Whether it was up the hill at Columbia Academy, on the diamond at Pete Taylor Park or back home in Bunker Hill, Slade Wilks made his mark.
For the better part of a decade, Marion Countians have had the pleasure to see one of its greatest modern baseball stars play either at home or a short drive away at Southern Miss. We witnessed plenty of highlights, including game-winning plays, 96 combined home runs between his time as a Cougar and a Golden Eagle and a hitting streak that ranks him second in USM history.
In the bottom of the eighth inning Sunday in Knoxville, Tenn., Wilks, with the score 9-3 in favor of Tennessee, hit a leadoff single in what turned out to be his final collegiate at-bat. The game was mostly out of hand to this point with Southern Miss’ season hanging on by a thread, but there was no quit in “The Bunker Hill Bomber.” It increased his hitting streak to 36 games, and that streak will go on in perpetuity.
“I saw the score and I figured it was probably the last time in this uniform,” Wilks said after Sunday’s 12-3 loss. “I just really tried to soak it all in, and I got a pitch that I could hit.”
I didn’t have the pleasure of watching him develop into a monster at CA, but I did manage to get a first-hand look during his middle years in Hattiesburg. In my first baseball season with USM’s student newspaper, his name stood out – first because Slade is simply a cool name, we all thought, and secondly because his power and potential was evident.
He made a huge jump from Year 1 to Year 2 where he drove in 37 runs and smacked 10 homers. His leap from Year 2 to his junior campaign was even more impressive, as he launched 20 home runs with 58 RBI. Though he didn’t match his long ball total in 2024, Wilks finished with a strong .336 batting average – his first time surpassing .300 as a Golden Eagle – with 14 home runs and a nice 69 RBI. Simply put, he was money for Southern Miss.
There was a real chance that Wilks would have been drafted coming out of high school in 2020 when he was on pace to become Mississippi’s all-time home run king, but the pandemic can be credited for altering those plans. There was only a five-round draft that year, and Wilks’ name wasn’t called. But that isn’t a sore spot for him. As he’s told me and many others, Southern Miss was where he wanted to be, and he wouldn’t have changed a thing.
He was voted a captain ahead of this season, proving his worth as a leader of men. Not only was he respected by his peers, but he left an indelible mark on the Golden Eagle coaching staff as well.
“He is as good as anybody we have had, in my opinion,” first-year head coach Christian Ostrander said following the Knoxville Regional Sunday. “From the moment he stepped on campus to now, he has just done things right. He’s a fabulous human being. He will be successful in life.”
“It feels like a short four years,” Wilks said. “It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve been a part of a lot of great baseball teams that won a lot of games, but the friendships and the brothers that I made for life are what's going to stick with me.”
He was a leader. He was humble. He was a star. And for the Major League Baseball team that selects him in the upcoming MLB Draft, he’ll carry those same qualities, too.
