All season long, the West Marion Trojans seemed to be on a collision course with Magee for the right to represent the South in the Class 3A state title. However, Clarkdale had something to say about that last week, sweeping the Trojans and eliminating them from the playoffs.
Game 1, which was supposed to be hosted by West Marion May 13, had to be moved to Pearl River Community College after days of rain in Marion County. That took away West Marion’s supposed home-field advantage and allowed Clarkdale (25-4) to squeak by with a 1-0 victory over the Trojans (23-5). Then in Game 2 at Clarkdale, West Marion had a 4-1 lead going into the bottom of the fifth inning, but the Trojans defense fell apart and allowed Clarkdale to come back to win 6-4 and end the series.
West Marion’s senior class, which features Jayden Duncan, Josh Boone, Mason Parrett, Miles Maliden, Thomas Bozeman, Ka’Marius Husband, Cooper Foxworth and Jayden Bracey, had a historic run throughout its time as Trojans, reaching South State as eighth graders, the third round as freshmen, South State as sophomores and the third round again as seniors. Both Duncan and Boone started as eighth graders, while Parrett joined the starting lineup as a freshman.
“They’ve been big to our program, but hopefully our younger guys can expect to win and maybe we will some games in the future we’re not supposed to win because we expect to win,” head coach Derrick Jerkins said. “They’ve definitely been big for building our program.”
The biggest loss for the Trojans will be on the mound with their top three arms — Duncan, Maliden and Boone — all graduating. Jerkins said he expects Tre Broom, Jude Stringer, Kollin Green and Andrew Singley to be ready for the challenge though. He added Stringer has the potential to be West Marion’s next “big arm” and could potentially reach 90 mph on the mound.
In Game 1, Clarkdale got on the board in the second inning after a perfectly placed bunt for a base hit, a throwing error and a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0. The Trojans threatened to score in the fourth as Duncan doubled and Parrett hit a rocket to left that would’ve been gone at West Marion but died on the warning track. In the fifth, West Marion got runners on second and third base after Cole Crozier singled and Dalton Stringer doubled, but Jonathan Miller grounded out to end the scoring chance. The Trojans had yet another chance to score in the bottom of the sixth as Duncan drew a walk and pinch-runner Ka’Marius Husband took second on a ball in the dirt, but Parrett struck out to end the inning.
Duncan was great for the Trojans on the mound, allowing just one run in seven innings, while fanning four. But he was outdueled by Clarkdale sophomore and Southern Miss commit Cal Culpeper, who finished his shutout with seven strikeouts.
“He was really good. The scouting report on him was he couldn’t throw strikes. Well, that wasn’t the case against us. He filled it up,” Jerkins said. “His fastball was up to 92 miles per hour in the first inning, and he sat 86-89 against us. We just needed a few timely hits. Their center fielder played really well. There were a few balls he got to that if they got down, we would’ve had the opportunity to run the bases a little bit. We might have could have squeaked that out.”
Jerkins said he doesn’t think the game would’ve turned out any different if it had been played at West Marion. He believes the ball Parrett hit would’ve been a homer at The Swamp, but he also said Clarkdale’s leadoff hitter hit two balls that might have made it out at West Marion, too.
Jerkins said the tough thing about Game 2 was that all year the Trojans have been extremely solid defensively. However, they picked the worst time to make six errors.
“When we made an error, it felt like it was bouncing around everywhere for us. It was uncharacteristic for us the way we kicked it around. We had a 4-1 lead, started kicking it around a little bit and couldn’t stop the bleeding,” he said.
Jerkins added the umpire was giving Clarkdale’s Houston Wedgeworth six inches off the outside corner, and the Trojans never made the adjustment to it, instead watching several called third strikes.
