Blazer Soccer Gets First Loss

The University of Mobile (#25) beat Belhaven College (#6) yesterday in soccer. The Mobile Rams and Belhaven Blazers have been longtime rivals. Rams head coach Pete Fuller led Belhaven to its NAIA National Championship in 1992. After a term at Houghton College he took the helm at Mobile in 1995 and led the Rams to a 2002 NAIA National Championship.

Mobile improves to 7-4-2 while Belhaven gets its first loss with a record of 13-1-1.

Belhaven Soccer #13

The Belhaven College men's soccer team (10-0-1) is ranked #13 in the country by the NAIA Coaches Poll. Belhaven College President Dr. Roger Parrot notes there are three remaining games this year in the Belhaven Bowl.

Sat. Oct. 11 Reinhardt College Belhaven Bowl 4:00 PM
Wed., Oct. 15 Ouachita Baptist Belhaven Bowl 3:00 PM
Fri., Oct. 17 Lee University Belhaven Bowl 3:00 PM

Belhaven Blazer Men's Soccer

College: Music & Baseball

The Belhaven Music Department presents An Evening of Diamonds III, the third concert in its Mrs. J.R. Preston Sr. Memorial Chamber Music Series, 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Belhaven College Center for the Arts. The Belhaven Piano Trio and The Sachs Piano Duo will perform. Musicians include Belhaven faculty members: Song Xie, violin; Carolyn Sachs, piano; Stephen Sachs, Belhaven music chair. Mississippi Symphony Orchestra principal cellist Bennett Randman also is featured. Tickets, $10, are available through the Belhaven music department. Doors open at 7; a reception follows the performance. (Read the Full Story Here)

Congrats Coach Denson - The Belhaven College Baseball Team (5-5, 2-4) defeated the Crichton College Comets on Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 12) by a score of 9-1. The win gives Hill Denson his 700th career collegiate victory. Denson is in his 8th season with the Blazers where he has amassed 232 victories. His first 473 victories came at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he coached for 14 years. (Read the Full Story Here)

The Angelic Band from Blazer Land

Today's Clarion Ledger has a story about the new Belhaven College marching band:

When the Belhaven Blazers return to the gridiron in the fall, the 10-year-old team will share the field with the college's first marching band. Band director Paxton Girtmon wants "The Angelic Band from Blazer Land" from the private Presbyterian college to have about 70 members during its inaugural year. In addition to new students, the marching band will include members of the school's symphonic and jazz bands, two groups already assembled, practicing and ready to generate music in the fall while walking in step with fellow musicians.

The football hysteria that ignites most college campuses is new to 1,800-student Belhaven. The football team came on board shortly after Roger Parrott became president of the college. Founded as a women's college in 1883, the school also lacked a fight song until last fall when Girtmon penned Go Belhaven Blazers before the football team ran onto the field last fall.

Girtmon's band won't have full uniforms until after a fundraising campaign slated to begin after the first marching band season. It's a new beginning for Girtmon, who was an associate director of Jackson State University's internationally known Sonic Boom of the South for three years. (Read the full story here)

Blues Marathon

The inaugural Mississippi Blues Marathon and Half-Marathon "kicks" off tomorrow and winds through the Belhaven neigborhood the Clarion Ledger reports here: Revamped race pulls quality runners and here: Put on those shoes and chase down the blues.

At Mile 10, in front of Eudora Welty's House on Pinehurst, Chris Gill, Jerry Jammat, and Bruce Browning will be performing begining around 7:40 or so.

Blazer Baseball Coach - Hall of Fame

Belhaven College's baseball coach, Hill Denson, will be inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

Blazer Athletic Director

Scott Little is taking over the role of Athletic Director at Belhaven College to replace John Garvilla who has taken the same position at UM-St. Louis.

Blazer finalist for Ferriss trophy

Belhaven College's Thomas Royals of Hattiesburg is one of three finalists for the 2007 Ferriss Trophy, given to the state's top college baseball player. The award will be presented May 21 in Cleveland, home of its namesake, Dave "Boo" Ferriss. The ceremony will be broadcast live by Mississippi Public Television.

Other finalists are Mississippi's Zack Cozart, Mississippi State's Ed Easley.

For the full story read the AP story here or the Hattiesburg American story here.

Blazer baseball out of the tourney

Clarion Ledger: Belhaven's hopes of an NAIA World Series berth ended Thursday with an 8-7 loss to Southern Polytechnic at Smith-Wills Stadium, eliminating the Blazers from the Region XIII Tournament. Belhaven (44-17), which hosted the tournament, carried a 7-6 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning. But closer Matt Lawrence surrendered a two-run walk-off single to Rick McRae. Read the full story here.

Blazer vision

Great article in the Clarion Ledger today about Hill Denson, baseball coach at Belhaven College. Read it here.

Blazer Baseball

Hattiesburg American: "Belhaven’s Thomas Royals was named the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference baseball Player of the Year and Belhaven’s Hill Denson was named the GCAC Coach of the Year Tuesday night." Full Story

Majors keep trophy with 10-9 victory

The Millsaps Majors (31-9) defeated the Belhaven Blazers (36-12) last night to clinch their second Maloney Trophy Series title in a row.

Millsaps, Belhaven to settle Maloney tonight

Clarion Ledger: "Millsaps and Belhaven play a game that will determine the Maloney Trophy winner. Mississippi College is out of the running with a 1-5 record in the series between the three, but Millsaps (3-2) could keep the trophy tonight with a victory over Belhaven (4-1). The Millsaps-Belhaven game is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Twenty Field on the Millsaps campus."

Blazer Baseball

Belhaven College's Blazer Baseball team shot up the NAIA rankings this week to #11, the largest climber of the week. Last week they were #19. The Blazers play at Smith Wills Stadium. Details here.

Blazer Baseball

DDT: "Belhaven wasn't intimidated by Delta State's No. 4 national ranking. The Blazers didn't even seem impressed.The little NAIA school from Jackson pushed the Statesmen around Wednesday in a 9-5 victory that wasn't as close as the score in Delta State's home opener in front of 351.Belhaven (3-1) ripped five Delta State pitchers for 16 hits." more

CPR: "Despite scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth, the Delta State University baseball team couldn't overcome an eight-run deficit as the Statesmen dropped their first game of the season, 9-5, to the Blazers of Belhaven College Wednesday. The fourth-ranked Statesmen fell to 3-1, while Belhaven improved to 3-1." more

Blazer Baseball

The Clarion Ledger writes "Sky's limit for Royals, Belhaven" and quotes Belhaven College Blazer baseball coach Hll Denson as saying of senior Thomas Royals, "You don't find really, really good hitters like him very often. He might be the best hitter in Mississippi. He'll push.400, I bet."