My Favorite Magnolia Academy Baseball Memories, Volume 1

(#23)

In no particular order…..

We won 26 championships in six seasons…unprecedented. Nobody ever won that many tournament and playoff championships in that span of time.

We were the first private school team to win 30+ games in a season and the second Mississippi High School to do it. Clinton High School went 32-2 in 1978.

In 1981, the Raiders were the first Mississippi high school team to win 40 games in a season (40-5). The record setting 40th win was a 17-4 win over Kirk Academy for the State AA Championship.

We were also the first to win 30+ games in a season more than once.

Spud’s (aka Billy Williams) perfect pinch hit, squeeze bunt to beat Lamont Echols‘ Brandon Academy Rebels 7-6 in the bottom of the seventh in May, 1977 to tie for the conference championship and force a best-of-three playoff series. His drag bunt technique was picture perfect.

Stan Prewitt‘s solo home run in the top of the seventh inning to put us in position to win the Parklane series and send us to our first state championship series in 1979. He said he got the “barrel on the ball.” Indeed, and he did it when we needed it the most.

Stan’s line drive off Brandon pitcher Tim Schutz‘ head that ended up as a run scoring single to left field.

The 17-0 win over Parklane in the opening game of the 1979 South Mississippi AA series, when Steven Dickey stole third base standing up late in the game. I thought Coach Larry Kinslow was going to kill me. Dickey just did what he was trained to do. If they don’t hold you on, take it.

The heartbreaking 5-4 loss to Parklane in game 3 of the South Mississippi playoffs played at Natchez in 1978. The Pioneer’s Mike Minton hit a pitch down and out of the strike zone for a game winning solo home run off Ricky Chisolm. We should have won that one and then won our first state championship a week later. If we played again ten minutes after the loss, we would have won it… and Ricky would have pitched.

The time Ricky Chisolm walked three Brandon hitters in row with two outs in the bottom of the seventh with a 2-0 lead so he could pitch to Mike Chambliss who was heckling him from the dugout. He struck him out on three pitches.

Rod Hudson‘s monster home run over the lights at Brandon Academy and another one at Brandon that tipped off the center fielder’s glove and over the fence for a home run.

Steven Dickey‘s physical maturity from his junior year to his senior year that transformed him into a dominate pitcher, a great hitter (24 doubles), and a slick-fielding shortstop called Smooth. He was 16-2 in 1981 and struck out 154 batters in 113 innings. The 40 win season would have never happened with out Dickey’s transformation. It must have been the Copenhagen.

The consistency of Rob Harrell as probably the best overall hitter in my time at Magnolia. He was a 3-hole, .400 plus hitter with great confidence, speed and power, with lots of doubles, triples, and home runs.

Winning 14 of 15 games, including 12 in a row against arch-rival Brandon Academy from 1978-1980, after the post-season whipping we took in the 1977 playoffs.

Raider pitchers Ricky Chisolm, Tim McMillian, Shannon Rast, and Steven Dickey pitching four consecutive and 5 out of 6 shutouts in the state championship series against Greenville Christian in 1979, Humphreys in 1980, and Kirk in 1981.

No one could have had a better senior season than Jeff McClaskey. Flap was the best leadoff hitter I ever coached (honorable mention to about a half a dozen other great ones). In 45 games he hit a team high .446, reached base 113 times for a .667 on-base percentage, scored 77 runs, hit 5 home runs, walked 30 times, stole 36 bases, and played an error-less center field. Note: He’s also the best coach I have ever coached.

The wild come-from-behind 18-17 win over Manhattan in the Brandon Tournament in 1977, after trailing 9-0 early in the game. Chuck Atkins singled home Rod Hudson with the winning run in the seventh inning. Rob Harrell drove in 6 runs, Richard Kelly hit a three-run homer, Hudson hit another bomb, and Ricky Chisolm went the distance, struggled early, but rose to the occasion and struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh. Think about that.

Tim McMillian‘s consistency as a two-way player for three seasons, pitching in the number 2 spot behind Chisolm in 1979, Rast in 1980, and Dickey in 1981. He always attacked the strike zone, had pinpoint control, changed speeds well, and won big games.

The three consecutive state championships from 1979-81. And all the players believe we should have won it in 1978, too. And if Lamont Echols didn’t recruit such a powerhouse in 1977, it might have been five in row. That’s baseball.

To be continued……