Wednesday baseball: Chiefs claim another state title, Trojans’ season ends

Photo: Magnolia Heights players pile together in celebration of a another MAIS AAAAA state baseball championship (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)  

Magnolia Heights School is the MAIS AAAAA state baseball champion for another year, taking the second game of a best-of-three series 6-5 over Columbia Academy Wednesday afternoon. The Chiefs won the opener of the best-of-three series 14-1 in five innings at Columbia on Monday.

Coach Chris McMinn said it is the seventh straight state title and 15th state championship overall for the Chiefs. McMinn has been around for 13 of them, but added this one is a really special one.  

“We’ve had a long year,” McMinn said. “We’ve traveled all across the country and these kids have been really resilient, beating some really good teams. We contributed all the way up and down the lineup, from seniors to sophomores throughout the game today and we got a hit when we needed to do it.”

The clutch hit came in the Chiefs’ sixth inning with two out when Brayden Burford scored the game-winning run on a single by Tre Miller, one of three hits the shortstop had on the day.  Miller came to the plate after Cole Prosek, who had already hit two home runs in the game, was intentionally walked.  

“I probably would have done the same thing, but it’s kind of ‘pick your poison’ there, and he (Miller) had a really good at bat, worked the count and found a hole when we needed it,” McMinn said.  

Prosek and Miller were lethal at the top of the Magnolia Heights order with four runs, five hits, four runs-batted-in, and two home runs between them.  Prosek led off the Chiefs’ first inning with a solo homer that tied the game at 1-1 after the Cougars took the early lead.  

“Cole (Prosek) has done it all year. He is undoubtedly one of the best players in the state, if not the country, in the junior class, but he’s a team first guy,” McMinn explained. “He’s done everything that we’ve asked of him.”

Quincy Pratt relieved starter Connor Edge after three innings and proceeded to get the mound victory, allowing two unearned runs while striking out three. Pratt walked one.   

“He didn’t have his best stuff, but he competes no matter where he is,” McMinn said. “We knew that when we threw him out there, that we were going to get the best out of somebody.”

Trent Buckley scored the first run for the Cougars in the visiting half of the first inning but Prosek’s homer for Magnolia Heights evened the game and Miller came home on a single by Jack Price for a 2-1 lead after one inning.

Columbia quickly got back on the board when Owen Simmons opened the second with a home run to knot the game at 2-2, but Miller would answer for the Chiefs, coming home on an Ethan Barnes single for a 3-2 advantage after two.  

Right away in the third inning it was Trent Buckley with the answer for Columbia with a solo home run for a 3-3 tie. That’s where the score would stand until the home fourth frame with Prosek’s second round-tripper that also scored Leland Weldon for a 5-3 Magnolia Heights lead.  

Again, Columbia Academy would answer, scoring twice in the fifth on singles by Jackson Speir and Owen Simmons.  That led to Miller’s game-winning base hit that plated Burford. 

Pratt recovered after Trent Buckley was hit by a pitch with a ground out, a line out, and a strikeout to end the game.  

So what keeps the private school from Senatobia among the top baseball teams around?

“First, we have good baseball players, we have great kids, and I think that it’s just a culture and a legacy that they don’t want to let the groups down behind them,” McMinn said.  

NORTHPOINT SEASON ENDS AT PROVIDENCE ACADEMY: The Northpoint Christian baseball season ended in a TSSAA Division 2-A sub-state doubleheader loss at Providence Academy in Johnson City, Tennessee Wednesday afternoon.  Scores were 10-0 in five innings and 3-0.  

Providence scored five times in the fifth inning to put the opener away, putting together nine hits against three Northpoint pitchers. 

Game two was more of a pitchers’ duel with KL Farr and Casey Wheeler of Northpoint battling three Knights’ hurlers. Providence earned five hits against three for the Trojans, one of which was a double by Kaden Clayborn. Jaden Parker walked twice. 

Northpoint finishes the year with a record of 26-12-1.  Providence advances to the TSSAA Spring Fling Division 2-A Final Four in Murfreesboro,