NEW HOPE — It’s still football season in New Hope, but the storied baseball program is already gearing up for the future.
The Class of 2025 has already started signing letters of intent to play college baseball, and last week the team celebrated as Dalton Stripling signed with Northeast Mississippi Community College and Conner Lewis signed with East Mississippi Community College.
The pair were the first of five seniors in the team signing to play college ball. Lewis will be joined by fellow Trojans Tripp Price and Mason Ellis at EMCC, and Austin Minichino is currently committed to Southeastern Louisiana.
The signing had the vibes of a celebration for the whole team, and speaking with the players it is evident how focused they are on the new campaign.
Lewis, who entered the pitching rotation as a sophomore, was happy to fulfill his dream of finding a chance to play in college. That’s the future, but for now, his focus is still on closing out his time as a Trojan the way so many teams that came before them have, by hoisting the state championship trophy.
“It’s just from an early age that you get to the program and you understand that it’s bigger here, it means something more,” Lewis said of the Trojan baseball culture. “As you get older and you have those older guys leading, you want to succeed as much as everyone else has. It gives us an extra edge.”
Stripling has played with most of his teammates before, but this is his first year as a Trojan after transferring from Heritage Academy. He already feels at home, but he also feels a responsibility to win one for the guys he’s known since Little League.
“I love the team here,” he said. “It’s a great atmosphere, that’s what I’ve always looked for playing baseball that gets overlooked. You’ve got to have people behind you who you want to play and win for, that’ll push you to get a state championship, and that’s what we’ve got this year.”
The 2024 team reached the Class 5A north half championship series but lost to district rival Lafayette. Head coach Lee Boyd spoke highly of his signees and the work ethic of the senior class as a whole as they aim to get back and finish the job this time.
“We’re so proud as a program,” he said, “We put their names up in our facility in the entryway for the stadium. We hope it’s motivation for other guys. But we want to keep this tradition going, where New Hope is a place that college coaches come knowing we’ve got talent here and a good program.”
Boyd has led the program to three state championships since taking over in 2009, the most recent coming in 2019. The 2024 team very nearly added another banner year to the outfield wall at Trojan Field. Injuries big and small proved to be another hurdle, but the team has come back ready to go again with the same aspirations in 2025.
“I would say we weren’t satisfied with last year,” Ellis said. “The job’s not done this year, and hopefully we can go all the way and win it. We’ve got a lot of guys coming back. There are some really good ball players on this team. If we play for each other like we’re able to I think we have a long way to go.”
“We talked about dealing with adversity and tough times,” Boyd added. “Last year we had big injuries but it was a lot of little knickknack stuff too. We fought through that, got to the final four, and I’m hoping that a taste of that gets those guys wanting to experience Trustmark and the chance to play for a state championship.”
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