Former Jacksonville State standout Donovan Hand made his major league debut Sunday for the Milwaukee Brewers. He pitched the fifth and sixth innings in a 5-4 home loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing three hits and a run while striking out three.

One of the four men who pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from a 2011 hazing incident involving a Jacksonville State fraternity is a former Gamecocks football player.

Depending on which side of the equation one sits, a double play is either a pitcher’s best friend or a hitter’s nightmare. Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky got ample doses of both Wednesday in their Ohio Valley Conference tournament opener. They combined to turn eight double plays in the game, setting what is believed to be a neutral-site tournament record and tying Southeast Missouri’s team record with four each.

By all accounts, this has been a good year for Jacksonville State center fielder Michael Bishop. A fun year. A productive year. It’s been a different kind of year, as well, particularly as it relates to the role the junior has assumed and embraced.

For one day in this work-a-day scribe’s life, I got to feel like a part of a college sports team. In particular, it was Jacksonville State’s baseball team, and let me clarify what I mean about feeling like a part of the team. I happened to have a pair of black Adidas sweats and a red Adidas top, so I wore them to blend in. Per assignment, I sat in the back of their bus from the moment it left JSU’s campus to the moment it arrived outside of Auburn’s Plainsman Park on Tuesday. I spent all of JSU’s 6-1 victory at Auburn with the guys in the Gamecocks’ dugout and interacted with players and coaches, then I rode back home in the same seat on the team bus. I ate the same sandwiches they ate, watched the same videos they watched en route to and from Auburn, used the same bathrooms … one gets the picture.