East Central baseball aiming to bring home back-to-back state titles

HURLEY, Miss. (WLOX) - The East Central Hornets baseball team are back-to-back South State champions, but they want to finish the year as back-to-back state champions.

The 5A State Title series gets started Wednesday as the Hornets take on Saltillo. The team’s path so far has led them through Florence, Picayune, and West Jones.

The Hornets’ schedule is almost the exact same as last year, so they’ll have a familiarity with Trustmark Park and their schedule for the week, but above all, they say they’re ready to soak in the moment once again.

”There’s no situation, there’s no environment they haven’t been a part of at this point,” said head coach Bo Long. “They look around, they appreciate the moment, they soak it in. At the end of the day, they’re out there to play baseball like they’ve done their whole life.”

”It’s very important that we know we have to get into and what we have to do to win another state championship,” said senior infielder Carson Ryder. “Not everybody gets to do it and it’s special to go up there and be able to do it twice.

“It’s not over, it’s not done, we still get to go play for a state championship,” said senior and 5A Mr. Baseball TJ Dunsford. “It’s going to be sad. I’m going to miss these boys and everything we’ve taught them. But I think we’ve brought them up pretty good and taught them how everything works and how EC plays baseball.”

The Hornets hit the diamond against Saltillo Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Trustmark Park in Pearl.

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