Caledonia center fielder Thomas Tucker was hitting his stride when his baseball world unraveled.
Tucker, teammate Westlee Honeycutt and the Confederates were in the midst of a road game at Gordo (Alabama) on March 12 when the team got word the Lowndes County School District had shut down athletics until further notice due to concerns about the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus.
“It shocked a lot of us,” said Tucker, a senior transfer from Starkville High School, who was hitting .512 on the season with seven doubles and a home run for the ‘Feds at the time of the stoppage.
Tucker, like his teammates, thought the shutdown would be temporary — a few days at worst.
But the course of pandemic quickly accelerated, causing Gov. Tate Reeves to close all Mississippi public schools through April 17 — putting sports on hold for more than a month and possibly longer.
Tucker, who had recruiting interest from Itawamba Community College and East Central Community College, was hoping a standout senior season could earn him a collegiate scholarship offer. But he has had to come to terms with the fact that the contest in Gordo might just be the last baseball game he ever plays.
“It could cost me my career,” Tucker said.
He’s one of several senior baseball and softball players in the Golden Triangle area trying to nab a spot on a college roster, and the cancellations the virus has caused have brought recruiting to a standstill. Talent showcases have been wiped off the schedule; college coaches have “stopped the looking” for players, Honeycutt said.
West Point senior Baker Watson summed it up well: “It’s hard to be recruited when you can’t play.”
Watson said he would have participated in whatever showcases to which he could earn an invite, but there’s nothing on the horizon and nothing on the Green Wave’s schedule for at least three more weeks.
“It’s difficult just thinking about not being able to finish the last season after working hard through the first four years,” he said.
New Hope catcher Stallone Shelton, who was at home when he found out through his church that his senior season was on hold, said he and his teammates had the same feeling.
“‘Man, I can’t believe it might be over,'” Shelton and his teammates said. “I pray to God every day that we resume the season.”
New Hope, the defending Class 4A champion, isn’t the only team with championship hopes at least temporarily deferred. The Columbus High School softball team was 4-1 before the March 12 stoppage.
“I was really looking forward to this season,” senior star C’Asia Grayer said. “I had so much hope. It’s just hard.”
Grayer, who also runs track, was supposed to be competing in a meet in New Orleans this coming weekend, but she’s stuck at home, where she can’t do much. Area gyms have been closed; Grayer and her teammates have tried practicing at local parks but have been asked to leave.
“There’s been so much going on that everybody’s been staying away from each other,” she said.
Grayer has scholarship offers from Holmes and Coahoma community colleges and has an invitation to play at the Mississippi University for Women, and she had to postpone her visit to Holmes due to the virus as she plays the waiting game at home.
“Without softball, I’ve been so bored,” she said. “That was my go-to thing.”
It’s even harder for players like Starkville Academy seniors for Kamden Upchurch and Justin Rook, neither of whom currently has a college offer. When the Volunteers play against the state’s top teams, college scouts will fill the stands and could take notice; without those opportunities, it’s difficult for Rook, Upchurch and the Vols’ other uncommitted seniors to earn looks.
“If we have a good game against those teams, then we’re gonna be on their radar, but without being able to play these games, it’s really, really hard to do,” Rook said.
He knows college coaches who express interest in players they haven’t seen are “taking a risk” — and he hopes it’s one they’re willing to take in the absence of competition.
“They don’t know exactly what they’d be getting, whereas if the season does continue, then they could actually come watch me play, come watch Kamden play, come watch all the other players on our team play who still want to play college ball,” Rook said.
While Upchurch expressed optimism about a possible return to play in late April or early May, he said being unable to play for the time being is “devastating” — none of the players was confident they would be able to salvage their senior years.
“I hope I get to play,” Tucker said. “That’s what I’ve been working for my whole life.”
For Tucker and his fellow area seniors, hope still springs eternal despite a spring that feels eternal without baseball and softball.
Grayer still wants to take her visit to Holmes. Honeycutt said he thinks Caledonia will take the field again and build on its 8-4 start. Rook wants ‘a chance to do something special,’ while Upchurch hopes for playoff revenge against rival Heritage Academy, which bounced the Vols in the 2019 postseason. Watson said he’d walk on to a college team “if worst comes to worst.” Shelton said he’d play at any school that would take him.
“That’s the strongest thing that you can have is hope,” Tucker said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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