By Robert Wilson
Bankston Walters won’t be able to pitch a regular season game for Southern Miss until the spring of the 2027 season, but the way he pitched Wednesday night, the Presbyterian Christian School junior right-hander could help the talented Golden Eagles team – likely headed to another NCAA Tournament – this season.
Walters was brilliant and what he did for PCS Wednesday would go down as one of the best pitching performances in a MAIS championship series in history.
Walters was two Hartfield Academy swings from pitching a perfect game. He faced only 23 batters, two above the minimum, and allowed two hits, had 11 strikeouts, no walks and hit a two-run home run in the first inning to lead PCS to a 3-1 victory over Hartfield in Game 1 of the best of three championship series before an estimated 600 at Hartfield’s Hawk Park.
No. 3 seed PCS improved to 23-13 and is within one game of its first state baseball championship in school history. PCS lost to Jackson Prep last year in the championship series as Prep won its seventh consecutive state title. No. 1 seed Hartfield dropped to 27-7 and lost to PCS for the second time in four meetings this season.
Game 2 is scheduled for Thursday at 6 p.m. at PCS in Hattiesburg. Probable starters are PCS junior left-hander and Troy, Ala., commitment Tyler Flynt (4-1 record and a 1.95 earned run average) and Hartfield junior right-hander and Southern Miss commitment Taylor Latham (7-2, 2.15 ERA)
The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Walters had a perfect game for four innings and retired the first 12 batters. Hartfield junior right fielder and Jacksonville, Ala., State commitment Henry Abt – who came in hitting .396 with two home runs this season – connected on a Walters slider almost on the ground on a 2-2 count and hit it over the right field wall for Hartfield’s first hit. Senior first baseman and Jones County Junior College signee Sam Oakley followed with a single, but that was it. No one else reached base for the Hawks all night.
Walters threw 85 pitches, 69 for strikes, a remarkable 81.2 percent.
“Bankston was special tonight,” said PCS coach Jarret Hoffpauir, a former Southern Miss star who is in his fourth season at PCS. “I didn’t say too much to him before the game. He’s one of those guys who is always ready. He comes with energy every day. We told him to do what he does. And then when he hit a two-run home run in the top of the first inning, I felt good about it. Bankston got comfortable right away. He kept them off balance all night. Bankston was dominating. That’s all you can say. He is such a strike thrower. Bankston had command of three pitches.”
Walters has been one of the most dominating pitchers in Mississippi this season. He had an 9-1 record with a 1.77 earned run average with 106 strikeouts and only 15 walks in 67 1/3 innings going into Wednesday’s game. He had thrown only two wild pitches out of 1,062 pitches this season.
“I was just thinking before the game to throw strikes and hit my spots,” said Walters, whose father, Kris, played baseball for Southern Miss. “When I locate, that’s when I’m at my best. I attacked with my fastball and my secondary stuff was working well.”
Walters, who came in hitting .381, hit his sixth home run of the season, and knocked in his 36th and 37th RBI this year. That was all the runs he needed.
Meanwhile, Hartfield didn’t score two runs for only the second time this season. Madison-Ridgeland Academy defeated Hartfield 5-0 during the regular season.
“It was a tough one. Walters was great for them,” Hartfield coach Justin Smith said. “The good news is we get to play again tomorrow. Our guys do a good job bouncing back from losses. So, we need to do our best to even the series tomorrow.”
“I’m confident in my team and I think we will be just fine,” said Hartfield senior pitcher and Jacksonville, Ala., State signee JP Abt, who was named the MAIS Class 6A Player of the Year last week. “All we have to do is get the bats going early tomorrow and everything else will play out the way we want it to. I have full trust in Taylor to throw his best and I think we will come out on top.”
Hoffpauir believes playing in last year’s state title series – Prep won in three games and was ranked No. 4 in the country at the time – definitely helped out in Game 1 of this championship series.
“Last year’s atmosphere and everything that comes with it was helpful to the guys who played last year and this year,” said Hoffpauir, who also has a state championship runner-up finish at Delta Charter in Ferriday, La., before coming to PCS. “Our guys have been strangely calm. They are comfortable and that’s great with these kind of stakes on the line. It is far from over. We still have business to take care of. It’s not a lock. Hartfield is a good baseball team, and we respect that. At the same time, we know what we are capable of as well. We are excited about tomorrow.”
“This was a huge win for us and to get it back at our place,” Walters said. “Our place is hard to play at and we’ve got a dog (Flynt) throwing tomorrow for us. We just need to hit and execute. We need to finish this thing.”
Other than Walters’ home run, PCS junior second baseman and leadoff hitter Jet Henderson had three hits and scored two runs and sophomore shortstop Brennan Thoms had two hits and one RBI. Thoms’ father (Josh), uncles (Hank and Lake) and cousin (Rusty) played at Mississippi State.
