a college degree, as well as, how changes in the high school curriculum could better prepare those graduates that are not on a path to a four-year college. What can parents and business leaders do to fill the gap while the education system adjusts to address this issue?" |
SPORTS
| It's Bulldogs vs. Beavers on Friday | |
| Brett Daniels walked in the go-ahead run after Adley Rutschman tied it with a three-run double in the eighth inning, and Oregon State knocked North Carolina out of the College World Series with an 11-6 win Wednesday night. It was a stunning turnabout after the Tar Heels had wiped out a 3-0 deficit to go up 6-3 in the sixth. North Carolina had been 37-0 when leading after seven innings and had won 50 straight when scoring six runs, the longest streak in Division I. Oregon State will play Mississippi State in a bracket final. The Beavers would need to win Friday and again Saturday to reach the best-of-three finals. |
| Oregon State eliminates UNC to set up game vs. Mississippi State | |
| The Oregon State baseball team didn't get to the College World Series by committing multiple errors and stranding double-digit runners every game. But a performance like that left the Beavers on the brink of elimination Saturday. No. 3 national seed Oregon State committed three errors and left 11 runners on base in an 8-6 loss to No. 6 national seed North Carolina at TD Ameritrade Park. Consider it a one-game aberration. Oregon State (51-11-1) rebounded by defeating Washington 14-5 Monday and North Carolina 11-6 Wednesday in elimination games. The victories set Oregon State up to face Mississippi State (39-27) at 2 p.m. Friday in another elimination game for the Beavers. Oregon State will have to beat MSU twice to get to the championship series, which is scheduled to begin Monday. The Bulldogs will have to win once to reach the best-of-three series. |
| Jordan Westburg's success was a work in progress | |
| Jordan Westburg may have risen to fame for his banana hijinks in the Mississippi State dugout. But on Tuesday, Westburg solidified himself as a Bulldog baseball legend for what he did with his bat. The freshman designated hitter went 3 for 4 with a double, grand slam and tied a College World Series single-game record with seven RBIs in MSU's win over North Carolina to reach the semifinals. "If you're going to do all the shenanigans in the dugout, you might have to step it up on the field and back that up," Westburg said. "So it's always nice to do that." Westburg's ascension to stardom has been a work in progress all season. He didn't pick up his first hit until Southeastern Conference play and didn't crack the starting lineup until March 20. |
| From bananas to hero: Jordan Westburg rising to the moment for Mississippi State | |
| If your first impression of Mississippi State freshman Jordan Westburg was watching his banana antics in the Tallahassee Regional, you might assume he's the class clown. Not so, said Mississippi State coach Gary Henderson. "He's an intense kid," Henderson said. "Super intense. He's not a goofball." Really? The same Westburg we have seen using a banana as a phone, then as a radar gun, then yelling at it in the dugout, is super intense? Apparently so, because what he's done for Mississippi State in the last seven weeks is no joke. The right-handed hitter from New Braunfels, Texas has played better in the second half of the season, taking ownership of his role on the team and contributing significantly from the nine-hole. And that was before he came through with that massive 7-RBI game in State's 12-2 win over North Carolina Tuesday at TD Ameritrade Park. |
| Coaches work together to keep Bulldogs on right path | |
| Mike Brown's office in the Mississippi State baseball team's complex at Dudy Noble Field features something that has never meant more than it does now. The decal is made to look like stone, even though it's stuck to the wall via adhesive. It displays a Harry Truman quote -- "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." -- that has gotten Brown and the rest of the team's coaching staff through a trying season. Brown has carried the quote with him through his career, but it has proven to be especially useful this season. Brown, who has been an assistant coach at MSU since July 2016, and assistant coach Jake Gautreau have worked with MSU interim coach Gary Henderson and volunteer assistant/coordinator of camps A.J. Gaura and director of operations Trevor Fitts to find peace so they could project it to their players. |
| College World Series: It's not the Road to Omaha without Everett Kennard | |
 | Mississippi State is making their 10th appearance in the College World Series. Everett Kennard has experienced nine of them. He doesn't bat, pitch, or coach. His role with maroon and white is just as important. "I've been hauling Mississippi State athletes for 36 years," Kennard said. "I actually just started to help them out, but they said can you do it until we find somebody? And so now I laugh and say 36 years later that they've not found anybody." Kennard has seen it all when it comes to Bulldog baseball. "I've seen it in the glory days of 1985 and 1989." But for this year's team? "It's amazing. It's one of the more resilient groups I've ever seen or ever been associated with. And what a great job this staff has done with his team." |
| These Diamond Dogs: A historical perspective | |
| Mississippi sports columnist Rick Cleveland writes: "You could make a strong argument that no team in college baseball history possessed more remarkable talent than the 1985 Mississippi State Bulldogs. ...They are the team with which all Mississippi State teams -- in a proud, proud MSU baseball history -- are compared. ...But they could not win it all. No Mississippi State team ever has. At the College World Series, the 1985 Bulldogs finished tied for third. ...And now, 33 years later, a team that began the season 0-3, began the SEC season 2-7, finished a break-even 15-15 in the SEC, and was eliminated in the preliminary round of the SEC Tournament has an excellent chance to do what the storied '85 team could not." |
| Bulldogs. The correct nickname is Bulldogs. | |
| John Pitts writes in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal: "Well, it has happened again. And of course there were profuse apologies, again. On Saturday in Omaha, the giant video board at TD Ameritrade Park displayed a graphic about the 'Mississippi State Rebels.' On Monday, MSU president Mark Keenum got a note of apology from the NCAA. In the meantime, though, plenty of Bulldogs fans asked themselves, 'How on earth does this keep happening?' And it does keep happening. A couple of the most celebrated incidents have happened on the NCAA's watch." |
| 2018 College World Series has already been delayed longer than past seven years combined | |
| In the top of the fourth inning, with one on and one out, the rain returned. Arkansas and Texas Tech played on, but fans around TD Ameritrade Park sprung to action. They jumped from seats into the aisles, rushing to safety under the overhanging concourse. Others hastily threw on clear or blue ponchos; some flicked an umbrella as strike two was called. Wet socks, white tarps and killing time have been plentiful at this year's College World Series, the most rain-delayed CWS of the past 15 years. This year's CWS has had more halted play for wet or dangerous conditions than the past seven College World Series combined. Through Wednesday afternoon, Omaha had received more than 3 inches of rain since Sunday. Somewhat remarkably, the CWS remains on schedule. |
| Rain keeps some CWS visitors from vendor tents, but fans of teams that travel well are still buying | |
| Jon Brovold is glad teams like Mississippi State and Arkansas are playing in the College World Series. He said fans of those teams travel well and buy lots of merchandise at vendor tents like his outside TD Ameritrade Park. Brovold of J.E.B. Enterprises said if it weren't for those kinds of teams at the series, business would be down, because the rainy weather has kept some fans away. Joe Hauser, national sales manager for Blue 84, agreed that plenty of purchases by fans of such schools as Mississippi State, Arkansas, Texas Tech and Texas are offsetting sales declines caused by the rain this week. Hauser's company is a wholesaler that provides NCAA-licensed apparel to vendors at the CWS; he said his sales so far are up 20 percent from last year's CWS. |
| Cruising in Omaha: Hogs win away from title series | |
| Dominic Fletcher went 4 for 4 and hit a titanic home run to help put the Arkansas Razorbacks into prime position at the College World Series on Wednesday. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville scored the first five runs and received sterling pitching for eight innings from Kacey Murphy and Barrett Loseke for a 7-4 victory over the Texas Tech Red Raiders before a crowd of 13,637 at TD Ameritrade Park. Arkansas (46-19) advances to Friday's Bracket 2 championship-round game at 7 p.m. Texas Tech (45-19) is scheduled to face Florida in an elimination game today at 7 p.m. on ESPNU. The Florida-Texas Tech winner will have to beat the Razorbacks twice to advance to the CWS championship series. |
| Gators get rematch with Texas Tech at College World Series | |
| With its season still on the line, Florida will get a second chance to knock off Texas Tech at the College World Series. The Gators (48-20) are hoping for a different result when they face the Red Raiders (45-19) on Thursday night at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb. (8 p.m. ET, ESPNU). Texas Tech knocked UF into the loser's bracket with a 6-3 win Sunday night, but fell into the elimination game Thursday following a 7-4 loss to Arkansas on Wednesday afternoon. Florida kept its season alive with a 6-1 win over Texas on Tuesday. Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan will turn to one of two freshman right-handers -- Jack Leftwich or Tommy Mace --- to start against the Red Raiders. Texas Tech, which will be the home team, will counter with sophomore righty Caleb Killian (9-2, 3.04 ERA). If Florida wins, it would need to beat Arkansas twice in a row on Friday and Saturday to return to the CWS championship. |
| Delta State AD Ronnie Mayers announces he will retire at the end of the year | |
| Delta State University Athletic Director and Director of Aquatics Ronnie Mayers announced one of the toughest decisions of his career Monday. Mayers, who has been the official AD at DSU since 2013 and has been employed at the school for over 40 years, said he will retire on Dec. 31. The 66-year-old Natchez native just felt it was time to step down and spend more time with his family. "After you've been here as long as I have you just can't work forever even though you want to," Mayers said with a laugh. "I won't be going far. I've got no plans to leave town. Cleveland is my home and I love the folks here at Delta State and love the folks here at Cleveland. It's been a great opportunity for me to be involved all these years with the program. I just figured it would be better to go ahead and let everybody know a few months in advance. I'm one of the luckiest people in the world." |
| Allen Greene, Butch Thompson continue to discuss 'long-term plans' for Auburn baseball | |
 | What stood out to Butch Thompson most about the way his team reacted to its season-ending loss at Florida last week was how so many of his players -- after the initial shock had passed -- jogged out to right field to console right fielder Steven Williams after Austin Langworthy's 11th-inning, walk-off home run bounced off his glove and over the wall. What stood out most to first-year athletics director Allen Greene about Auburn's third-year baseball coach is that he fostered a culture that made such a scene possible on that stage. "I just really appreciate the way that he manages these young men," Greene said before the Auburn Alumni Association's Ambush tour event in Newnan, Ga., on Tuesday. Off the field, Auburn's Board of Trustees recently approved a new $4 million player development facility at Plainsman Park, and there are plans to upgrade the stadium's seating in the future. |
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