The road to game three of the state title series couldn’t have been more suspenseful if it were the script for a movie.
After earning a solid 6-1 win on the road in Game 1, the Mavericks fell short at home in Game two with a 6-5 loss despite a furious comeback effort.
The Mavericks had to travel back to Louisiana for the game that would decide it all.
The stands were packed for both sides. Trains occasionally passed by on the tracks behind the field, perhaps reminding some of the Yazoo City players of Sam Nicholas Field where they got their start in youth baseball.
And of course, there was the fact that senior pitcher Brodey Walker was returning to the mound for one last performance in his high school career.
Could he live up to his reputation as one of the top competitors in the country?
Walker left absolutely no doubt about that.
Walker racked up 13 strikeouts on the mound while pitching the complete seven innings. He only gave up one hit and one run to earn the win.
He was also deadly at the plate as he went 4-for-5 with four RBI to lead the Mavericks to victory.
Manchester wasted little time getting on the board.
Senior Mills Paul led off by reaching on an error, and then Walker sent him home with a hard shot to left centerfield for a double.
The Mavericks left a pair of runners on base in both the second and third innings. Walker struck out all three batters he faced in the bottom of the third.
Manchester began to build on the lead in the fourth inning.
With two outs Reed Roberts scored on a passed ball. Walker followed up with a shot to center field for a single. Dean Tyson then hit the ball, and a bad throw to first allowed courtesy runner Grant Nixon to score and Tyson ended up on third.
Brody Roberts then added an RBI single to make it 4-0.
Tallulah scored a run in the bottom of the fourth inning, but Walker struck out the next batter to end the inning before the Trojans could build any more momentum.
In the fifth inning Paul had an RBI single that scored Will Keaton Ketchum and Walker drove in two more runs with a single. Tyson had a sacrifice fly to build the lead to 9-1.
The Maverick bats caught fire with four straight singles (Cole Estes, Reed Roberts, Paul and Walker) in the sixth inning to increase the lead to 13-1.
Manchester finished the game with 14 hits. Brody Roberts was 3-for-4 with two RBI. Paul was 2-for-5 with three RBI and three runs scored. Reed Roberts had a hit and three runs scored. Ryan Johnson had a hit with two runs scored. Estes had a hit in his only appearance at the plate and scored a run.
Manchester finished the season with a 35-6 record. Coach Stacy Hester, who currently has the most wins by any active baseball coach in Mississippi, earned his sixth state championship. Hester is in his second year at Manchester and led the Mavericks to a runner-up finish in the state championship series last season.
