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As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are again beginning to trend upward in Mississippi, health experts are doing everything they can to spread a message: get the vaccine.

Some politicians, meanwhile, continue to craft their own expedient messaging, trying to instill the obvious importance of the vaccine while hedging to appease their more right-wing supporters. Put more directly, they’re trying to score cheap political points at the expense of sharing critical public health warnings.

In a single tweet on Monday, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves showed he is among the chief subscribers of this strategy.

The last sentence of the tweet is perhaps the exact tone health officials wish politicians with tens of thousands of ardent followers would take: “Take the vaccine and this will all be behind us.” That advice couldn’t be more important in Mississippi, which ranks last in the nation in residents receiving at least one vaccine dose and in the bottom five states in residents completely inoculated.

But the message was overshadowed by some careful political framing from Reeves. In the tweet, the Republican governor managed to pander to several different camps on several different issues — and even a couple issues that put him at odds with health experts.

First, he highlighted political tension between conservatives and Major League Baseball, which recently moved its All Star Game from Atlanta after Georgia lawmakers passed legislation that makes it more difficult to vote in that state.

Reeves used that MLB decision as the framing to compare Mississippi State’s record weekend baseball game attendance with weekend attendance at Yankee Stadium. Never mind that the Yankees have the worst record in the American League this year and their fanbase is fuming, the state of New York has continued imposing a 10% stadium capacity as COVID-19 continues to spread there.

New York has the third-highest average weekly cases in the nation. New York City, home of Yankee Stadium, has seen an average of 10,743 cases per 100,000 people the past week.

Mississippi, meanwhile, has no stadium capacity restrictions after Reeves rescinded them in March. Mississippi State hosted Ole Miss in Starkville this weekend, and the New Dude was packed. Few people were wearing masks, which has some health officials worried.

After a brutal winter spike, Mississippi currently has a lower rate of COVID-19 spread than New York and many other states. But Mississippi’s confirmed cases and hospitalizations are currently trending up, prompting health officials to reiterate that mask wearing and social distancing guidelines should be followed until people have been vaccinated.

Reeves also didn’t miss the chance to get a shot in at Democratic President Joe Biden, who several weeks ago said Reeves and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott exhibited “Neanderthal thinking” for rescinding their states’ COVID-19 precautions. Reeves spun the president’s comments to suggest Biden called all Mississippians “Neanderthals,” and he has hardly skipped an opportunity to perpetuate that moment in the national political spotlight.

Reeves also conveniently omitted the fact that he, too, locked down his state as the first wave of COVID-19 infected and killed thousands of Mississippians. Even after that first wave, he imposed business restrictions and ordered residents to wear masks in public. Those decisions continue to draw him scorn from even the most conservative Mississippians who Reeves is attempting to appease.

“The only reason Mississippi is fully open is because you resisted the bad ‘public health’ policy decisions from our Governor,” Robert Foster, a conservative Republican who ran against Reeves in 2019, wrote on Facebook the same day of Reeves’ tweet. “Make no mistake, if the resistance had not been so strong we would still be partially locked down and with a statewide mask mandate like other states.

“(Reeves) is a career politician, he squirms at the thought of losing votes and goes whichever way the wind blows the strongest,” Foster continued. “Make him feel it, put it to him.”

There were more than 91,000 vaccine appointments available in the University of Mississippi Medical Center portal as of Tuesday at noon. As Reeves continues fighting political battles at the expense of public health messaging, health experts are fighting to avoid a deadly fourth wave.

“Fighting the COVID pandemic hasn’t been easy this whole time… we’ve got a little ways to go on this, so keep fighting,” Dobbs said on April 13.

MAP: Where Mississippians can get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The post Gov. Tate Reeves buries critical COVID-19 message while pandering appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Milwaukee Tool will construct a 500,000-square-foot plant in Grenada County, creating 800 new jobs within eight years and adding another 400 jobs to its existing Mississippi locations.

“When an industry leader such as Milwaukee Tool chooses to grow its footprint in Mississippi by building a new manufacturing facility — in addition to its existing facilities — it sends a strong message to the world that we take business seriously and work hard to ensure companies’ long-term success in our state,” Gov. Tate Reeves said in a press release Tuesday.

The company is investing $60 million in its Grenada County expansion, part of a decade-long expansion that has seen the company grow from 526 jobs in Mississippi in 2010 to more than 2,343 in 2020. The Wisconsin-based company has sites in Greenwood, Jackson and Olive Branch.

Milwaukee Tool Group President Steve Richman in statement said “the state of Mississippi has continued to be a valuable partner.”

“We look forward to bringing more jobs to this state,” Richman said.

Taxpayers, through the Mississippi Development Authority, will provide the company a $26 million grant for construction of the plant, in exchange for the company meeting its promised investment and job creation. Grenada County and the Tennessee Valley Authority also are providing assistance.

MDA Director John Rounsaville said the Greater Grenada Partnership, Grenada County, Delta Strong, Tallahatchie Valley Electric and TVA helped bring the new operations and jobs to the area.

The post Milwaukee Tool expands in Mississippi, says it will create 1,200 jobs appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi’s state-funded pre-kindergarten program has again received high marks in a national report that measures the quality of state-funded education for 3- and 4-year-olds nationally.

The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) identified Mississippi as one of only six states in the nation whose pre-K program meets all 10 quality standards for early childhood education.

But despite the program’s high quality, access remains an issue: It currently only serves 8% of 4-year-olds in the state.

Mississippi’s state-funded pre-K is also referred to as Early Learning Collaborative programs, which are partnerships among school districts, Head Start agencies, childcare centers and nonprofit groups. There are currently 18 collaboratives serving more than 3,000 children across the state.

The Mississippi Legislature recently doubled the state’s funding for the program from about $8 million to $16 million, but according to NIEER, more funding is still needed.

“Mississippi sets an example of policies to support high quality preschool, but funding is too low to allow programs to implement those policies well,” said Steven Barnett, NIEER’s founder and senior co-director. “Increased funding is needed to ensure quality and expand access to more children who can benefit from the program.”

Mississippi ranks 39th in the nation for pre-K access for 4-year-olds and 42nd in state spending per child at about $2,187 per child in the 2019-2020 school year.

The Early Learning Collaboratives Act of 2013 established the first state-funded, voluntary pre-K program. It provides funding to local communities to create, support and expand quality early childhood education and development services. The Legislature has increased funding over the years.

“This success is through both design via our strong pre-K law as well as hard work on the part of the pre-K programs. When NIEER upgraded their benchmarks in 2017, Mississippi again strove to meet higher standards,” said Rachel Canter, executive director of Mississippi First, a nonprofit that wrote Mississippi’s law. “With the passage and signature of House Bill 1123 in the 2021 session, these higher standards are again enshrined in our law to ensure quality for years to come.” 

Sen. Brice Wiggins, a supporter of the law since its creation in 2013, said he is thrilled the state continues to be a leader in early education. 

“…the 2013 ELC law wrote these benchmarks into the law and Mississippi has been at the top nationally ever since,” he said, noting the benchmarks were updated in addition to the increased funding this year thanks to the support of the education committee chairmen and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.

“Thinking back to 2013, there were those, some from my own party, who did not believe in what we were doing,” said Wiggins, a Republican. “But, in bi-partisan fashion, the legislature came together and passed it; the nation has been looking up at us ever since. We cannot rest on our laurels and I for one will continue to fight for our children’s success.” 

READ MORE: How public education fared during the 2021 legislative session

The post Though access remains low, Mississippi pre-K earns high quality marks appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi voters’ right to change the state constitution hangs in the balance with the state Supreme Court, at a time when numerous groups are eyeing the ballot initiative as a way to overcome legislative fiat or recalcitrance.

It’s also coming at a time when political leaders and experts nationwide are wondering if ballot initiative and referendum is getting out of hand, at least in some states.

The 2020 passage of medical marijuana Initiative 65 helped inspire current movements to undo the Legislature’s removal of the Confederate-themed state flag, and to expand Medicaid and early voting over opposition from the state GOP legislative leadership.

It has also prompted some talk at the Capitol of taking other issues directly to voters — such as the House income tax for sales tax swap that died without a vote in the Senate or the creation of a sportsman’s fund with diverted sporting goods sales taxes, which likewise died in the Senate despite public support.

But a challenge to Initiative 65 is pending before the state’s high court on whether the process to put initiatives on the ballot is constitutionally flawed. This decision will be of great moment for current and future efforts, just at a time when Mississippi’s ballot initiative process, for good or ill, appears to be coming into its own. An adverse ruling to Initiative 65 could halt or even eliminate Mississippians’ ballot initiative rights.

READ MORE: Supreme Court must decide if wants to take ballot initiative away from people — again.

In seasons past, the process was so arduous, compared to many other states’ initiative and referendum requirements, that few issues made it to the ballot, and even fewer became part of the state constitution. Gathering the tens of thousands of required signatures, maneuvering the legal ins and outs and overcoming at times the Legislature’s right to challenge or hamstring an initiative with an “alternative” measure were hills too steep to climb, particularly for any true citizen-led initiative.

Medicaid expansion is the state’s 76th effort to receive initial approval since ballot initiatives were authorized in 1992. The vast majority never make it to the ballot. Only three have successfully amended the constitution, including Initiative 65 last year.

But the emergence of social media for campaigning and fundraising and of more, well-organized and funded interest and advocacy groups has raised the prospect of more successful ballot initiatives. Initiative 65 typifies that.

This phenomenon is not unique to Mississippi. The other 25 states with initiative and-or referendum (referendum is the ability of voters to strike down legislative action) are seeing growing use of these rights, some exponentially. In California, which also allows city and county local initiatives, one recent statewide ballot had 17 initiatives, and a guide mailed to voters to explain them was 224 pages long.

Such expansion has, in some cases, thwarted legislative policymaking or given undue influence to wealthy special interest groups — not the grassroots “of the people” efforts that initiative and referendum was supposed to empower. It also creates some niche efforts, such as banning plastic bags or legalizing use of psychedelic mushrooms, that by design of a representative democracy would have been a legislature’s domain. In states such as Mississippi, where voters can amend the state constitution but not state law, initiatives bring the risk of adding statutory language to a document where it doesn’t really belong, such as 2,500 words about medical marijuana now plunked into the state constitution, pending the high court’s ruling.

This has some states considering reining in or doing away with voter initiative and referendum rights, and it renews age-old philosophical and political debate about the function of democracies.

Voter initiatives, a creation of the early 20th Century progressive movement, gave citizens the ability to overcome the influence of big money interests on legislatures, and can still serve as a valuable backstop.

But Mississippi’s form of government, just like the nation’s, is a representative republic, not a direct democracy where major policy or spending is decided by a majority vote of the masses. Our founding fathers were just as afraid of the “excesses of democracy” as they were of despotic kings, and they believed democracy should be tempered through legislative representation, protective of minority rights, and checked by the judicial and executive branches.

The state Supreme Court will be ruling on the constitutionality of a very specific, procedural issue with the process of gathering signatures to put an initiative on Mississippi ballots. But its implications, particularly if it rules against Initiative 65, are great and it could put at least a temporary halt to Mississippi ballot initiatives until lawmakers and voters could address the process.

This might also bring a major reevaluation of Mississippi’s ballot initiative right, and whether it’s serving its intended purpose or should be overhauled.

PODCAST: Medical marijuana decision has major implications for Mississippi voters’ rights

The post Is the Mississippi ballot initiative working as intended? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

STARKVILLE — Fewer than 24 hours after being drubbed 9-0 by arch-rival Ole Miss, Mississippi State Sunday climbed back into what Mississippi native and broadcasting legend Red Barber famously called “the catbird’s seat.”

What that means is on top, which is where the Bulldogs are currently in their long-time rivalry with Ole Miss. The Bulldogs won a hard-fought 7-5 victory by virtue of a five-run sixth inning when State greeted three different Ole Miss relievers with six hits in seven at bats.

And that was the story: The Ole Miss bullpen did not get the job done. State’s did. And so it is that State won the three-game series two games to one, which is only part of the story. The Bulldogs have now won 16 of their last 19 games against the Rebels. That’s dominance. That’s way on up there in the catbird’s seat.

A Sunday crowd of 10,522 turned out on a picture-perfect day for baseball. After a Saturday when a much larger Dudy Noble Stadium crowd of 13,000-plus never got a chance to explode, the Bulldogs gave their fans plenty to cheer on The Sabbath.

The crowd became so loud that when Landon Sims left the bullpen to enter the game in the top of the ninth inning, the standing ovation left him, he said, with goosebumps. That was before he even threw a pitch. “When I heard that crowd I literally got goosebumps on my arms,” Sims said.

The effect must have been positive. Sims needed only 13 pitches to finish off the Rebels for his second save of the weekend. The freshman’s season numbers are phenomenal. He has struckout 47 batters in 24.1 innings, allowing only a single run. When the game is on the line, he is money.

After being silenced by Ole Miss lefty Doug Nikhazy on Saturday, Bulldog batters got the crowd into the game much earlier. The loudest moment probably came in that fateful sixth inning when Tanner Allen greeted Taylor Broadway, the Rebels fourth pitcher in the inning, with a bases-clearing triple that broke a 4-4 tie and gave State the lead for good.

Broadway’s first two pitches to Allen were balls.

“I knew he didn’t want to walk me with the bases loaded,” Allen said. “I figured I’d get a pitch to hit. I got a ball in the zone and the rest is history.”

History was a low line drive that left the bat at 110 mph and sizzled all the way to the right-centerfield wall just to the left of the 380-foot sign.

It was a sudden turn-around. Ole Miss was leading 4-2 with sophomore right-hander Drew McDaniel providing good work on the mound. McDaniel allowed only two runs through the first five innings and then got the first batter out in the sixth with his 91st pitch of the day. That’s when Rebel coach Mike Bianco decided to go to his bullpen and called on freshman right-hander Josh Malitz, who was treated rudely. First Logan Turner, then Josh Hatcher and then Brayland Skinner all ripped singles. Bianco had seen enough and called on senior Austin Miller.

Miller struck out one batter before Scotty Dubrule and Rowdey Jordan (who had four hits, including a homer) both singled to load the bases and set the stage for Allen’s heroic triple.

“We had to use three pitchers to get two outs,” Bianco said. “It’s a shame. We just could not get off the field.”

State kept getting hit after hit. In contrast, Ole Miss left the bases loaded in both the third and seventh innings.

“That’s what it comes down to, doesn’t it?” Bianco said. “Do you get the big hits when you need ‘em. Today, they did and we didn’t.”

That has become more than a trend in this series.

“It’s a big deal for our guys,” State’s Chris Lemonis said. “We’ve got a lot of Mississippi guys on our roster. It’s important to them. It’s important, period. They are a good team, one of the best teams we have played.”

So, State moves to 27-8 overall, 10-5 in the conference. Ole Miss drops to 26-10, 9-6 in the league. Yes, and there’s plenty of baseball left to be played for two teams hoping their seasons end in late June in Omaha.

The post ‘Dogs back in ‘catbird’s seat’ with thrilling 7-5 Sunday win appeared first on Mississippi Today.

A former legislative leader who was not enamored with the state’s initiative process used to call it “government by Barabbas,” referring to the prisoner from the Bible the crowd voted to pardon rather than Jesus when given a choice by Pontius Pilate.

Unfortunately, the story has been twisted in a disturbing manner through the years to promote antisemitism. That was not the intent of the legislator.

He was arguing that sometimes there is a thin line between pure democracy and mob rule, and that the initiative process has the danger of bumping up against that line.

He said he would trust decisions made by the people if they had the time and ability to gather the information he was privy to as a legislator. But without that time and ability, he feared what the initiative could lead to a type of mob rule — government by Barabbas, he called it in off the record comments. That argument might be buoyed by recent events regarding the state’s initiative process.

Oral arguments were held last week before the Mississippi Supreme Court on the future of the initiative where people gather signatures to place issues on the ballot for voters to decide. The intent of the lawsuit was to block the initiative to legalize medical marijuana.

But make no mistake about it, attorneys representing the city of Madison, and its longtime mayor, Mary Hawkins Butler, were not arguing that the initiative to legalize medical marijuana was unconstitutional, but that the initiative process itself is unconstitutional.

They argued that there is no way to conduct an initiative under the current wording in the Mississippi Constitution. To place an issue on the ballot under the state’s initiative process, the Constitution requires an initiative sponsor to gather signatures equal to 12% of the total vote in the last gubernatorial election or roughly 106,000 votes and no more than one-fifth can come from any one congressional district. In the early 1990s, the state had five congressional districts. Now it has four.

Attorney Kaytie Pickett, arguing for Hawkins-Butler, pointed out to the Court the obvious: that if one-fifth of the signatures are gathered from each of the four current congressional districts, it is impossible to garner the required number of signatures. Because of that simple math, medical marijuana, which was approved by voters by an overwhelming margin this past November, was improperly on the ballot. But the same goes for any future initiative. The math just does not work unless the Legislature offers an amendment — that must be voted on by the people — to fix the constitutional wording, the plaintiffs argued.

It should be pointed out that in the 1910s, legislators also gave Mississippians the opportunity to vote to enact an initiative process. They voted overwhelmingly to do so, but in the 1920s, because of what the Mississippi Supreme Court justices saw as a problem with the wording in that initiative, they threw it out. Legislators did not enact a new initiative until 70 years later.

Could history repeat itself?

The requirement to gather signatures from congressional districts was included in the process by legislators, Justice Josiah Coleman pointed out, to ensure all regions of the state had a say in the effort to place an issue on the ballot.

The effort to do so was either poorly worded by happenstance or on purpose by legislators who did not like the initiative process and wanted to place it in future legal jeopardy.

There is no easy way to accomplish the goal of getting signatures from all regions of the state using congressional districts. Every 10 years, based on Census data, the congressional districts must be redrawn as mandated by federal law. What if efforts are underway to gather signatures during the redistricting process? A registered voter might be in one district when he or she signed the petition but by the time the process is completed in another.

How is that issue supposed to be resolved?

The lawsuit contends based “on the plain language of the Constitution,” the current process is invalid.

Indeed, that “plain language” does make it impossible to gather the prescribed number of signatures. But the plain language of the Constitution also says “the people reserve unto themselves the power to propose and enact constitutional amendments by initiative.”

The nine members of the Mississippi Supreme Court — all of whom must stand for election — have a difficult job. Justices must decide whether they want to take that right to place issues on the ballot away because legislators used a poor choice of words when crafting the language spelling out the initiative process.

If Supreme Court justices do take that right away, what will the people say? Will they say, “Give us Barabbas?”

The post Supreme Court must decide if wants to take ballot initiative away from people — again appeared first on Mississippi Today.

STARKVILLE — On a sunny spring Saturday from jam-packed Dudy Noble Field after an 9-0 Ole Miss whitewash of Mississippi State, why write 700 words when just two will do?

Doug Nikhazy.

OK, you know we can’t just stop there. We have to attempt to put Nikhazy’s spectacular pitching performance in perspective. Start with this: It was the first complete game of the junior lefty’s college career, and it could not have come at a better time. We will get to that.

First, the numbers: Nikhazy allowed just one hit — Brayland Skinner’s fifth inning single up the middle. He struck out 11 Bulldog batters and walked only two. He was in complete and utter command throughout. He pounded the strike zone with pitch after pitch, mixing his fast ball with a nasty curve and an occasional slider. Rarely, if ever, will you see a better pitched game.

Meanwhile, Ole Miss hitters peppered State pitching for 17 hits, taking an 8-0 lead through five innings and then cruising behind Nikhazy, who never took anything for granted.

His mantra? “I couldn’t let them have an ounce of momentum,” Nikhazy said.

Mission accomplished.

We all know how much momentum State had before Saturday, which was what made Nikhazy’s accomplishment all the more meaningful. The streaking Bulldogs had won eight straight games this season — seven straight in the SEC — and had won 15 of their last 17 over their arch-rivals.

Just a few hours earlier, State had defeated the Rebels 5-2 before a celebrative crowd, ending the night with a huge fireworks show. An announced crowd of 13,338 flooded into the pristine ballpark Saturday, probably 98% of them ready to continue the party. And then Nikhazy, now 4-1 with a 1.86 earned run average, turned out the lights. He struck out six straight batters over the first, second and third innings. He fanned eight of nine Bulldogs, if you throw in the fourth frame. He dominated.

Said State coach Chris Lemonis, “(Nikhazy) is one of the better arms in the league and the nation. He was really good. We never got anything.”

The only question was whether Nikhazy would finish the deal. He had thrown 112 pitches through eight innings. That’s a lot. Senior Tyler Myers was ready to go in the Rebel bullpen. Mike Bianco opted to send Nikhazy back out.

Later, Bianco explained his decision. “I don’t know how many times you get a chance to throw a shutout against your arch-rivals at their ballpark with one of the largest crowds in college baseball watching,” Bianco said. “He said he felt great. He was in control. …  The last three innings he really hit another gear. I wasn’t going to take that opportunity away from him.”

Nikhazy, making his fourth start since missing two weeks with a strained pectoral muscle, needed only 10 pitches to finish the Bulldogs off. By then, only about half of the original crowd was still around.

Said Bianco: “Doug will steal the headlines today and he should, but offensively we were really, really good. I’m really proud of guys.”

Expect another huge crowd Sunday at 1 p.m. for the rubber match of the three-game series that matches two of the nation’s best ball clubs. Ole Miss is now 26-9 overall, 9-5 in the SEC. State dropped to 26-8 and 9-5.

Sophomore right-hander Drew McDaniel (4-0, 2.90 ERA) will take the mound for Ole Miss. Freshman righty Jackson Fristoe (2-2, 4.14) will start for State.

Both teams know how quickly things can turn around in baseball. They’ve experienced it over an 18-hour stretch.

“We gotta play a lot better in every phase of the game,” Lemonis said. “We got beat in every phase of the game today.”

The post What a difference a day makes — that and a pitcher named Doug Nikhazy appeared first on Mississippi Today.

STARKVILLE — The Ole Miss Rebels didn’t have Jake Mangum to kick them around Friday night. But Mississippi State’s deep, talented pitching did the job anyway in the Bulldogs’ 5-2 victory before an announced crowd of 10,291 fans that might well have been even larger.

The festive crowd surely seemed larger and louder when Bulldog freshman Landon Sims struck out T.J. McCants on a 96 mph fastball for the last out, setting off an extended fireworks show beyond the right centerfield stands at Dudy Noble Field.

So make that 15 Mississippi State victories in the last 17 meetings between the two arch-rivals. Mangum, now in the minor league system of the New York Mets, had been the catalyst for many of those 14 previous Bulldog victories. Mangum was watching on TV from spring training in Florida, but State was just fine without him.

Starter Christian MacLeod, reliever Preston Johnson and closer Sims provided the pitching, allowing only six Rebel hits, while striking out a combined 12 batters. That was more than enough to make up for the sharp pitching performance by Ole Miss starter Gunnar Hoglund, who allowed only four Bulldog hits, while striking out nine, over seven innings.

It was the kind of well-played game you’d expect from two teams ranked among the best in the country. No. 4 (USA Today coaches poll) Mississippi State moved to 26-7 overall and 9-4 in the SEC, while the No. 6 Rebels dropped to 25-9 overall and 8-5 in the league.

The Rebels will try again to break the Bulldog’s seeming hex Saturday in a 2 p.m. game, and a third game is scheduled for Sunday at 1. You can expect Saturday’s crowd to be even larger as it follows immediately State’s spring football game.

State coach Chris Lemonis has utilized a remarkable 24 pitchers in 33 games thus far. Even more remarkably, those 24 pitchers have struck out 430 batters in 296 innings. None of the three Bulldog pitchers were really taxed Friday night. MacLeod, a freshman lefty, threw 85 pitches and fanned five in his five innings. Johnson, a sophomore righthander, struckout four in his two innings and then Sims fanned three in his two innings. It seemed as if any of the three could have pitched more if needed. But if you’ve got all that pitching depth, why not use it?

Sims deserves another paragraph here. A sophomore in school but a freshman eligibility-wise, he has now allowed only one run in 23.1 innings. He has struck out 46 – or two per inning – while walking only seven. This was his fourth save.

Said Lemonis of Sims, “He’s just one of those guys, he brings energy to the ballpark. Our fans, when they see him coming in they give him a standing ovation. Our fans understand. He’s a special player. . . . I’m glad he’s on our side.”

Said Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco, “Credit their pitchers. They were outstanding.”

But then so was Hoglund, who not only fanned nine Bulldogs but did not walk any. “I felt really good,” Hoglund said. “Yeah, it’s a tough atmosphere here, but you just have to make good pitches.”

Hoglund mostly did. There were a few he would have liked to have had back. And all those were thrown to Tanner Allen and Kamren James, the second and third batters in the Bulldog lineup. Allen ripped a double and triple off Hoglund and scored two runs. James powered a fourth inning home run to tie the score after Ole Miss had taken a 2-1 lead. He then put the Bulldogs ahead for good with a sixth inning sacrifice fly, his first of two.

All the while, the SRO crowd cheered lustily.

Lemonis doesn’t take the crowd for granted.

“It’s how much they love baseball,” Lemonis said. ”It’s not out of control, it’s knowledgeable. Our fans know what’s going on. They know everything. They’re in it at the right moments….It just makes it fun for us. Even in batting practice, when the gates open, you see all the fans and students load into the berms. …We’re very fortunate to have a fan base like ours.”

Yes, and great pitching helps, too.

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