All he needed was a pitch in his zone, a pitch to drive.
Starkville was down in Biloxi for the Battle at the Beach, yet to hit a home run as a team this season.
Up stepped sophomore Jonas Coleman to the plate in the Yellow Jackets’ final game of the tournament against North Pike on Wednesday.
“If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that Jonas would have hit our first home run, the odds would have been very, very low,” Starkville head coach Luke Adkins said.
Coleman was called up to varsity March 11, starting on the mound and earning the win. In his first at-bat against North Pike on the coast, launching a no-doubter over the fence off the first pitch he saw.
“Before the game, seeing him warm up, I realized he was throwing mid-70s or so, decent off-speed,” Coleman said. “It was going to be there for me first pitch. I was thinking on deck, ‘If it’s there, hit the crap out of it.’ Sure enough, he served it right down the plate for me.”
Coleman’s journey to varsity is not unlike others who have come through Starkville baseball over the years, a program that’s been one of the most consistent in 6A and North Mississippi.
Players have had to earn their spots on varsity, despite however many years previous they’ve spent in the program.
It’s a rite of passage to play at the top for the Jackets, and Coleman earned his spot after making great strides playing on junior varsity earlier this season.
“Just like every one of our other guys that make that transition from junior varsity to varsity, you earn your stripes through playing well in those JV games,” Adkins said. “Jonas has definitely done that. The coaching staff takes notice of who’s hot in those games, and Jonas got his opportunity. He earned it and he took advantage of it on the varsity level.”
Coleman’s start began rough against East Webster on Saturday, a game that turned into a run-scoring frenzy and nearly got out of control in the first inning for the right-hander.
He plunked two batters in the first inning, having issues locating his two-pitch mix for the Jackets. But he quickly calmed down, put some zeroes on the board and the offense got going.
He was taken out in the fifth inning, earning the win as the Jackets dismantled the Wolverines, 16-7.
“I thought I was going to be shaky, but it just felt right,” Coleman said. “After I hit those two batters, just took a timeout, took a little breather and then just put up a 0 for the rest. … I kept telling myself, ‘Jonas, this was your game. You did what you were called to do.’ It felt amazing.”
Following it up with a 2-for-3 performance at the plate with that first-pitch homer on Wednesday sealed a spot for him on varsity for the foreseeable future.
“I’m very proud of him,” Adkins said. “We could kind of see it coming, but you have to leave those guys alone. You don’t want to throw a young guy straight into a big-time varsity game and them not be prepared. … It came at a good time for us with division play coming up next week.”
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