Baseball Stays in Conference Top Five
The team, now at midseason, hopes to maintain their impressive success.
The Mississippi College baseball team has been collecting awards and moving up in polling. The team recently earned an NCBWA ranking of fifth in the region. Before this weekend’s losses at Valdosta State, the team was tied for second in the conference standings, just behind Delta State. The Choctaws now sit at #4 in the GSC.
Mississippi College baseball continued their successful season last weekend with a three-game sweep over Trevecca Nazarene. The last game against Trevecca Nazarene brought head coach Jeremy Hayworth to his 300th career win.
The Choctaws’ conference record is now 13-8, and their overall record is 22-12. Now just past midseason, the team hopes to maintain their success from past games.
JT Vance and Korey Cooper started the season off both earning spots on the Preseason All-Gulf South Conference Team. Vance also earned a spot on the NCBWA All-Region Team. Bryce LaRocca, a senior, was most recently named GSC player of the week.
Holland Townes, another senior on the baseball team, recently earned the Gulf South Conference pitcher of the week. For the same performance, he earned the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association South Region Pitcher of the Week. Townes also earned a spot in the record books with the most strikeouts in a game (11) since 2019.
Townes contributed a majority of the team’s success to their relentlessness. “Since we started the season 7-8, I would say the largest contributor to our success is our relentlessness,” Townes said. “We had a slow start, then got to taste some success and ran with it. Now, we just need to continue playing with the confidence we have.”
After a slow start, the Choctaws opened up March with a ten game win streak. Now that the team is moving into the latter half of the season, Townes says the team is aiming for a championship. “Our primary team goal entering the back half of the season is to win the regular season GSC and ultimately the GSC tournament,” Townes said. “We definitely have the pieces and team chemistry to make it happen. Individually, I want to help my team win as many games as possible.”
Cooper, LaRocca, and Jordan Evans are leading the Choctaws batting averages at .413, .383, and .318 respectively. Townes and Caleb Peterson are leading the teams ERA at 4.84 and 5.81. Tyler Jacobsen is leading out in the field for the Choctaws with 144 putouts and 17 assists.
Townes stated the team has been focused on playing loose and having fun in order to bring about their best performance. As the season has its ups and downs, Townes says the team is trying to use any momentum they can gather while staying humble acknowledging no streak will likely last forever.
“I am looking forward to competing with my teammates against some of the more historically successful programs in the GSC and proving that we are a force this year,” Townes said.
Off the heels of a losing weekend at Valdosta State, the team is set to travel back home to play Christian Brothers. The series will start Friday, April 4.
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