By Robert Wilson
Jackson Prep owned Hartfield Academy in baseball for the past four years, winning 15 straight games in the series of the two MAIS schools, four miles apart of Lakeland Drive.
Not this year.
Hartfield defeated seven-time defending MAIS Class 6A state champion Prep for the second time this season with an 8-6 victory Tuesday night in the first game of a three-game conference series before an estimated 250 at Hartfield’s Hawk Park in Flowood.
Hartfield – ranked No. 1 in Mississippi and No. 34 in the country by MaxPreps – improved to 20-2 overall and 7-0 in league play and won its 12th consecutive game. Hartfield defeated Prep 11-2 in a non-conference game March 18 at Hartfield. The nine-run loss is Prep’s worst of the season and the widest margin of defeat since a 12-2 loss to Presbyterian Christian School in the 2023 playoffs. The Hawks’ only two losses are to MAIS Class Columbia Academy and to Pope John Paul II from Slidell, La.
Prep – ranked No. 12 in Mississippi by MaxPreps – dropped to 16-8-1 overall and 4-3 in league play, tied for second with Madison-Ridgeland Academy (which lost to Jackson Academy 6-2 Tuesday) and PCS (which defeated Madison St. Joseph 8-0 Tuesday). It is the most losses in a season for Prep since going 28-9 in 2018. Prep had won 15 straight games against Hartfield and averaged winning by 7.6 runs and hadn’t lost since 2020 before losing this season.
Game 2 is scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Prep in Flowood. Game 2 is scheduled for Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Hartfield.
Hartfield senior pitcher-shortstop and Jacksonville (Ala.) State signee JP Abt won the game with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning with a two-run home run over the centerfield fence. Abt, which came into Tuesday with a .411 batting average (fourth best in Class 6A), hit his fourth home run this season, tying him with PCS junior Bankston Walters for the lead in 6A.
“JP’s walk off home run was a great player having a clutch moment,” said Hartfield coach Justin Smith, who is in his fourth season as head coach. “He has worked hard and deserved that moment with his teammates. Winning that game is big in this conference. I’m glad our players found a way to win.”
“This is huge for us, and our momentum and our morale couldn’t be any higher as a team,” Abt said. “All game they had been throwing a heavy dose of breaking balls. As I got deeper into the count, I noticed they had changed it up this at bat and went heavy dose of fastballs. I finally got one in the middle of the plate on a 3-2 count and put a swing on it.”
Prep senior pitcher and Meridian Community College signee Matthew McKinley hit a solo home run with one out in the top of the seventh to tie the game at 6-6.
Hartfield took a 6-2 lead before Prep battled back three runs in the top of the fifth inning and McKinley’s home run in the seventh.
Junior right-hander Latham Bynum was the winning pitcher. He relieved senior left-hander Wiggy Ball after senior designated hitter and Arizona State signee Tre Bryant walked after McKinley’s home run with one out in the top of the seventh inning. Bynum walked senior center fielder Gardner Young, got senior left fielder and Air Force Academy football signee Major Quin to fly out, walked senior right fielder Cole Gideon then got senior second baseman Carson Powell to fly out with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Prep senior left-hander Reid Vineyard replaced senior Bodie Akins – who struck the side in the sixth inning in relief of McKinley – to start the bottom of the seventh and walked senior centerfielder and Hinds Community College signee Sam Sheffield to start the inning before Abt’s game-winning home run.
Sheffield had two hits and scored two runs. Abt and senior first baseman, Jones County Junior College signee and Northwest Rankin transfer Sam Oakley scored two runs each.
Senior shortstop and Mississippi State football signee Billy Puckett had three hits and scored two runs to lead Prep. McKinley had two hits and two RBIs.
Prep is without 2024 National Player of the Year Konnor Griffin, who was taken as the No. 9 pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Major League Draft this summer. Also, Bryant isn’t at full speed, only being the designated hitter instead of pitching and fielding, still recovering from shoulder surgery from a football injury, and sophomore infielder-pitcher Kevin Roberts – rated as the No. 8 player in the country in the Class of 2026 by Perfect Game – isn’t at full speed, slowed by a shoulder injury in the Overall Tournament basketball championship game.
Prep has five returning starters from its team last season, which won a school record 39 games (with only four losses), won its seventh straight state title and finished ranked No. 19 in the country.
Prep had three errors and allowed three unearned runs Tuesday. The Patriots had six errors and allowed seven unearned runs in the first game with Hartfield.
“We made some mistakes early in the game that cost us a couple of runs, we didn’t do smart things with the baseball tonight and it put us in a hole,” said Prep coach Brent Heavener, who is in his ninth season at Prep as head coach, on Russ Robinson’s post game show on jacksonprep.live. “We fought and fought and got it back and we felt like if we got it into the eighth inning, we were going to win the game. We had a chance there in the top of the seventh to win the game and we didn’t. Then when you have to throw a good hitter a fastball, that’s what good hitters do, and he did. It was two really good teams going at it and we went toe to toe like we are supposed to. Credit to Abt, that was a big hit, but we put ourselves in that situation. Our guys see that we are really close to being really good baseball team. We know we are a good baseball team, and the coaches know it. We’ve just got to find a way to believe it. There were some good things done at the plate, we’ve just got to find a way to overcome it. We never could get the lead. That was the big thing tonight. We’ve got to find a way to get the lead and hold onto it. We are fighting for May (the 6A playoffs) and we’ve got to get there.”
