Charlie Smith has spent well over 30 years coaching high school baseball in the state of Mississippi and took on a new endeavor in 2019 when he began his tenure with Winston Academy.
After many years spent a couple of miles down the road at Louisville High School, Smith enjoyed the change of pace in the MAIS and building the foundation of his program with the Patriots. It included one of the best starts in school history when the Patriots began 11-2, but as the schedule got tougher, the young team dropped seven of the last eight games to finish the year.
With the MAIS rules being that only two teams can go to the playoffs from each district, the Patriots ended the year in the regular season. They watch now as Heritage Academy and Starkville Academy represent District 2-AAA this week showing just how difficult the division is.
“I just happen to be in the district in AAA that’s pretty darn good,” Smith said. “I thought (there were) four or five games that we should have won and a lot of that was pitching and defense. When you walk a lot of people, you give up errors, it just happens.”
It was most definitely a year of growth for both Smith and his team this season as they all got used to each other, as well as players beginning to get their first big reps in high school baseball. The Patriots had just three seniors and they counted on them heavily as Bryce Waggoner, Noah Dempsey and Brian Woodward led the way in building up the younger players.
There are six juniors on the roster, four freshmen and 11 eighth graders and many of them had to get their first starts this season. Pitching and defense was something that was especially challenging as experience lacked. The team finished the year with a 6.10 earned run average with Waggoner being the only senior who pitched more than five games this season and he finished with a 4.78 ERA and a team-high four wins.
“We didn’t have the arms to match up with other people. There are several teams with JUCO and D-1 commitments. We threw some guys that didn’t have a lot of experience,” Smith said. “We have some really good eighth and ninth grade arms that are coming, but we’re still two or three years away from being a contender if everybody stays healthy.”
When it came to hitting, there weren’t near as many struggles for the Patriots there, no matter the age and experience. Waggoner and Josh McGinnis hit .406 as regular starters with McGinnis driving in a team-high 24 runs and adding five doubles.
There were nine players on the team that played 12 or more games that hit over .300 on the year. Brian Woodward had a team-high six doubles, drove in 16 runs and batted .317 and eighth grader Hayze Gregory led the team with a .571 average in 12 games.
“One of the biggest improvements that I saw with us as a team is that we swung the bats well most of the time,” Smith said. “We’ve just got to learn how to compete on the mound and that will come with strength and age. There were bright moments, but we just weren’t consistent.”
Now the Patriots are looking to build on this 12-10 season after earning the most wins in five seasons. Smith likes what he has coming back and the future of the program.
“Jody McCorkle had some big swings for us in several ball games and played a really good right field. Aiden Fancher is going to be a 10th grader and ended up hitting .370 and pitched really well for us,” Smith said. “Brylee Wall had four saves and ended up throwing better for us in the league than he did before that. He and Aiden are two big arms we’re looking for in the future.
“Our big surprise was eighth grader J.T. McGinnis. He got thrown into some big moments and responded well. He’s a very even-keel kid and was dominating against his own age group. We are excited about the future.”
