STARKVILLE — Mississippi State University student Jordan Billingsley readily admits he has been hard on his younger brother this past year.
Jacob Billingsley, a right-handed junior pitcher at Magnolia Heights High School, says the tough love has been going on much longer than that.
Either way, the Billingsleys agree about the value of the advice big brother provided Wednesday afternoon before a standing-room only crowd at Starkville Academy’s Volunteer Field.
“He told me to go out there, relax, and turn it loose,” Billingsley said. “He told me to not worry about anything but throwing strikes and having fun. We sure did have fun today.”
Behind a three-hit, complete-game from Billingsley, Magnolia Heights defeated Starkville Academy 6-1 to claim the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA, Division II state championship.
Magnolia Heights won the best-of-three series with two victories. Though the games were eight days apart, the Chiefs won their first state championship since 2009 with brilliant pitching. Starkville Academy managed one run and five hits in 14 innings.
“They were better than us today,” Starkville Academy coach Neal Henry said. “In fact, in both games they were better than us. Today meant everything and they were the better team. If you play again, things might be different. But on this day, they were better and they deserved to win the championship.”
Magnolia Heights (32-5-1) won the series opener 1-0 last Tuesday in Senatobia. The Chiefs bypassed that run total less than three minutes and two batters into Wednesday’s rematch.
After a leadoff single by Jamell Newson, Dalton Skelton smoked a double just inside the left-field line. The throw back to the infield got away and by the time Chiefs quit running, the guests led 2-0.
“To win a championship, you have to make all the plays,” Henry said. “We didn’t do that today.”
An inning later, Newson smacked a three-run home run over the right-field fence to end Drew Pellum’s day on the mound.
“Each time out this year we got some really great pitching,” Magnolia Heights coach Chris McMinn said. “Defensively, we made all the plays. As a pitcher, you have tremendous confidence when you know wherever the ball is hit, a play is going to be made.”
Junior left-hander Jackson Pitts threw a two-hitter for the Chiefs in the series opener. Billingsley followed that up with another gem. While the format of great pitching and great defense sounds simple, it served the Chiefs quite well.
“We have been ready for over a week now to play this game,” Billingsley said. “Everybody came out fired up and ready to go. I was waiting on some runs. I thought they would come early. After that, it was settle into a routine and throw strikes.”
Down 6-0, Starkville Academy (23-11) scored its lone run in the fifth when one of Billingsley’s two walks came home on a groundball out.
Other than that, Billingsley faced the minimum in four frames and tipped his hat to a defense that turned three double plays.
“This was a great group of guys,” Starkville Academy senior outfielder Ryan McKell said. “We just simply didn’t get it done.”
For many of the Starkville Academy participants, the loss was a disappointing end to the school year. The Starkville Academy football team lost the state championship game to Greenville Washington School.
“This group went from winning 14 games to winning 11 games last season,” Henry said. “Then, this year, they won 23 games. I know this loss will take a long time to get over. However, the players will eventually look back as a team and realize what they accomplished.”
Meanwhile, Billingsley said the Chiefs used a loss early in the season to fuel their drive to a title.
“We played in a spring break tournament in Florida,” Billingsley said. “We lost 5-0 to the No. 2 team in the state of Florida (Pensacola Catholic). They got all of their runs in one innings. After that, we knew we could play with anybody and we could become a really good team.”
Magnolia Heights won 17 of its next 19 games. The only losses were back-to-back setbacks to Jackson Academy.
“The thing with this team is they never got down for long,” McMinn said. “For them, every day was a new day. The team bonded on that trip to Florida. When we came back, we played every game like it was a state championship game. That is why we did what we did today.”
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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