STARKVILLE — The No. 11 Ole Miss baseball team and the No. 20 Mississippi State baseball team each placed two finalists on the list of candidates for the 11th-annual C Spire Ferriss Trophy, the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame announced Monday.
Ole Miss junior outfielder Auston Bousfield and junior right-hander Chris Ellis and MSU junior left-handers Jacob Lindgren and Ross Mitchell make up four of the five finalists. Tyler Akins from Belhaven University’s Tyler Akins is the other candidate.
The award is presented to the top collegiate baseball player in the state of Mississippi and is chosen by Mississippi college coaches, fans, and professional scouts who cover Mississippi.
Fan voting will account for 10 percent of the final tally. Starting at 9 a.m. today, Tuesday, fans are encouraged to vote three times daily for their favorite player at csopavoting.com. The voting will end at 5 p.m. Sunday.
The Ferriss Trophy presented by C Spire is named after Mississippi baseball legend Dave “Boo” Ferriss, who played for MSU and the Boston Red Sox and was the long-time head baseball coach at Delta State University.
Bousfield leads the Southeastern Conference in batting average at .367 and in hits (81). He has 24 multiple-hit games and 10 multiple-RBI games.
Ellis leads the Rebels with an 8-0 record and a 1.97 ERA. He has allowed only one earned run or less in eight of his starts this season, and didn’t allow an earned run in five of them.
Ole Miss (37-15) will play at 6:30 tonight at
Arkansas State (29-22).
Lindgren (4-1) leads MSU with a 1.02 ERA and a .125 opponent batting average. In SEC games, the left-hander is first in the SEC in ERA (0.60), opponent batting average (.115), fewest hits allowed (12), fewest runs allowed (four), and fewest earned runs allowed (two). On Monday, Lindgren the 45th-best prospect in the 2014 Major League Baseball draft, the only player from Mississippi in the top 50. He leads the country with 16.8 strikeouts per nine innings.
Mitchell has been named SEC Pitcher of the Week three times this season. The Smyrna, Tenn., native leads the SEC in innings pitched (95 2/3), ranks fifth in the SEC in ERA (1.98), is tied for sixth in wins (seven), and is 11th in opponent batting average (.215).
Mitchell hasn’t allowed a run in his last 15 1/3 innings.
MSU coach John Cohen, Lindgren, and Mitchell will attend the Ferriss Trophy awards luncheon, which begins at 11:30 a.m. Monday at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.
Tickets ($35) to the luncheon are available by calling 601 982-8264. Ferriss, the trophy’s namesake, will do a question-and-answer session with audience participation.
n No. 19 Alabama travels to Jacksonville State: At Jacksonville, Ala., After splitting a weather shortened Southeastern Conference series last weekend at LSU, Alabama Crimson Tide (32-19) will take on Jacksonville State (29-21) in its final non-conference game of the regular season at 6 tonight at Rudy Abbott Field. Freshman right-hander Nick Eicholtz (3-1, 2.48 ERA) is scheduled to start for Alabama.
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