With the conclusion of last week’s state championship baseball season, the 2023-24 Marion County sports calendar has reached its end.
My first complete baseball and softball season with the C-P was one to remember, and there was never a dull moment throughout. Out of seven teams that participated this spring (Columbia Academy softball plays in the fall), six teams made the playoffs and four of those won at least two playoff series.
There were countless games or moments that stand out, but I’ll get to those later. The last two weeks have featured heavy West Marion coverage due to the Trojans’ run to the state championship, and this column will also go along those lines.
Before the season started, C-P Publisher Joshua Campbell and I went from school to school to work on our second-annual Baseball and Softball Preview. After interviewing the coaches, I pulled some aside to ascertain who were the standout players to keep an eye out for. With some of the teams, I knew who those players were as I joined the C-P at the tail end of last year’s baseball and softball season, but the West Marion Trojans were more of an unknown for me. Their season had already ended by the time I signed on last year, and there isn’t as much overlap between members of the baseball team and basketball and football teams as there are at other schools.
When I pulled Derrick Jerkins aside after interviewing him for our “Five Questions with Coach (insert name here)” segment in our West Marion coverage, I asked him what one or two guys I should look out for. His answer may have seemed diplomatic at first, but it was truthful. He told me that instead of just one or two guys, the Trojans were a team full of good ball players, whether they were pitchers or positional players.
While sophomore Kolby Stringer and junior Trace McDonald made up arguably the top 1-2 punch in all of Class 3A, the Trojans were much more than just a pair of arms. Infielder Nik Carney, who also served as Jerkins’ most-trusted reliever down the stretch, was perhaps the heart and soul of this team, often serving as a vocal leader for the Trojans whether the game was going well or poor.
Jonathon Miller, known affectionately as “Bulldog,” remained a constant for West Marion at shortstop and at the top of the order. He did some pitching too, and it was said in the dugout before Game 2 that Miller would be an option for the Trojans if they needed him out of the bullpen.
Jude Stringer started the season in a slump, but when the Trojans called upon him in Game 3 of the South State championship series against Southeast Lauderdale, he answered the bell. He delivered five shutout innings before allowing a run in the sixth inning, which was a massive outing as the Trojans had battled in two wars with the Tigers in Games 1 and 2 and needed to preserve arms.
Catcher Braxton Albritton came up big in many spots as a sophomore, and players such as Kemarieon Akins, Hagen Forbes, Jacob Buffalo and Andre Sumrall all made significant plays throughout the season.
I haven’t conducted a final tally, but I feel like I went to more Trojan games than any other team – and for good reason. I make it a point to try to attend an equal number of games for each school to provide fair coverage, but there’s usually one team that catches my eye the most. When a choice was available to be made based on which matchup was more enticing, matchups involving the Trojans often caught my eye. Whether it was a Wednesday afternoon matchup at Purvis or a district series against St. Stanislaus, the Trojans were battle-tested and played in some memorable games throughout the year.
As a result, friendships naturally began to form between some of the players and me. Before joining the C-P, I covered athletics at Southern Miss, where there are much more strict rules on interactions between athlete and journalist. A seen-but-not-heard approach is what was required, so, naturally, that’s what I carried with me to Columbia.
Sports like football and basketball have a lot going on throughout the game, but that’s not the case with baseball. There is plenty of time in between innings and during at-bats by the Trojans’ offense for banter, which happened more and more as the season went on. As I would position myself in the West Marion dugout to take pictures, I often found myself positioned next to the same three players – Forbes, Akins and Jayden Vince. If you were following along with the C-P Facebook page during the season, you may have noticed pictures of them kept being posted along with score updates. The first couple of instances were because they were close in proximity when I needed a shot in the dugout, but they then started calling themselves the “Picture Squad,” so the pictures continued.
They wanted me to dye my hair blond like the majority of the Trojans had, but that wasn’t happening. I did say that I would let them shave my head if they won it all, but that was not to be this year. I could definitely go for a haircut, though.
With the Trojans’ season wrapping up May 23, another action-packed Marion County sports season has come to an end. It was a heck of a ride following the Trojans – as well as the other talented Marion County teams, of course – and next year’s season will be something I’ll long look forward to during the upcoming dog days of summer.
