Starkville Daily News

SHS wins summer league NEMCABB Region 3 event

By DANNY P. SMITH

Yellow Jackets leave the field. (Twitter photo, @Starkvillebb, for Starkville Daily News)

It’s good for high school baseball teams to get playing experience during the summer months.

Being in the running for a championship is like icing on the cake.

Starkville High School’s varsity team won a pair of games at New Hope on Thursday to claim the NEMCABB Region 3 Summer

Championship.

The Yellow Jackets defeated Amory 13-6 and the host school New Hope 115.

“Summer baseball is tough because it’s different than the regular season,” SHS head coach Luke Adkins said. “The playoff run that we made doesn’t seem too long ago. Just trying to get the guys back in it with the new team that we have is the biggest challenge.

The thing I like about the summer tournament is it does make it more competitive than a regular summer league game.”

The Jackets completed the regular high school season with a 19-15 record and finished in the third round of the playoffs. SHS defeated Hernando in two games, Lewisburg in two games and were beaten two out of three by eventual Class 6A State champion Madison Central.

Adkins said the point of emphasis this summer was to keep the momentum of the sharp late season showing going.

“We had a team meeting before the games (Thursday) and that was the main topic of discussion,” Adkins said. “We said let’s keep the ball rolling, don’t take any steps backwards and keep the program moving forward.”

Adkins said most of the players that will be returning next season were available on Thursday.

That means Ethan Pulliam and Brennon Wright were on the field for the Jackets.

Even though the veteran presence was evident, Adkins like what he saw from some of the younger players in the program.

“We got to see what the next man up is going to be,” Adkins said. “We had some young guys step up. We had

Cohen Deweese get his first varsity start, played well and had a two RBI single at one point. It’s nice to see some of the younger guys get an opportunity in the summer league also.”

The NEMCABB overall championship tournament begins on Monday in New Albany. The seeding, opponents and times will be announced after all of the region winners are determined.

FRONT PAGE

en-us

2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://starkvilledailynews.pressreader.com/article/281659667999184

Alberta Newspaper Group