PHEBA — Focus is a key for Payton Griffin.
The Hebron Christian senior probably has heard his father, Todd, stress the importance of being mentally ready more than a few times in his high school career. Whether it has been in football, basketball, or baseball, that focus has helped Payton and his teammates achieve their share of success in all three sports.
In 2015-16, Griffin has been a part of one of the school’s best athletic years. The football team advanced to the postseason and won a playoff game. The boys basketball team won a Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class A title. Today, the baseball team is two victories away from adding another title to that list.
Hebron Christian (18-5) will play for the school’s first baseball title starting at 4 p.m. today when it faces Humphreys Academy in Game 1 of the best-of-three MAIS Class A title series. Game 2 will be at 3 p.m. Thursday in Pheba. If needed, Game 3 would follow approximately 30 minutes after the previous game.
For Griffin, a second championship would be an ideal way to wrap up his final prep season. To realize that goal, he said he and his teammates are going to stick to the plan that has helped them overcome injuries and personnel changes.
“We have been pushing all of the underclassmen to do their best,” Griffin said. “Even though we did have some injuries and different situations where we didn’t have as many people as we would have liked, we just kept on going no matter what. We kept on truckin’.”
Last week, Hebron Christian defeated Deer Creek School 9-0 and 9-4 to advance to the state title series. The team used dominating pitching performances by Griffin, who is the son of coach Todd Griffin, and Channing Tapley to take the final step.
For its accomplishments, the Hebron Christian baseball team is The Dispatch’s Prep Player of the Week.
Hebron Christian is back at full strength after losing senior catcher Landon Hill to a broken catching hand for four to five weeks ago. The Eagles also had several other personnel issues that affected the 15-player roster, but coach Todd Griffin said senior leadership was a key to keeping the squad focused. He credits his son and his classmates Tapley, Hill, Clay Faulkner, Jessie Moore, and John Thomas Weaver for leading by example more than being vocal leaders and helping the team move two wins away from making history.
“It has been a struggle. It has been a tremendous struggle at times,” said Griffin, who is in his fifth year as the team’s coach. “Fortunately, we have battled through those times and now we have everybody healthy and everybody is back and we’re playing as well as we have played all year.”
Payton Griffin, who will play baseball at East Central Community College in Decatur, said the baseball team has gained confidence from the boys basketball team’s run to the Class A State championship earlier this year. At a small school like Hebron Christian, many of the student-athletes play multiple sorts, and Griffin said that title and subsequent trip to participate in the MAIS Overall State at Mississippi College in Clinton showed everyone the school could win at the highest levels. He said he and the rest of his classmates haven’t done anything unusual in an effort to keep the team focused on its title goals.
Instead, Griffin, who played youth baseball with Faulkner, Tapley, and Hill growing up in Houston, said the Eagles have continued to work hard in practice and have found the right mix of pitching, fielding, and hitting.
“We really had to make up for people not being there,” said Griffin, who has struck out 14 and 16 in his last two victories, complete-game one-hitters. “We had to give 150 percent to try to make up for lost people.”
Faulkner, who has been one of the team’s leading hitters in the postseason, said the players have used the added pressure of the playoffs as motivation. He said winning a state title in baseball has been a goal for as long as he can remember. He said the Eagles have tried to remain supportive of everyone on the squad to keep spirits high and put everyone in a position where they can contribute.
“We have had lots of good practice late in the season that has helped us get focused and ready to go,” Faulkner said.
Tapley has nearly equaled Griffin’s exploits on the mound by striking out 13 and 15 in his last two outings. The right-hander will play baseball at Mississippi Delta C.C. in Moorhead in the fall.
Coach Griffin said the younger players have done what he has asked them to do and have taken a page from the older players. He said the playoff run has validated all of the time the Eagles have invested in practice and preparation since the beginning of the season.
“We went through a losing skid when we lost three out of four or three out of five about three quarters of the way through the season,” Griffin said. “That is when we were at our lowest as far as personnel. We played a AA school (Winona Christian) and a AAAA school (Lamar School) and then Victory Christian (out of Columbus) beat us. They have a pretty good squad. After that, we have been on a pretty good winning streak.”
Griffin credits his oldest son, Trey, and his nephew, Will Faulkner, for helping Payton get stronger as the team has moved deeper into the season. He said he also talked with the seniors at the beginning of the season to tell them what they had to do lead the team. He said he believed the bond the young men have built from playing sports for so long has helped them overcome the ups and downs of the season.
“We have known for a few years that this year would be something special, if this group of kids stayed together, that they would be special,” coach Griffin said. “It has been what I imagined it could be. It is fun to get to the point — knock on wood — where we have played a few games of errorless ball. When your pitcher gets a ground ball and you have confidence in the fielders behind him, it puts a different mentality on the game.
“The defense has been pretty important. At the beginning of the season, we went a pretty good stretch to where the only runs we were giving up were unearned. Late in the season, we have played much more solidly in the field. The two games Payton threw that were one-hitters, they hit the ball a few times and we made the plays. The game Channing threw against DeSoto School, we may have played errorless ball. We made a couple of errors last week at Deer Creek that cost us a run or two, but we are definitely making more plays than we were at the beginning of the year. I think a big part of that is our younger ones are getting better.”
Griffin and Faulkner, who went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored in the last game, said no one on the squad has been satisfied with getting to the state title series. Faulkner said the first step today will be the culmination of years of hard work. While it sounds like a daunting task, he said focus will be the key.
“It is finally going to be worth all of the effort we have put in to get where we have always wanted to be,” Faulkner said. “Hopefully, we will win the game and come back (to Pheba) and win again.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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