SHS off to undefeated start this season

Otto Hyche squares to bunt a baseball for Starkville High School last season. The Yellow Jackets will depend heavily on Hyche as a pitcher in 2023 and he had 13 strikeouts on Tuesday night in a 13-3 win over West Point in five innings. (Photo by Jeremy Miller, SDN file)

There many reasons why the Starkville Yellow Jackets have been able to remain undefeated through games to start the baseball season.

SHS head baseball coach Luke Adkins said much of the credit goes to the growth of the pitching staff under new pitching coach Peyton Cain.

Cain came to the Jackets after a playing career at East Central Community College and UT Martin.

“He's young, but he's going to be a good one,” Adkins said about Cain. “I can't brag on coach Cain enough because a lot of our guys have made pretty good jumps throughout the fall with their throwing program. Of course Otto (Hyche) and Kieran

Coleman did throw a bunch of significant innings for us last year so I expect those guys to have the brunt of our pitching load this year.”

Hyche had one of his best outings on Tuesday night as Starkville defeated rival West Point 13-3 in five innings. He worked all five frames and had 13 strikeouts.

Adkins was encouraged by the effort of Hyche and the prospects of him having a solid season on the mound.

“He looked really good and locked in,” Adkins said. “It was the first time we had let him go over 50 pitches for the season. I felt like his velocity stayed pretty steady the whole game.”

After the completion of the summer season, Adkins

some things from that can help his team in postseason.

“There's some great moments that we can take from that game, especially free throws, a couple of missed box outs and some silly slap-down and-ones, but you have to have perspective of the women's basketball landscape,” Purcell said. “For where we're projected to go in the NCAA Tournament, you've got to go to someone's home court. It was great for us to bottle and reflect on that for down the line.”

The Bulldogs certainly weren't thrilled with that final performance, but there's a bigger goal ahead.

ESPN'S bracketologist Charlie Creme has MSU firmly inside the NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed inside No. 1 Utah's Salt Lake City Regional. Much will change over the next few days of conference tournaments, but the Bulldogs dropping out of tournament look to be out of the equation. It hasn't made MSU any less motivated.

“I could feel the pulse in the locker room and we were disappointed because we're competitors,” Purcell said. “We live about defining odds and narratives and we're excited that we know where this ship is sailing. We're at a good spot, we're hungry to get back to practice and this team's story is that we bend, but we don't break.”

The Bulldogs are set to play the No. 13 seeded Texas A&M today around 1 p.m. on the SEC Network and it won't be as easy as the seeding and records might make it look. The two teams have already met twice with State winning by 16 on the road, but then just eight points at home and that second game was within one possession late.

The Aggies have gotten healthier and more competitive as the year has gone on and is coming off of a 77-70 win over Vanderbilt on Wednesday. The Bulldogs come into the game being led by senior center Jessika Carter who is averaging 14.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks a game and was selected second-team ALL-SEC by the coaches on Wednesday.

Jerkaila Jordan has been the biggest spark plug for MSU recently, though, with six double digit games in the last seven and three 20-point performances. She's averaging 11.9 points and five boards a contest this year.

The Bulldogs will need the depth of the team to really show this week as they are hoping for a long stay in Greenville.

“How many one-game tournaments can we win?” Purcell said. “That's how you have to look at this. There's not going to be much change for the top of women's basketball. All of us have a chance to compete for something (at the SEC Tournament). For us, it's for the underdogs to improve their stock, continue to make a name for themselves and be playing better basketball before the tournament.”