Jackson Free Press

At one time, it seemed like as many as four baseball teams from our state might end up in the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. That’s not how things worked out in the end.

Mississippi Valley State University failed to make the SWAC Baseball Tournament, and their year ended after the regular season. Both Jackson State University and Alcorn State University made the tournament but couldn’t win the title and the conference’s lone bid.

The University of Mississippi made the SEC Baseball Tournament but lost a single-elimination game to Auburn University. That ended up holding the Rebels, who were seeded ninth, back from the NCAA Tournament since the Tigers were seeded eighth, and the top eight seeds from the SEC made the NCAA Tournament.

It is possible that the Rebels might have been in the field if they beaten Auburn. Upsets, such as Rice University winning the Conference USA Tournament and Brigham Young University winning the West Coast Conference Tournament, didn’t help UM’s chances, though.

The Rebels are missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011.

Late Sunday, May 28, the NCAA announced that the University of Southern Mississippi would be one of the 16 regional host sites. That assured the Golden Eagles that they were in the tournament and hosting a regional for the first time since 2003.

USM scored a school-record 48 wins so far this season and won the C-USA regular-season title. In the conference tournament, Southern Miss made the championship game but came up short against Rice. The Golden Eagles are the No. 1 seed in the regional.

On Monday, May 29, the NCAA announced the full 64-team field, with Mississippi State University also playing in the Hattiesburg Regional. The Bulldogs are making their 36th NCAA Baseball Tournament appearance.

MSU is the No. 2 seed in the regional and received an at-large bid into the tournament. The Bulldogs will open the regional against the No. 3-seed University of South Alabama, which earned an automatic bid by winning the Sun Belt Tournament.

South Alabama lost two of three games to MSU during the regular season but won the last meeting 5-2. This is the second meeting between the teams in a NCAA regional; the Bulldogs got the win in the only other meeting.

Meanwhile, USM will open regional play against the No. 4-seed University of Illinois-Chicago. The Golden Eagles didn’t meet the Flames in the regular season. UIC earned an automatic bid into the tournament by winning the Horizon League Tournament.

The Bulldogs and Golden Eagles clashed in the regular season at Trustmark Park, with USM coming out on top 7-5. The two schools played once in a 2011 regional, which the Bulldogs won 3-0.

MSU hasn’t faced UCI in program history. USM defeated South Alabama twice in the regular season this year and won …

Folks tailgating at The Grove this fall on the campus of the University of Mississippi will no doubt talk about potential NCAA sanctions. At some point, the talk might turn to another university that’s just over 630 miles from Oxford, Miss.: Baylor University in Texas.

Rebels fans might be scratching their heads wondering why they are looking down the barrel of the NCAA’s gun, but Baylor University isn’t. The answer is simple: There are no rules in the massive NCAA rulebook on what is going on at Baylor. Last year, a sexual-assault scandal in the football program came to light, and since then, the allegations have continued to mount.

Each new lawsuit against the university is painting an ugly picture about what was going on at Baylor. Still, the Bears will get to compete for the Big 12 title and head to a bowl game, but not the Rebels.

In an article on Sports Illustrated’s website, SI.com, writer Andy Staples breaks down the reasons why the NCAA won’t punish Baylor.

He points out that the organization jumped the gun against Pennsylvania State University in 2012.

The NCAA punished Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case. For the most part, many of the sanctions have quietly been reduced or repealed.

Personally, I was against the punishment for Penn State, not because of I’m a fan of the university but because the NCAA overstepped its boundaries. We can all agree that the NCAA should relax some rules and do away with others, but it can’t just make up rules on the fly.

Public outcry drowned out common sense. For the NCAA, the PSU case became, “We have to do something,” and not a question of whether organization had the ability to do something. The NCAA has learned its lesson so far in the Baylor case, but public outcry grows by the day.

It is amazing that an organization that has rules for when a coach can call or text a recruit doesn’t have rules when something horrific like what happened at Penn State and what is happening at Baylor. Maybe that should change.

Even before the Penn State scandal, the NCAA had a chance to change the rules and bring the hammer down on programs that were covering up crimes. In 2003 also at Baylor, basketball player Carlton Dotson murdered fellow teammate Patrick Dennehy.

Then-Head Coach Dave Bliss lied about Dennehy, saying he had become a drug dealer to pay his tuition. In reality, Bliss was paying for Dennehy’s tuition in order to get around NCAA rules.

Long story short, Baylor got in trouble, not for trying to cover up a murder, but because a coach playing fast and loose with rules in the NCAA books. Bliss got a 10-year show-cause penalty, which has ended his chances of coaching at another NCAA school.

It was a chance for the organization to look at changing …

While the University of Mississippi women’s softball team was making history last week, another team in our state was making strides on the diamond, as well.

Delta State University hosted an eight-team regional in Division II baseball—the Statesmen’s 31st NCAA postseason appearance and fifth NCAA South Regional appearance in the last six years. DSU entered the postseason looking to win its first regional since 2012. That year, Delta State beat Stillman College twice in the same day for the win.

Delta State started regional play against Florida Southern College after an opening-day bye. DSU jumped out to a 2-1 after the first inning, but FSC exploded for four runs to take a 5-2 lead after two innings.

The Moccasins and the Statesmen both added a run in the third inning to make the score 6-3. FCS added another run in the fourth inning to go up 7-3, but Delta State started the comeback in the fifth inning, scoring three runs to cut the Moccasins’ lead to 7-6.

DSU put up two more runs in the sixth inning to retake the lead at 8-7. The Statesmen then added an insurance run in the eighth inning, but it didn’t matter, as FSC didn’t get on the board again after the fourth inning.

After the Statesmen’s 9-7 win in a game where they had to rally from behind by four runs, DSU faced the defending national champion, Nova Southeastern University. There was no need for a comeback, here, though, as the Statesmen were in total control against the Sharks. Delta State cruised to a 4-1 win as the team pounded out 11 hits and held Nova Southeastern to just four hits.

In the regional final, DSU faced the University of West Alabama in an instant classic. Delta State started off with a 4-1 lead after two innings, but the Tigers weren’t done.

West Alabama added a run in the fifth inning to cut the Delta State lead to 4-2 and then added another run in the seventh inning to make it 4-3. In the bottom of the ninth, the Tigers tied the game at 4-4 to force extra innings. Delta State got the offense going again with two runs in the top of the 10th inning.

West Alabama threatened to make another comeback in the bottom of the 10th but couldn’t find a way to get back the two runs. DSU took the victory at 6-4 to win the South Regional and advance to the Division II Men’s College World Series.

Delta State won its 12th regional title overall and its sixth regional under current coach Mike Kinnison. DSU moved to a 68-42 all-time record in NCAA postseason play and a 16-9 mark in the South Regional.

DSU is 27-19 in the Division II Men’s World Series in program history. Delta State is ranked second in the nation by Collegiate Baseball and ranked fourth by the National …