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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

One of the greatest weekends in Mississippi college baseball history came to a sad end on Sunday. Mississippi State and Southern Miss lost, joining Ole Miss, which was eliminated on Saturday. Still, it was a remarkable year for the state college teams on all levels.

But college baseball isn’t entirely over. The Cotton State League opened a new season over the weekend. The leagure features college players playing with wood bats. It’s quite a different game from what they usually play. There are teams in Jackson (Capital City Rangers), Clinton (Lumberjacks), Hattiesburg (Hub City Wheels), Brookhaven (Bandits) and Poplarville (RiverCats). This year’s biggest news: Jackson State coaching legend Bob Braddy has come out of retirement to coach the Jackson team. Dr. S advises you to check it out

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.