By Robert Wilson
Presbyterian Christian School’s baseball team – led by Division I level pitchers, Southern Miss signee Bankston Walters and Troy signee Tyner Flynt – won the MAIS Class 6A state championship last season, the first state baseball title in school history.
And now PCS, Walters and Flynt, are looking other repeat as state champions in MHSAA Class 3A this season.
PCS, ranked No. 1 the MHSAA Class 3A, No. 4 in Mississippi and No. 97 in the country by MaxPreps, looked the part this weekend as the Bobcats allowed only four runs and defeated St. Andrew’s two out of three games to win the second round of the 3A state playoffs.
PCS improved to 23-6 and meets Pisgah this weekend in the best of series in the 3A state quarterfinals. Game 1 is scheduled for Friday at PCS in Hattiesburg. Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday at Pisgah, Game 3, if necessary, is scheduled for Monday at PCS.
St. Andrew’s – ranked No. 6 in MHSAA Class 3A and No. 40 in Mississippi – finished with a 24-9 record.
The Saints broke PCS’ 11-game winning streak Friday in Game 1, but PCS bounced back to win Game 2 11-1 Saturday at St. Andrew’s and Game 3 5-1 Monday at PCS.
Walters, a Southern Miss signee, came into Friday night with an 8-2 record and a 0.30 earned run average and only allowed two hits but the Saints were able to manufacture two runs to earn the victory in Game 1.
But PCS dominated after that, limiting St. Andrew’s to only two runs and nine hits in the next two games.
“We didn’t change much after Friday’s game,” said fifth-year coach Jarrett Hoffpauir, who was an All-American at Southern Miss (single season record holder in hits and runs batted in) and made it to the major leagues. “We just stayed the course. We had opportunities Friday and just never got the big hit. Things started falling our way Saturday and we just built off of that. All three pitchers threw extremely well and gave us the chance to win every game.”
This is how good Walters, Flynt and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College signee Seth Hathaway pitched during the series. All three pitchers threw complete games.
Walters allowed two hits, one earned run and had four walks and seven strikeouts and threw 111 pitches. Flynt allowed four hits and one earned run and had two walks and 14 strikeouts and threw 97 pitches. Hathaway allowed five hits and one earned run and had no walks and six strikeouts and threw 77 pitches. St. Andrew’s did not have an extra base hit in series, all singles.
They might be the best trio of pitchers in Mississippi. Walters is now 8-3 with a 0.39 ERA with 106 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings. Flynt is now 5-0 with a 0.39 ERA with 61 strikeouts in 36 innings. Hathaway is now 4-0 with a 2.12 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 36 1/3 innings.
“Experience and leadership are the two biggest things for our success,” Hoffpauir said. “We have a lot of guys that have been starting for three and four years and play really well together. We’re deep on the mound with a bunch of guys who really compete hard. With our pitching and defense, we feel like we play with anybody.”
PCS also can hit. Junior first baseman/outfielder Reed Bridges – the son of Donnie Bridges, a first-round major league draft pick out of Oak Grove High in 1997 – leads the team with a .444 batting average and has 26 runs scored, 36 RBIs, 8 doubles, 4 triples and 5 home runs. Junior shortstop Brennon Thoms – whose father (Josh), uncles (Hank and Lake) and cousin (Rusty) played baseball at Mississippi State – is hitting .405 with 27 runs scored, 27 RBIs, 6 doubles and 2 home runs. Walters, who plays first base when he doesn’t pitch and son of former Southern Miss first baseman Kris Walters, is hitting .364 with 27 runs scored, 17 RBIs, 3 doubles, 1 triple and 6 home runs.
St. Andrew’s was trying to make a run at its second state championship in three seasons under Coach Mark Fanning, who finished his 29th career season, all at St. Andrew’s, the longest streak on any active coach in Mississippi at one school. He has won 626 games in his 27 seasons at St. Andrew’s. Fanning has had only two losing seasons, his second year in 1999 and in 2004. Both years he finished 15-17. The 2003 season was the only year Fanning hasn’t taken his team to the playoffs.
Once again, Fanning led his team to an outstanding season.
“Our team finished 24-9 against a pretty tough schedule,” Fanning said. “We did not have dominant pitching, but had several pitchers who threw really good games for us. Our defense was really good at the beginning of this season, but struggled in some of our most important games. We had some great offensive games, but were shut down by some really good pitchers, which happens sometimes in baseball. We were led by seniors John William Walker, Marco LeFlore, Luke Peterson, Sergeant Moriarity. All had key offensive seasons and Walker, LaFlore, and Moriarity were also three of our top pitchers. We were also led by juniors Cash Myrick and Pierce Ingram, both at the plate and on the mound. Myrick and Walker were our last two starters from our 2024 championship team. We lose eight seniors, but return a lot of juniors who will play big roles for us next season.”
Walker, a Mississippi College commitment, led St. Andrew’s with a .426 batting average and also had 44 runs scored, 18 RBIs, 8 doubles and 1 triple. Also, Peterson hit .398 with 23 runs scored, 31 RBIs and 3 doubles, LeFlore hit .372 with 44 runs scored, 23 RBIs, 7 doubles, 4 triples and 2 home runs, Cash Myrick hit .362 with 37 runs scored, 41 RBIs, 6 doubles, 2 triples and 5 home runs.
LeFlore had a 6-2 pitching record with a 1.38 ERA, Walker had a 4-2 record with 2.98 ERA and Moriarity had a 4-1 record.
“PCS was loaded with talent and we could’ve played them a lot better, but baseball falls that way sometimes,” Walker said. “As a whole, we had a solid season that could have been a whole lot different if we had won a couple of more close games. But we had a great group of a whole lot of fun. We had a team with not too much big game experience, so close games were a struggle because not many had been in that situation. Ultimately thought, my goal is that the Lord was glorified through how we played that year and that my play pointed others to Christ.”
