The college baseball season is finally underway for the Big 3. In Starkville, the defending national champion Mississippi Bulldogs (1-2) could only muster one win in a three-game set with No. 24 Long Beach State, but the fans still came. They know better days are ahead. State should not feel bad about their first series of the year as powers Vanderbilt and Florida also lost two of three to begin the season. The Dogs will host Northern Kentucky in another three-game weekend series. No. 5 Ole Miss (3-0) scored 32 runs in a three-game sweep over Charleston Southern. The Rebels’ lineup is deep and it showed as they outmuscled their visitors. The revamped Ole Miss pitching rotation had a good start. This weekend the Rebels will host Virginia Commonwealth. Southern Mississippi (3-0) also rolled to a three-game sweep on North Alabama by scoring 35 runs over the three games. USM used timely hitting and a rebuilt pitching staff to take down North Alabama. USM will take on Jacksonville State this weekend before heading to Trustmark Park in Jackson on Wednesday, March 2, to take on the Mississippi State Bulldogs.
USM Football
The Southern Mississippi football team hit the practice field this past Saturday morning as Will Hall begins his second season in Hattiesburg. The Eagles coming off a 3-9 mark in 2021 has a wealth of new talent in camp. Last year, Hall and his Eagles had only 60 scholarship football players to work. This spring he is up to 80 scholarship players to work with. Southern will face Liberty, Miami, Northwestern and Tulane in non-conference games this fall. The Eagles are planning to play in the Sun Belt Conference this upcoming season. The Sun Belt schedule is being released on March 1, and USM is on the master schedule; however, C-USA has already released their conference schedule with USM also on theirs.
Women’s Basketball
The Ole Miss Lady Rebels (20-6, 8-5) registered their first 20-win season in 15 years with a comeback over Vanderbilt on Sunday. The Lady Rebels, now fifth in the SEC overall standings, will take on No. 1 South Carolina at home on Thursday. Southern Mississippi (16-9) is tied for first with North Texas in the Western Division of C-USA with an 8-6 mark. They will host North Texas on Thursday. Mississippi State (6-7, 15-11) lost three games this week in SEC play to fall to the middle of the pack in the SEC standings. The Lady Bulldogs will travel to Tennessee this Thursday.
SWAC
Jackson State took part in the Andre Dawson Classic in New Orleans but left with only one win in three games. JSU (1-2) took the final game over Prairie View. The Tigers will host the JSU Tournament this weekend. Mississippi Valley (2-0) won big over Rust College and will head to Nicholls State this weekend. Alcorn will open this Friday at McNeese State.
The Alcorn Braves (10-4) have moved into a first-place tie with Texas Southern and Southern in the SWAC Men’s basketball standing as they escaped with a 61-60 home win over Jackson State. The Jackson State Lady Tigers are now 14-0 in SWAC play with four games left in the regular season.
Odds & Ends
Chris Robinson hit a milestone in only his 13th season as Jones head softball coach in winning his 500th game. Robinson is averaging 40 wins a season in leading the Lady Bobcats to seven of the last nine National Tournaments. He is also the third most winning coach in Mississippi Junior College history.
The Mississippi JUCO’s state basketball tournaments will be this week while Region 23 play will begin next week at Mississippi College.
The MHSAA state basketball tournaments begin next week in Jackson. This weekend the remaining eight teams from each class will play to see who moves on to Jackson. Four teams from each of the six classes will advance.
Dale has been writing sports in Mississippi since 1973. Listen to Dale’s Brouhaha Sports Show with Marshall Wood on Tuesday at 6 p.m. on WABO FM 105.5 in the Waynesboro area. Former South Carolina All-American and New Orleans running back George Rogers will visit this week. To listen to the broadcast on your computer or smart phone anywhere in the world, go to Google Chrome, go to wabo105.com and click listen live. You may also go to The Brouhaha on YouTube. Please visit us on our Brouhaha Facebook page and like us.
