STARKVILLE — For the first time since leaving Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Anthony Izzio will get a chance to pitch in his home state.
On Thursday, University of South Alabama baseball coach Mark Calvi named Izzio the starting pitcher for second-seeded USA’s game against Mercer University at 2 p.m. in the NCAA Starkville Regional at Dudy Noble Field.
On Sunday, Izzio (3-0, 4.21 ERA), a 5-foot-9 right-handed senior side-armer, was named to the Sun Belt Conference All-tournament team. Izzio led USA to a tournament-opening victory against the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, allowing two runs and seven hits. He struck out three in a career-high eight innings.
“Anthony started the season as our top starting pitcher and last year was probably our best starter but had to shut him down for the last six weeks of the year because of some elbow tendinitis,” Calvi said.
The performance was Izzio’s third victory in as many appearances. Izzio, who is from Vancleave, has allowed only two runs, two walks, and nine hits (12 strikeouts) in his last 19 2/3 innings, earned his first two victories in relief. He went 7-4 with two saves and a 2.62 ERA in 75 2/3 innings as a sophomore at
MGCCC. He struck out 82 batters and walked 26 to earn first-team Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges honors.
“We feel good with who we have running out there,” Calvi said. “He is not going to light up a radar gun, but he is a pitcher with composure and poise.”
Mercer (43-16) will counter with junior right-hander Brandon Barker, who will try to lead the Bears to the school’s first NCAA Regional victory. In its only other regional appearance in 2010, Mercer lost to Georgia Tech University and the University of Alabama in Atlanta.
“He’s just been our Friday night guy all year long and everything that means for our program,” Mercer coach Craig Gibson said.
Barker (7-1, 1.90) leads the Atlantic Sun Conference with 15 games started, and is second in the league with 76 strikeouts. He is fourth in the conference with a .232 opponents’ batting average and is tied for ninth with 80 2/3 innings.
Three MSU players earn
Louisville Slugger All-America honors
Mississippi State University players Hunter Renfroe, Jonathan Holder, and Ross Mitchell received Louisville Slugger All-America honor Thursday.
Renfroe leads No. 14 MSU (43-17) with a .352 batting average and 54 RBIs and shares the Southeastern Conference lead with 15 home runs. He and Holder, who led MSU with a school-record 16 saves, were named earned first-team All-America honors.
Mitchell, a left-handed reliever, leads MSU with a 11-0 record in 29 appearances. “I’m his biggest proponent because as a player I struggled so much as a lot players do against a guy like Ross,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “That’s why he’s got so much value. You kind of go back to your playing career and you go, ‘Man, I would hate to hit off that guy.’ ”
Mitchell went from nearly being cut from the program after his first fall at MSU to being a valuable asset who has saved MSU when its starting pitchers haven’t gone deep in a game.
“After the fall. I went to (MSU pitching coach Butch Thompson) and asked, ‘Is this guy going to pitch for us?’ ” Cohen said. “Butch is the guy who recruited him, and (Ross) just kept getting better and made a couple of altercations.”
The All-America list, which is selected by the voting members of The Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, features 12 conference players or pitchers of the year. MSU, Vanderbilt University, and LSU were the only SEC schools to have three selections.
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