By Staff
Star Tracking …
June 3, 2001
Wade Whitaker of Kemper Academy went 4-for-5 to earn Most Valuable Player honors for the North team in the Mississippi Private School Associations' A-AA All-Star Baseball Game Saturday afternoon at Smith-Wills Stadium inn Jackson. Whitaker had four singles and drew a walk in the North's 13-12 win. He also stole a base, scored two runs, and had one RBI. Defensively, the East Mississippi Community College signee made a diving catch in center field.
FULLERTON, Calif. Aaron Rifkin hit three home runs and Mike Rouse hit his fourth homer in two games as Cal State-Fullerton beat Mississippi State 9-3 to sweep an NCAA super regional Saturday night. The top-seeded Titans (46-16) earned their fifth trip to the College World Series in the last 11 years and 11th overall. The Bulldogs (39-24) were swept in a super regional for the second straight season. Rifkin was 4-for-4 with six RBIs, homering in his first three at-bats. A day after hitting three homers and driving in seven runs, Rouse was 3-for-3 with a stolen base. He went 7-for-8 with eight RBIs in the best-of-three series.
June 3, 1997
OMAHA, Neb. Mississippi State scored four runs in the seventh inning without hitting a ball out of the infield and beat UCLA 7-5 Monday night in an elimination game of the College World Series. The Bulldogs (47-20) advanced to Tuesday night's elimination game against top-seeded Alabama, which lost 6-1 to Miami earlier Monday. UCLA (45-21-1) was eliminated in two games in its first CWS appearance since 1969. The Bruins were leading 4-3 in the seventh when their miscues set up the Bulldogs' big inning.
OMAHA, Neb. Florida State centerfielder J.D. Drew, the first college player to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season, won still another honor Monday when he was selected winner of the Dick Howser Award as college baseball's player of the year. The latest award, voted by the American Baseball Coaches Association, followed Drew's selection as player of the year by Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball. He is expected to go either No. 1 or 2 in the free-agent draft on Tuesday in New York.
June 3, 1992
The streets can be mean. They can swallow a young person up. Kids need positive role models. You've heard it before. So has former Mississippi State football player Demetrius Hill. He's heard it and he believes it. That's the main reason Hill will be one of the many former and current college athletes to work with area kids June 17-19 at the Sports Camp. The three-day basketball, football and soccer camp is being put on by the Boys and Girls Club of Lauderdale County and the Meridian High School Athletic Department.
Ryan Satcher
Sports Faces …
John Colenberg
One former Meridian High football player already owns what many players can only dream of a national championship ring.
John Colenberg is a rising senior defensive back for Delta State University. He started eight games during his sophomore season in 2000, the year Delta State claimed the Division II national title with a 63-35 rout of Bloomsburg, Pa., at Florence, Ala.
Last season, Colenberg ranked fifth in the team in tackles with 44 including 30 solo and 2.5 sacks.
The Statesmen went 6-4 in Steve Campbell's last season at DSU. In the three years Colenberg played for Campbell, Delta State posted a 25-9 record and a national title.
Colenberg will play his senior year under new coach Rick Rhoades who previously coached at Troy State and Southern Illinois.
Jeff Byrd