By Robert Wilson
MADISON – Defending MHSAA Class 2A state champion St. Andrew’s lost 12 seniors off last year’s team, which finished 32-7 (one short of the school record for wins) and its sixth state title in school history and first since 2018.
Coach Mark Fanning – who is closing in on 600 wins in his brilliant 28-year coaching career (all at St. Andrew’s) – knew it might take a while to get rolling this season with some new starters, but his Saints had a big win last week during their annual trip to Florida during spring break and showed their coach some promise for this season.
And then Tuesday night against rival Madison St. Joseph, St. Andrew’s put together another win as senior left-hander Stone Myrick threw a three-hit shutout in a 5-0 victory during St. Joe’s Senior Night before an estimated 250 at St. Joe’s D.M. Howie Field.
St. Andrew’s improved to 9-5 and won for the fourth time in its last six games, including a 14-3 win over Alabama Class 7A public school McGill-Toolen on their spring break road trip. St. Joe dropped to 9-4. The teams have a long-standing series against each other in every sport, especially when St. Joe was playing in the MHSAA, but St. Joe moved over to the MAIS several years ago. St. Joe had defeated St. Andrew’s four straight times, including last year with a 5-2 decision early in the season.
Fanning – who won his 589th career game Tuesday night – lost a bunch of guys to graduation with a lot of experience. His son, Rolen, played outfield for five years. Outfielders Walker Van Meter and Callan Baldwin, and infielder Friend Walker started for three years. Blake Bell started at catcher for three years.
“We have a lot of new faces on the field,” said Fanning, a star infielder at Hickory High, Newton County High, East Central Community and College and Mississippi College who was the PriorityOne Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Coach of the Year last season. “We got off to a decent start but felt all along it was going to take us some time to find the right combinations. Our goal is to continue to build some depth and have as many players ready for varsity action as possible. It is a long season, and we need that depth and continued improvement each week in order to hopefully make a run in the playoffs.
“The game (against St. Joe) definitely settled into a pitcher’s duel with Stone and (St. Joe sophomore left-hander) Chad Davidson making a lot of hitters look overmatched. We were able to get a few runners on and eventually used a couple of mistakes by them to scratch a few runs across. With our good defense tonight and the way Myrick was pitching a few runs were enough for the win. I have felt all along that the strength of our team was going to be our pitching. We had some trouble early in the season throwing strikes consistently but have pitched much better lately.”
One of those returnees, Myrick, was outstanding Tuesday night. He had no-hitter for the first five innings before St. Joe sophomore pitcher Chad Davidson led off the sixth inning with an infield single and junior third baseman John Dean D’Antonio followed with a double. The other hit was an infield single by junior right fielder Parker Mize in the seventh inning. Myrick, who improved to 2-1, retired 11 batters in a row before the first hit in the sixth. He had only one walk, one hit batter and five strikeouts.
“I was really trying to get ahead with my fastball and just attack very part of the zone,” said Myrick, whose father, Casey, was an All-American outfielder at Delta State and played on the Division II College World Series team in 1996. “We faced a really good hitting St. Joe team, but I knew that if I was in the zone my defense would work behind me, which they did. They play with so much confidence and to me that’s the best feeling as a pitcher. I know that after every pitch my defense has a chance to make a play. Also, my (junior) catcher James (Machost) and I were on the same page, and I trusted him with every pitch, and he worked for me the whole night.”
St. Andrew’s scored all the runs it needed with two outs in the fourth when a throwing error scored second baseman Marco LeFlore, designated hitter Sargeant Moriarity and third baseman Rylan Baldwin. The Saints added two more runs in the sixth when St. Joe hit batters to score Moriarity and Baldwin.
St. Andrew’s – which also is missing last year’s starting shortstop and Southern Miss commitment Justin Word, one of the top players in Mississippi who transferred to Jackson Academy – appears on its way to putting together another great season under Fanning, who has only had two losing seasons in his almost three-decade coaching career.
“I feel like the last game on the Florida trip was our momentum shift that we needed,” Myrick said. “All the guys played with so much more energy and confidence, which carried on to last night. If we keep playing with this energy and confidence, I believe that we can make another run. I love this team and really feel like things are starting to click.”
First-year St. Joe coach Tanner Moulder – who replaced Gerald McCall (who won a MHSAA Class 2A state title in 2018) – has gotten the Bruins off to a good start. St. Joe, which finished 14-22 overall and 1-14 in conference play last year, plays in the rugged MAIS Class 6A conference, with seven-time state champion and nationally Jackson Prep and four other talented teams like state runner-up Presbyterian Christian School, and always strong Hartfield Academy and Madison-Ridgeland Academy and an improved Jackson Academy team.
“We did not play our best baseball. Playing against a quality team like St. Andrew’s, we have to do the little things right,” said Moulder, who played at Belhaven and was pitching coach at Terry High for four years and Ridgeland High for six years before coming to St. Joe. “We made too many mistakes in the field that gave them easy opportunities to score. Offensively, we did not have quality approaches. We were able to get several runners in scoring position but could not come up with the timely hit. There were glimpses how good we are and how good we are going to be, but we could not put it all together. Baseball is a funny game like that, but that is the beauty of it. I expect us to bounce back and continue the quality baseball we have played up to this point.
“We have played really well the majority of the time, but our inexperience has shown at times. There have been numerous bright spots for us this year: Bash Brown, Nick Glorioso, Chad Davidson, Jackson Winans, Parker Mize, and Brandon Burkes to name a few. We are pitching it well at the moment, and we have had those guys step up and contribute extremely to the success of this team on the mound and in the box. Even though we are young, I am extremely proud of how we are playing to this point. The guys treat every day as a new day to get better and that is what has led to our early success.”
The left-handed Davidson, who lost for the first time after four pitching victories, allowed four hits with no earned runs with three walks and eight strikeouts in four innings.
“Chad threw well, he had some bumps in the road with walks and errors, however he battled and kept us in the ball game,” Moulder said. “Sometimes, that’s how the game goes pitching, you just have to battle for as long as you can for your team and he did that.”
