STARKVILLE — The Starkville Academy baseball team’s seventh-inning rally fell short Thursday in an 8-4 loss to Columbia Academy in Game 2 of the second round Mississippi Association of Independent Schools (MAIS) Class AAA playoffs.
The loss ended the season for Volunteers at 10-10.
Trailing 8-0 in the bottom of the seventh, Codie Futral started the rally with a leadoff single to center field. Landen Rogers reached on an error that allowed Futral to advance to third base. When Futral slid into third, another error allowed him to score. Will Holley followed with his second double to score Rogers and make it 8-2. After a flyout, Howell Archer walked and Carter Roach singled to left field to score the pinch runner and make it 8-3.
Columbia Academy then brought in Luke McKenzie to close out the game. Taylor Arnold singled to load the bases. After a strikeout, Starkville Academy scored another run on a wild pitch. But Dillon Carrell lined out to shortstop to end the game.
Roach, one of the team’s senior leaders, said he knew his team would never give up, but it was a little too late for the Volunteers, who couldn’t get much going against starting pitcher Chance Forbes.
“We were out in front on everything, didn’t have our weight back, and weren’t having good approaches,” Roach said. “In the last inning, it took one hit and we figured it out. We just kept rolling from there. If we would have had that the whole game, who knows where we would be.”
Starkville Academy coach Brooks Roberts said the players are expected to bring a lot of energy and to have a never-give-up mentality.
“That is what I expect out of this group. Great game, bad game, OK game, they are going to fight their butts off,” Roberts said. “At the end of the day, we didn’t start the way we wanted. We had trouble locating the ball. Nason Heflin came in and gave us a chance to win. We had trouble getting the offense going, but we fought our butts off, and I couldn’t be more proud of our guys.”
Arnold started on the mound for Starkville Academy and allowed a leadoff single and then walked four-straight batters to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead. Heflin came in in relief to get a double-play ball and a flyout to end the inning.
Columbia Academy stretched its lead in the bottom of the third. Cam Havard and Charlie Thompson singled with two outs. Designated hitter Dylan Martin then crushed a three-run home run to right field to make it 5-0.
Heflin cruised after that, but he faced another jam in the sixth. After walking Logan Bullock, who advanced to second on a wild pitch, Slade Wilks singled to center field to make it 6-0. Wiley Cleland’s home run to left made it 8-0.
Archer set down the Cougars the rest of the way, but the Volunteers’ comeback wasn’t enough.
Futral said he hated that his team couldn’t complete the rally. He said he couldn’t pinpoint a favorite memory with his team and his senior class, but he will never forget the success the program achieved in his career.
“This is our third playoff run. There is nothing like the playoffs,” Futral said. “I’ve had a different coach every year, but coach Brooks (Roberts) is my favorite. I appreciate him sticking around all these years and coaching us and just being with us. We have grown close, and he made it all.”
Roberts hugged each crying senior after the team’s post-game huddle and tried to cheer his players up. He said every moment spent with this senior group is special and he could never pick one moment that stands out above the rest.
“It probably has nothing to do with baseball,” Roberts said. “This was just a fun group to coach. All the late nights on the bus. All the work they put in early on the weekend. The practices, they gave you their all every time as a group. Watching them grow for four years has been a blast. I wouldn’t want to coach another group. The guys that are coming back are going to go back to work.”
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