Every day, Columbus High School baseball coach Mickey Allen repeats the mantra he’s developed for his team: 120. 120.
That’s 120 minutes of 100 percent, undiluted effort — a tangible goal for the Falcons during their after-school practices.
“Just give me two hours of your afternoon and bust your tail, and we can be successful,” Allen routinely tells his players.
That’s not always easy for every Falcon — “from a 15- to 17-year-old kid, two hours is about as much as you’re gonna get from them,” Allen noted — but so far, the message has come across. For a Columbus program that has struggled to stay competitive in recent seasons, Allen said, it’s a significant step as he enters his second year in charge.
“Hats off to them: They haven’t enjoyed the most successful careers as a team,” he said. “They’ve been through some down years. But they’ve always shown a willingness to want to put a stop to that.”
Allen knows Columbus isn’t anywhere near hoisting a state championship trophy this season — as of Friday, the Falcons are 0-2 with an 11-1 loss to Caledonia and a 12-1 defeat against Nettleton — but he’s got a goal for his team this year: just make the playoffs.
Columbus’ move down from MHSAA Class 6A competition to Class 5A play should help the Falcons in their pursuit of that aim. New Hope, Grenada and West Point are still quality opponents, but no longer does Columbus have to face teams like Oxford, Tupelo and South Panola in district play.
“We don’t look to be a pushover anymore like we have been in 6A,” Allen said.
The top three teams from each district qualify for the playoffs, so to earn a spot, Columbus will have to beat out one of the Chargers, Green Wave or Trojans — the last of whom won the 2019 Class 4A state title. Allen pointed out that all three teams have made the playoffs more recently than the Falcons, so it won’t be easy.
But Columbus is still glad to avoid the murderer’s row of its Class 6A schedule.
“With the last division we were in, there was some pretty stiff competition,” senior right-handed pitcher Jamad Horn said. “Bringing us down to 5A, I believe we’re more evenly matched with other teams.”
The Falcons seemed poised to show that last Friday, taking a 1-0 lead into its season opener at talented Class 4A program Caledonia. But the problems that undid the Falcons in the past plagued them again.
“Defensively, our M.O. — in a negative way — is that we allow too many big innings,” Allen said. “It’s always just one inning. We’ll have the lead on somebody, and we’ll be playing flawlessly until the fourth or fifth inning, and then one error will turn into four, and that turns into eight runs.”
That’s precisely what happened against the Confederates: an error at shortstop preceded an error at third base, and the floodgates soon opened to give Caledonia a commanding lead and a run-rule win.
“We’re an emotional team,” Allen said. “We feed off each other positively and negatively. When someone boots a ball, it tends to be a virus: We all start booting the ball. When somebody makes a big play, then we’re all laying out and making big plays.”
Despite the prevalence of errors, though, Columbus trusts its defense, including standout outfielders Jeremiah Lang, Timari Hinton and Jaqualan Weatherspoon. Allen has worked with Horn and his other pitchers on pitching to contact rather than allowing constant free passes, a recipe for defeat in high school baseball. He was pleased when the Falcons walked just two batters and only hit one against Caledonia
“That’s something we’ve been really stressing to the pitchers this year: cutting down our walks and the free bases we give people,” Allen said. “The pitching won’t get us beat. The pitching is what’s gonna keep us in the games this year.”
At the plate, senior center fielder Jaelan Craddieth and junior first baseman Andrew O’Neal lead the way for an up-and-down offense.
“Sometimes we’ll have a little bit of trouble catching on to a pitcher,” Horn said. They might have a good curveball or a good slider, but we are a pretty good hitting team.”
Craddieth, who had a go-ahead hit against Caledonia as the Falcons scored the game’s first run, plays a major leadership role for the team.
“The kids feed off him,” Allen said. “We kind of come and go as Jaelan goes.”
Last year, Craddieth and the Falcons finished 7-10 overall and 0-9 in their district, but this season, Allen expects more out of his team.
“I don’t care what seed it is,” he said. “We need to play postseason ball this year. That’s kind of our focus right now: doing everything we can to finish somewhere in the top three in our conference.”
To achieve that goal, it goes back to what Allen has been telling his team every single day: 120. 120.
“If you can just focus hard, just give me 120 minutes, and I can get everything we need to get done in that time frame,” Allen said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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