By Robert Wilson
Retiring Germantown High athletic director Gregg Perry couldn’t have planned it any better.
On Gregg Perry Night at Germantown’s baseball field aka “The Ranch,” Germantown sophomore centerfielder Bryce Johnson hit a one out single to score freshman second baseman Christian Mumford for a 3-2 victory in eight innings over Madison County rival and defending MHSAA Class 7A state champion Madison Central Tuesday night before an estimated 500 in Gluckstadt.
Germantown – ranked No. 22 in Mississippi and No. 8 in MHSAA Class 7A by MaxPreps – improved to 16-8 overall and 5-2 in region play, tied with Oxford for first place. The Mavs broke a three-game losing streak to the Jaguars, dating back to the 2024 season. The 16 wins are one more than all of last season when Germantown finished 15-13, finished last in the region and didn’t make the playoffs.
Madison Central – ranked No. 14 in Mississippi and No. 6 in MHSAA Class 7A – dropped to 12-9 overall and 4-3 in region play.
The two teams play Thursday at 7 p.m. at Madison Central.
“We have a lot of youth on this year’s team,” xxx year Germantown coach Chris Peden said. “We’ve got a group of kids that have bought into what we’re trying to do and they’re all good teammates to one another. Because of our depth, we’re able to play a lot of different people depending on certain situations. We spent all summer and fall talking about earning everything we get and trying to out work people and beat people with toughness. I think a lot of that has been evident with the amount of one run games we’ve been able to win. Our kids don’t care who gets the credit because they know the team is more important than the individual regardless of the situation. We also spent all summer and fall hearing messages from former Maverick players on what it means to be apart of this program. This group has been a blast to coach because of the way they carry themselves.”
Peden had a great time Tuesday night for many reasons, especially for a great sendoff for his friend.
Perry was recognized before the varsity game. Several dozen of his former players from Germantown and Madison Central and former coaches and administrators throughout the Madison County School District as well as Perry’s wife, Diann, and his son, Matthew, came out on the field to honor him as he was introduced and threw out the first pitch.
Perry spent 30 years as an educator and coach, the last 15 at Germantown and the last five as athletic director. He won a state baseball championship at Madison Central in 2009.
“Gregg hired me on at Madison Central in 2008 and I watched him build that program into what it is today,” Peden said. “We run our program over here the same way. He is a great AD and even better person. He expects the best and has helped us build the best facilities and athletic program in the state here at Germantown. Gregg mentored me and Brian Hardy and we owe him everything in our career of baseball. He is a great family man and leader.”
Peden, a former Seminary High, Jones County Junior College and Southern Miss catcher, was an assistant at Madison Central for eight seasons, helping the Jaguars to two state championships and two state runner-up finishes before going to Ridgeland where reached the MHSAA Class 5A semifinals once and the quarterfinals three times. He replaced Brian Hardy as Germantown’s head coach in 2023. Hardy started the Germantown baseball program.
“It was a a great night,” Perry said. “It was great to see the support from former players and coaches that made it back and took time out of their schedules to be there. That means everything. I also think having it on the night we played MC made it special. I spent a lot of great years there and I have a lot of fond memories of my time there. Coming to Germantown gave me the opportunity to be able to spend more time with my son while coaching golf and now we come full circle as he will be at Germantown helping coach golf next year. Pretty cool. It was a fitting way to go out.”
Madison Central took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning on centerfielder Landon Hathorn’s sacrifice fly to score second baseman Braylon Edwards and Germantown tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning on senior left fielder Ashton Smith’s single to score Johnson.
Both teams had runners in scoring position in the seventh innings, but couldn’t get the go ahead run across to send the game into extra innings.
Senior pitcher-first baseman Steven Lee’s single scored pinch runner Parks Mosley to give Madison Central a 2-1 lead in the top of the eighth inning.
But Germantown rallied for two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. With one out, junior shortstop Maddox Perry legged out an infield single. Mumford hit a double to left center to score Perry to tie the game at 2-2. With two outs, junior pinch hitter Brooks Bishop had an infield single and Mumford advanced to third to set up Johnson’s heroics with his game-winning single.
“We played really well on defense,” Peden said. “We had multiple diving plays in the infield and outfield. We also threw two runners out trying to steal late in the game that were big. We have the ability to play really good defense and run really well. If you came to watch us practice, you’d see our kids diving and laying out trying to make plays. That work in practice every day paid off tonight. Throughout the course of the year our kids have continued to buy into our offensive approach and trying to be a complete offense. Our pitchers did a great job tonight of limiting traffic and getting ahead early. Nelson Irving, a sophomore, gave us a great start and Brayden Simpson, a junior, was able to continue what Nelson started by filing up the zone. We feel confident with our numbers of arms we can run out there that we can compete in the zone and give us a chance to win.”
“I’m proud of how the team stayed together and fought through adversity,” said Johnson, who also had two outstanding defensive plays in centerfield with runners on base in addition to his three hits from his leadoff position. “Everybody was ready when their number was called. It always feels good to beat the crosstown rival when we match up against them. Wins like this are big for us and hopefully we can keep the momentum going for the rest of the season.”
“It means a lot to me as a sophomore starting against a district rival and rest of my team in the win tonight,” Irving said. “I did my job of throwing strikes and my defense made all the plays and many plays to save some runs. Our offense battled all night help us win the game. And our closer (junior Brayden Simpson) did a wonderful job in coming in and shutting the game down (Simpson allowed five hits and no earned runs in three innings).”
Both starting pitchers – Germantown’s Irving and Madison Central’s Lee – had outstanding performances. Irving allowed only one hit and one earned run with two strikeouts in five innings. Lee allowed only four hits and no earned runs with four strikeouts in six innings.
“Everybody got their money’s worth tonight,” said first-year Madison Central coach Jake Mills, who replaced Patrick Robey, who was hired at Belhaven. Mills was a head coach at South Panola for two seasons and Petal for four seasons before coming to Madison Central. “This is what 7A baseball is all about. I thought their arms did a great job of keeping us off balance. I was proud of the way Steven, Hayden (Wilson), and Norris (Kelly) threw the ball for us. We didn’t get it done at the plate. It’s tough when you look back in the division and our three losses have been in extras or the bottom of the seventh. We are close to figuring this thing out. We just have to keep showing up and getting better each day. We will get over the hump.”
“MC has a great program and tradition for many years,” Peden said. “Two great teams battled it out and I expect no less Thursday. We really wanted to win that one of Coach Perry last night.”
