NEW HOPE — When the New Hope High School baseball team won the MHSAA Class 4A championship over Sumrall in May, the victory tightened the bonds of friendship among the Trojans.
“It just put us closer together,” senior shortstop Presley Hall said.
So in December, less than two weeks after Hall committed to play baseball at Southwest Mississippi Community College, he turned to two of his closest friends.
Hall has played baseball with and against senior teammates Cole Ruffin and Drew Brown since the three of them were 4 years old and playing T-ball at Propst Park. Ruffin had committed to play at the Mississippi University for Women two days before Hall announced his decision; Brown chose East Mississippi Community College not long afterward.
In a group text conversation, the three players sorted it out: They’d sign their national letters of intent together when New Hope came back from its winter break.
“I’ve been with them my whole life, so I want to go out with them,” Hall said.
That time came Friday morning, when the three players donned the hats of their respective schools and put their names to paper, seated side by side.
Each player wore his state championship ring, a decision the three made in advance of the signing ceremony. And for their senior season, all three would like another one to go with it.
“I think we’ve got another shot at it,” Ruffin said. “We’re just gonna keep working because nothing’s guaranteed, but we’re hoping for another good year.”
Hall, Ruffin and Brown are three of New Hope’s key pieces this season, coach Lee Boyd said.
Hall, who hit a three-run triple and a walk-off single in the first game of the state finals against Sumrall, will start at shortstop and will hit in the middle of the order. He hit .327 last season and got on base at a .532 clip.
Hall will also hopefully slot into the No. 2 or No. 3 slot in the starting rotation, according to Boyd.
“We’re really counting on Presley to get some innings for sure,” the coach said.
The hard-throwing right-hander, who has flashed a solid breaking pitch, hit it off with former Southwest assistant Corley Reynolds, a former standout at EMCC, when Reynolds came to recruit him. By Dec. 3, Hall was sold: He wanted to make the three-and-a-half-hour voyage to Summit.
Ruffin, however, elected to stick around town. Enticed by The W’s standout nursing program and a program “on the rise,” he committed Dec. 1 to join the Owls.
Ruffin enjoyed the campus and the coaches when he took a visit a couple months back, and with the ability to stay home and have his family and friends watch him play, he was sold.
“The W worked out great for Cole,” Boyd said.
Boyd plans to start Ruffin in left field this season, though the speedster can play all over the diamond. Ruffin played catcher, designated hitter and all three outfield positions last season — and he saw some time on the mound, too.
Ruffin, who scored 25 runs and had an on-base percentage of .429 during his junior season, will either hit at the top of the order or near the bottom this year, Boyd said. He was named to the roster for the State Games of Mississippi the past two summers, hitting .420 and helping the District IV team to a second-place finish in 2019.
Brown, the final third of the close-knit trio, committed to EMCC on Dec. 4, and he will be a third-generation Lion when he heads down to Scooba. His father, Andy Brown, pitched for EMCC from 1995 to 1997, and Andy’s father was a kicker for the Lions his freshman season.
Brown, of course, has other reasons to go to Scooba. He’ll be reunited with former New Hope star Rye McGlothin, who hit 17 home runs in two seasons with the Trojans.
“I played with him last year, and being able to play with him again is something special,” Brown said.
While Brown will team up with McGlothin in Scooba next season, the Trojans are currently down a big power threat and a go-to reliever.
“One of the hardest workers that we’ve had in a long time,” Boyd said of McGlothin. “… He’s just a kid that was an unbelievable player.”
But Brown, who hit .355 as New Hope’s starting second baseman last season, is “unbelievable defensively,” Boyd said — and Brown has confidence he can help get New Hope on top again.
“We’ve got a lot of people coming back,” Brown said. “We’re gonna have to work hard, and it’s gonna be a grind, but if we play well, I think there’s always that chance.”
When the three players signed Wednesday, the audience in the New Hope multipurpose room was proof enough of the chemistry the Trojans possess: The first several rows of seats teemed with friends and teammates.
“Our guys are close. They hang out all the time, they’re buddies, and you saw all the students in here, too — a lot of our players,” Boyd said. “It’s always neat when you get two or three of them to sign at the same time, too, which is pretty cool.”
For Hall, Ruffin, and Brown, it was more than cool — it was destiny.
“I always dreamed of this moment, and I was glad I could share it with them,” Ruffin said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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