The Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles baseball season came to a close on Monday night as they fell to Tennessee in the third and final game of the Hattiesburg Super Regionals, 5-0. The loss was the final game for head coach Scott Berry as the Golden Eagles leader after 14 seasons. Berry leaves USM as the winningest coach in the program’s history. It would be difficult to find a finer person than Scott Berry. You did well, Coach.
The College World Series will begin this Friday and will run through June 16. No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 2 Florida, No. 5 LSU, No. 7 Virginia and No. 8 Stanford will join TCU, Oral Roberts and Tennessee. Former USM Golden Eagle hurler Hurston Waldrop transferred to Florida last summer and will be heading to Omaha with his No. 2 Florida Gator teammates this week.
The Southeastern Conference will play an eight-league schedule in 2024 when Texas and Oklahoma join the league as full-time members. The schedule for the 2024 season will be announced on Wednesday, June 14, at 6 p.m. only on the SEC Network.
Former Southern Miss great Matt Wallner was named the International Player of the Week. The seventh-ranked prospect of the Minnesota Twins is hitting .423 over his last six games with three home runs, four doubles, a triple, nine runs scored, and 10 RBI with the Triple A St. Paul Saints. Brent Rooker was selected 39th overall by the Twins in the 2019 MLB draft. Rooker, former MSU Bulldog great and 35th overall draft pick of Minnesota in the 2017 draft, is playing for the Oakland A’s and has slammed 13 home runs entering this week’s play. Grae Kessinger recorded his first league hit this past Sunday. The former Ole Miss Rebel was taken 68th overall in the 2019 draft by Houston.
The Biloxi Shuckers (29-28) and the Mississippi Braves (27-29) settled for a split in their six-game series this past week at Trustmark Park in Pearl. The highlight of the series was Shuckers manager Mike Guerrero, who won his 1,400th game as a minor league manager last weekend. The teams will meet again in Biloxi beginning of June 28. Both teams hit the road this week.
The Mississippi Association of Coaches will add six new members in their 50th Annual Coaches Hall of Fame next Friday, June 23, at 6 p.m. at the Sheraton Refuge Hotel & Conference Center in Flowood. The Class of 2023 includes Marcus Boyles, Jack Graft, Karen Green, Jimmy Parker, William “Moose” Perry and George Willis. Upon the induction of the Class of 2023, the MAC Hall of Fame membership will increase to 264 (250 lifetime and 14 honorary members). The MAC Coaches Hall of Fame was created in 1973.
Raynoid Dedeaux has stepped down as Alcorn State Athletic Director after four months, and Robert Raines has been named interim AD.
The New Orleans Saints are picked to make the NFL playoffs and are the favorite in 10 of their 17 games, according to Caesars Sportsbook. They are predicted to win seven of their eight home games. The Saints are a one-point underdog at home against Detroit in week 13. They are road favorites against Texas, Atlanta and Indy.
Early this month, former Philadelphia High football great Marcus Dupree was selected to be enshrined into the National High School Hall of Fame 2023 class in Canton, Ohio, on July 30th. In his senior season of high school, he rushed for 1,955 yards and scored 34 touchdowns. Dupree’s final high school numbers were 7,355 rushing yards with an 8.33 yards per carry average. The Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame member tallied 87 touchdowns during his high school career, breaking Herschel Walker’s record by one.
