Pisgah baseball headed to the state championship for first time in school history

PISGAH, Miss. (WLBT) - For the first time in school history, the Pisgah High School Dragons are headed to the MHSAA 2A Baseball State Championship game, and they are fired up about it.

Making it to the championship game has always been the goal for Pisgah baseball. Last season, it was right within their reach, but the Dragons came up short in the semi-final round.

So, the Dragons were determined to make it to state this season, fueled by last year’s shortcomings.

This year, they had the same goal in mind, and it was kind of like a little redemption to get back [to playoff baseball],” head coach Sam Starnes said. “I’m proud of the kids for setting the goal and achieving that goal, of making it [to the championship]. They pushed for it all fall, all summer, all winter and they accomplished it.”

Despite losing five seniors, with three of them being starting pitchers, the Dragons made sure to prove everyone wrong who doubted them.

“Whenever we lost all of those people, everybody at the beginning of the season thought we weren’t going to be as good as we were this year,” Pisgah shortstop Gavin Bledsoe said. “Throughout the season, we all just kind of clicked, and we all just kind of figured it out.”

“I think that was the biggest thing about the season,” Coach Starnes said. All the guys stepping up... we had junior varsity guys join varsity and then guys that were in the lineup last year continued to improve.”

Now that the stage is set for state, the Dragons are ready to smoke the competition.

“We already know it’s going to be a dog fight, so we gotta go in there knowing we need to play our best ball,” first baseman Mason Huddleston stated.

“If we play like we’ve been playing, play our hardest. It’s going to be a good couple of games,” Bledsoe said.

Coach Starnes says the game plan for the championship game is simple... to do the same thing that they’ve been doing all season.

“They know what they’re playing for... [by] not looking at these games any differently than we have all year,” Coach Starnes said. “They’ve worked hard all year to get it done. We’re just going to let them keep on doing what they do.”

As for Huddleston, he also has a game plan... but for the fans.

“Be there, be loud, and let’s get serious,” he said.

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