PEARL — Xavier Harrison has had several enjoyable days playing baseball.
For the New Hope High School senior center fielder, Friday was not one of them.
“This team went on an incredible ride,” Harrison said. “Being a part of the tradition at New Hope is special to me and to the other seniors. We played for one of the best programs in the state. Unfortunately, it didn’t end the way we wanted.”
For Harrison and the rest of the Trojans, the ride came to an end Friday night with a 3-0 loss to Vancleave in the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 4A state championship series being played at Trustmark Park.
Vancleave (29-7) won its first-ever baseball state championship, while New Hope (29-7) lost in its first return to the state title series since winning the Class 5A championship in 2014.
New Hope had not lost back-to-back games the entire series until Friday’s setback followed a 1-0 loss in the series opener Wednesday night. The Trojans had not been shutout in a game all season but were blanked for 14 innings by the Vancleave pitching duo of Jones County Junior College signee Bailee Hendon and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College signee Hayden Robb. The Trojans managed seven hits in two games combined.
“We knew we were facing two of the best pitchers in the state,” New Hope coach Lee Boyd said. “Each of them threw harder than we saw on a consistent basis throughout the regular season. Credit to (Hendon and Robb). They handcuffed us and kept us off-balanced. We played hard, pitched it well and defended the field well. If you had told me we were going to give up four runs in two games, I would have thought that meant winning the championship.”
New Hope sophomore Ryan Burt and junior Payton Springfield did hold their own admirably in the state championship series. Burt allowed six hits in the 1-0 loss, while Springfield allowed two hits in the 3-0 loss. Burt went the distance, while Springfield needed one out from Nick Sims. Each were hurt by two errors in the field in both games. Only half of the Bulldogs’ four runs were earned.
“You can’t say enough about what Ryan and Payton did in this series,” Harrison said. “They pitched their tails off and had us right there in the series. The two pitching jobs were great. They battled and laid it all on the line for us. Just couldn’t get that big hit. The coaches stressed (prior to the series) that we had to take advantage of our scoring chances. We weren’t going to have a lot of base runners, so we couldn’t make mistakes on the bases. We just had to be perfect to have a chance. We were close to perfect but not close enough.”
Vancleave use small ball for all four runs in the series.
In the first inning Friday, a walk, base hit, flyout and groundout produced the first run. A double by Gavin McKerchie, sacrifice bunt and wild pitch produced the second run an inning later.
Two errors and a perfectly-executed bunt produced the game’s final run in the sixth inning.
Springfield (7-3) allowed two hits but did walk three and hit three more. Cade Odom threw out one attempted base stealer and a double play ball helped New Hope escape in the fourth inning.
Those numbers were good but fell short of the production of Robb (8-3). He allowed three hits with seven strikeouts and three walks, while throwing 105 total pitches.
New Hope had back-to-back two-out singles by the top two (Sims and Tyler Murphy) in the order in the third inning. Those hits came after a critical double play ball stalled what could have been a big inning.
In the fifth inning, New Hope stranded a pair again. The Bulldogs got their second double play in the sixth inning.
“Pitching wins the elite games,” Vancleave coach Daniel Best said. “Those were two seniors on the mound for us. They were on a mission.”
Vancleave had 11 seniors in uniform, while New Hope had seven. The New Hope starting lineup had five seniors (Sims, Drew Pounders, Bryce Braddock, Odom and Harrison) Friday, while the Vancleave starting lineup had eight.
“There is a lot of disappointment now,” Boyd said. “When the seniors step back and look at the big picture, there will be pleased with this season. We won a region championship (first time since 2014) and made it back to Pearl (also first time since 2014). There were a lot of good moments. It was a special season in a lot of ways. Both of our pitchers (Burt and Springfield) will be back. For the younger guys, there will be a lot of motivation to come back here and finish the deal.”
During the trophy presentation, there were a lot of hugs but few tears. New Hope players understood their best was not good enough this time around.
“This year was a lot of fun,” Harrison said. “We had some struggles at the beginning of the season. Once we started loving one another and playing together as brothers, the season really took off. We got rolling for a while. It was fun to be part of that.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott.
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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