A Championship Recap...

TUPELO – After notching two quick outs in the bottom of the sixth, Matt Rodgers stared from the mound towards the opposing batter. He needed just one more strike to ensure that the BancorpSouth Bombers would remain undefeated and push more distance between themselves and the remainder of teams in the standings.

At the plate, Tucker Watts represented the tying run in the 8-6 contest. Rodgers wound up and tossed strike three just past Watts’ swing, causing catcher Drew White to emerge from behind the plate to celebrate with his battery-mate.

It was just that kind of year for the Bombers, a team that finished with an unblemished 10-0 mark in 11-12-year-old recreational Dizzy Dean play in Tupelo. The squad outscored opponents 84-29 in the rain-shortened campaign, never trailing and only finding themselves tied once – in the contest alluded to earlier with Thornton Dental Services on June 10.

“We concentrated on the little things all year, and I don’t think we could have assembled a better roster to handle everything we threw at them as coaches,” manager Chris Rushing said. “I can’t begin to explain how proud I am of these young men. They will be able to walk away from this season with something I was never able to achieve at any level of baseball – a championship.”

The Bombers wrapped up their league crown with a 13-4 triumph over Frankie Blackmon Chevrolet on Monday, June 23, in a contest originally scheduled for May 27. Rainouts caused havoc throughout all age groups in the park and recreational system this summer, something Rushing points to when continuing to praise his team’s efforts and focus.

“We went a month and played only one game – a whole calendar month,” Rushing said. “It felt like I had to re-introduce myself to the guys three or four times this year. Every time we took that field, it was like the chemistry had never been disbanded. They remembered everything from our practices and continued to play together despite all the down time. This definitely gave us a mental edge, more so than our record that may have preceded us in games.”

A steady force for his teammates all season, ace pitcher Ty Wheeler amassed a 6-0 record, racking up 49 strikeouts while limiting the opposition with a 1.36 ERA in 18.1 innings. None of his six wins were bigger, however, than his no-hitter against the Braves on June 9, giving the Bombers first-place outright atop the standings. Rodgers, the team’s other option on the mound, held his own, going 4-0 with a save and averaging just over one strikeout per inning pitched (19 in 15.2 IP).

The coaching staff preached baserunning from the first day of practice in late March, and the Bombers showed practice makes perfect with a staggering total of 144 swipes on the season. Most often out of the leadoff spot in the order, 11-year-old Cameron Montgomery led the roster with 21 steals and 12 runs scored.

The team started its run to a championship with a 5-1 victory over the Braves in the season-opener, the first of two epic matchups between the park’s first- and second-place teams. Justin Turnage, the Bombers’ primary option in center field, delivered the big blow with a two-run double in the third inning to extend the Bombers’ lead to 4-1, sealing the victory.

For an encore, the Bombers cruised to wins over Carlock Toyota (13-6), Frankie Blackmon Chevrolet (8-1) and the Kiwanis Club (11-5). Following the first of two rainouts of the season, BXS wrapped up the non-standings portion of the schedule with an 11-2 victory over Whitaker Sales.

In the rain-plagued second half, the Bombers picked up where they left off with an 11-2 win over Kiwanis, setting the stage for the fast-paced ending of previously-mentioned contests with the Braves, Thornton and Frankie Blackmon Chevrolet.

“Our entire roster contributed this season, and it made everything that much more fun,” Rushing added. “It’s easy to get fired up to come out here and coach when you have the parents and players that we were blessed with this season. While we never displayed a ‘win-at-all costs’ mentality, these guys had a refusal to lose that you cannot teach or coach.”

The Bombers are as follows: Silas Betts, Luke Dixon, Hayes Hershfelt, Montgomery, Noel Morgan, Rodgers, Carter Trousdale, Turnage, Wheeler, White, Austin Yarber and Evan Yarber. Assisting Rushing were coaches Jerry Rodgers, Mark Dixon and David Wheeler.