East Central has the Coast’s youngest lineup, but it’s as dangerous as it’s ever been
High school baseball teams that feature seven sophomores and one freshman in the lineup are generally done at this time of the season — no region titles, no playoffs and certainly no hope of a state championship.
With a trip to the Class 5A South State semifinals locked up on Saturday with a 2-1 series win over Long Beach, the East Central Hornets are upsetting that conventional knowledge.
East Central (17-8) overcame a 3-0 second-inning deficit, rolling to a 10-4 victory on Saturday to set up a third-round battle with West Jones in the Class 5A playoffs.
East Central coach Bo Long is confident that his team is capable of taking on a tough West Jones team that has a record of 23-6 after sweeping Hattiesburg, and he got that message across to his players before they took the field Saturday afternoon.
“Y’all were young a month and a half, two months ago. We’re not young anymore,” Long told his players. “The whole excuse of learning curve and all that, y’all are seasoned at this point.
“This is definitely the youngest team we’ve played with, but they’re a lot of fun to coach. They play hard.”
Freshman steps up for East Central
It was fitting that the youngest player in the East Central lineup, freshman designated hitter Nate Trochessett, had the biggest day at the plate on Saturday. He accounted for half of East Central’s six hits, going 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles, two runs scored and one RBI.
“I’m proud of him to have the day he had,” Long said. “He struggled a little yesterday. I told him after the game, ‘You’re a freshman hitting in the two-hole in a very good lineup, batting over .400. Remember that when you walk into the box. You can hit, you’re a really good hitter.’”
Trochessett has been a key piece of the lineup, hitting in front of three-hole hitter Hollis Porter, a junior first baseman, and cleanup man T.J. Dunsford, a sophomore second baseman/pitcher. The freshman entered the game with a .483 on-base percentage and 20 runs scored.
“He’s been huge for us this year, having him there,” Long said. “They pitch around our three and four, but all year long our eight, nine, one and two hitters hitters have done such a good job of staying on base, you can’t pitch around (Hollis and T.J.) much.”
Porter was pitched around on Saturday, walking four times, including a pair of intentional free passes.
Andrew Marble delivers on the mound for East Central
While East Central scrapped things together at the plate and took advantage of Long Beach’s mistakes, the Hornets got the performance they needed out of sophomore starting pitcher Andrew Marble.
Marble gave up two earned runs on five hits in six innings, striking out six and walking none to improve to 6-1 this season. After allowing a pair of earned runs on four hits in the second inning, he allowed no earned runs and one hit over the next four.
“In the second inning, I got in a little trouble,” the right-hander said. “My curveball was a little off, but I kept pounding the fastball.”
The East Central pitching rotation is coming into focus at the perfect time with the Hornets two rounds away from reaching the state title series.
“We pitched solid all year and we just got T.J. Dunsford back full into the rotation,” Long said. “He’s our No. 1, our best guy. He hadn’t pitched through the district schedule. We got him back in Game 2 and he threw a great game. We cut him off at five innings.
“Everybody on our staff fills the strike zone up. We don’t have a lot of guys that we’ve traditionally had like (Chicago White Sox farmhand Konnor Pilkington, Mississippi State standout Brad Cumbest and Southern Illinois pitcher Dawson Hall) that strike out 14 or 15. We’ve got to throw a lot of strikes and trust our defense to play well.”
The games only get tougher from here on out, but a green East Central lineup has shown that it may be too young to fully grasp the pressure of the moment.
Regardless of what happens at West Jones or the following week, the future of East Central baseball appears to be in good shape.
“The next couple of years are going to be good for us,” Trochessett said. “I love this group. We all grew up playing baseball together as all-stars. We’re really competitive.”
The date and time for Game 1 of the East Central-West Jones series is to be determined.
“We’re very familiar with West Jones. We’ve played them many times over the last 20 years,” Long said. “It’s a fun atmosphere. It’s always fun to go there and play. A lot of people dread it, but I enjoy it. I like the loudness and the crazy. Our guys respond well to that. They’ll be OK.”
The Long Beach season came to a close with a record of 14-14.
Other Coast Saturday scores
BASEBALL
Gulfport 2, Pearl 0 — Admirals take 1-0 lead
Harrison Central 12, D’Iberville 11 — Series tied 1-1
SOFTBALL
East Central 13, Long Beach 3 — ECHS clinches series 2-0
North Pike 3, Vancleave 1; North Pike 10, Vancleave 2 — North Pike takes series 2-1
This story was originally published May 8, 2021 at 6:36 PM.
