County rivals together at NEMCABB All-Star
Last Saturday was a big day for Webster County baseball in the Northeast Mississippi Coaches Association for Better Baseball AllStar game in Corinth.
Class 2A, Region 2 was represented well with Calhoun City and Bruce putting three players total on the West team, but the Webster County crew took over.
Eupora had pitcher Tanner Knight and outfielder Al Dumas on the squad, East Webster had catchers J.T. Slay and Dalton Perrigin and pitcher Walker Johnson to go along with coaches Wes Johnson and Jordan Smith in the dugout.
It all gave way to a 5-0 shutout win for the team with Knight being chosen the NEMCABB 2A Player of the Year and Walker Johnson being recognized as the Defensive MVP of the game after his performance.
“We pitched a three-hit shutout with Walker and Tanner doing the bulk of the work and won 5-0,” coach Johnson said. “Walker threw two innings, striking out four with one hit. Tanner gave up one hit and didn’t allow a run so it was a great game by those two guys.”
It was Knight’s second All-Star game in less than two weeks and he made the most of it yet again. Before he threw two shutout innings with three strikeouts on Saturday, Knight was the MVP of his team in the NEMCABB football All-Star game.
It was there where Knight threw two touchdowns and ran for another in what would ultimately be his final game on the gridiron. He just wanted to be able to leave everything on the field in both games knowing those would be his final times to play high school sports.
“I went into the football game not knowing if I would play or not, but I played pretty good,” Knight said. “It was pretty special to have that kind of experience. In the baseball game, I didn’t know I was starting until coach Johnson threw me the ball. He told me to go in there and get things rolling and I did.”
Knight got a chance to throw to East Webster catchers as Perrigin and
season without the reward of the postseason, the Bulldogs were talking on Monday about playing at
the Tallahassee Regional as a No. 2 seed. It’s a tough field with Florida State, Oklahoma and Samford, but as I wrote in Tuesday’s Starkville Daily News, it’s not wise to count out MSU.
The Bulldogs won’t Henderson won’t allow it.
It looks like MSU is close to hiring a permanent head coach and Henderson’s future at the school is not clear.
quit.
Whatever Henderson ends up doing, there is no doubt that the place he ends up is going to get an excellent coach.
Any program will benefit from his teaching and leadership.
Danny P. Smith is the sports editor and columnist for The Starkville Daily News. The opinions in this column are his and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SDN or its staff.