Sideline View by Dale McKee

MERIDIAN, Miss. (WTOK) -

Mississippi State lost two of three to No. 2 Vanderbilt over the weekend in Nashville in a top 10 series. The No. 4 Bulldogs (29-10, 11-7) will host Texas A&M this weekend. Ole Miss lost two of three to unranked LSU as the Rebels fell to (28-12, 10-8) as they will host South Carolina this weekend. The Rebels also honored former All-American Donnie Kessinger this past Thursday as they added his No. 11 to the outfield wall at Swayze Field. Only former two-sport All-American Jake Gibbs’s number was on the wall. Southern Mississippi won three of four from Western Kentucky this past weekend to improve to 26-13, 13-6. The Eagles are a half game behind Louisiana Tech (28-11, 14-6) in the C-USA West standings. This weekend, the Golden Eagles head to Houston to face the Rice University Owls.

Notable Diamond Notes

The Mississippi Braves will open their 2021 season on May 4 by hosting the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in Trustmark Park. On that same date the Biloxi Shuckers will open the season in Birmingham.

Jackson State (24-8, 18-0) is running away with the SWAC race. The Tigers will travel to Alabama A&M this weekend. The SWAC moved the conference baseball tournament from Smith-Wills Stadium in Jackson to the new Toyota Stadium in Huntsville, Alabama.

Delta State (22-14) will travel to Mississippi College (15-18) to end the regular season this weekend. William Carey (30-10) is preparing for the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) tournament to be played at Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile beginning May 5.

Football

Quarterback Matt Corral led the Blue team to a 28-6 win over the Red team in the Grove Bowl at Ole Miss. Corral hit on 12-of-19 passes for 208 yards and two touchdowns in the first half of play. The California native, looking to replace Elijah Moore as his leading receiver, found Braylon Sanders for both scores. Kinkead Dent quarterbacked the Blue team while heralded Starkville freshman Luke Altymer quarterbacked the Blue team in the second half and threw a TD pass.

The City of Jackson will host the SWAC football championships this Saturday in Memorial Stadium as Alabama A&M (4-0) and Arkansas-Pine Bluff (4-0) square off. The game will be televised by ESPN at 2 p.m.

The National Football League’s 86th draft will take place beginning on Thursday night in Cleveland. This year quarterbacks will be on the top of the list as NFL teams are looking for the next Tom Brady. The names of Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, BYU’s Zach Wilson, Ohio State’s Justin Fields, North Dakota State’s Trey Lance and Alabama’s Mac Jones will be called early on Thursday night.

JUCO News

The Jones College Lady Bobcats (20-1) lost a heartbreaker to Western Nebraska, 63-60, in the final seconds of the National Basketball Tournament in Lubbock, Texas. The Lady Bobcats entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed. The No. 16 seeded Holmes Bulldogs (16-4) fell in the Men’s National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kansas, to Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa, 77-66.

The JUCO softball race presently has Itawamba (23-3) and Gulf Coast (22-4), Co-Lin (21-5) and Jones (20-6) as the top four. Pearl River (21-5), Itawamba (19-7), Meridian (18-8) and East Central (17-9) head up the baseball race.

The 12th ranked Jones College women’s tennis team won the Region 23 title and will head to Mesa, Arizona, May 1-5 for the National Tournament. State runner-up Gulf Coast and third place Co-Lin will also be heading west.

Best of the Rest

The 147th running of the Kentucky Derby will be held next Saturday at 5:57 p.m. at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.

The William Carey Lady Crusaders are the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming national soccer tournament to be played in Foley, Alabama, beginning this week. The Lady Crusaders softball team won the SSAC regular season title and head to Decatur for the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed.

Dale is a Waynesboro resident who has been writing sports since 1973.