Ethel High School had a promising 2020 baseball season derailed by the pandemic. The Tigers were 13-1 when the season came to an abrupt end.
But four members of the team and head coach Chris Schuster won a huge tournament last week. A Mississippi team with a heavy Ethel presence won the Dixie Pre Major World Series at Guntersville, Alabama. They did it the hard way, coming through the losers bracket with five straight wins.
“I know everybody wants to win a state championship,” Schuster said. “Winning Dixie Youth is not a state championship, but it’s right below it.”
There was no state tournament this year due to the epidemic, but Schuster was asked to assemble a team to play in the series. “I was told that I could get any player I wanted. So I went out and got some good players.”
From Ethel, he chose Reeves Threadgill, Cyrus Rone, Hayden Graves and Alex Schuster, the coach’s son.
In addition to the four from his team, he selected two players from Sebastopol, two from Neshoba Central and one each from Pisgah, Mendenhall and East Rankin Academy. Although players were from several localities, the team was designated as Kosciusko.
After opening the tournament with a victory against South Carolina, Kosciusko was defeated by Florida, dropping into the losers bracket. Facing elimination each game, Kosciusko defeated North Carolina and Arkansas, won a rematch against Florida, then faced unbeaten Louisiana, needing to win twice.
Kosciusko led the first game 7-6 until Louisiana tied the score with a run in the bottom of the seventh (like high school, the tournament games are seven innings). In the top of the eighth, Austin Russell of Pisgah hit a two-run homer.
Louisiana scored once in the bottom of the inning and had the tying run at third when Threadgill got the final out on a fly to center for a 9-8 victory. It was Threadgill’s third win of the series.
The championship game was scoreless until Kosciusko scored a run in the fourth, added three in the fifth, then broke the game open with an 11-run sixth inning for a 15-0 victory. Russell hit a three-run homer and Logan McGuire of Mendenhall pitched five shutout innings.
Schuster said he wanted the championship for his players who saw their high school season end prematurely. “I felt they wasted a whole year and I felt this was a way for them to get a little bit back for the year.”
Most of the players were having strong high school seasons. Threadgill was 3-0 with an 0.69 ERA, Schuster was batting .579, Russell .500 with two home runs, McGuire .478, Cade Hall of Neshoba Central .478, Reid Hall of Neshoba Central .519 and Ethan Boleware of Sebastopol .440.
“It was a great experience,” Schuster said. “A great bunch of kids, great bunch of parents. We had a wonderful time.”
