Hornet Baseball looks to bring first State Championship title to Poplarville High School
It was the year 1974 when the Poplarville Baseball team last played for a State Championship title, but came up just short. Now five decades later, the 2025-26 Hornet Baseball team is holding their final practice before they load up the buses for Pearl, Mississippi and aim to change history forever.
“It’s unreal,” said Junior second baseman Jake Johnson. “It’s surreal to play with everybody and be with everybody to go play for a State Championship. Not everybody gets that opportunity and we’re getting that opportunity right now and glory to God is all I can say about that.”
“It’s pretty cool,” said Junior right-handed pitcher Nathan Ray. “This is my first year here. I knew we could do it when I got here, but it’s always a cool feeling and kind of surreal honestly.”
“It’d be pretty cool to do this,” said Sophomore catcher Camden McCurdy. “It’s been at least 50 years and it’d be really good to bring it home.”
“It’s very exciting. It’s something we’ve talked about a lot as we’ve gone through these years and thinking if we just keep progressing, we could get a shot and we’ve put in the ground work and the players have progressed and worked really hard to come up in big situations and put us in this situation here,” said Hornet Head Baseball Coach Ashley Graeter. “We’ve gotten to this point and we’re really excited. We’ve been preaching that yes, it’s a big stage, a huge stage and a field everyone wants to play on for a State Championship, but day by day it’s just another game and let our emotions flow after it. We need to control our emotions during.”
What all has it taken to get to this big stage? Head Coach Ashley Graeter says it started way back when the school year began in August.
“I think it’s just the buy in from the players,” Graeter said. “When we start in the fall and doing morning workouts before school, it stinks, but facing those kids with adversity and giving them an opportunity to fight through tough scenarios and wake up and be tired at 6 A.M. in the morning to go through a workout then go to school and take care of their business and then practice the end of the day after third period. I think that whole package having them fight all the way through the fall and then also try to schedule a really tough non-district schedule. Failure is just delayed success if you use it in the right perspective and they’ve been able to grow through failure and how to overcome adversity.”
The Poplarville Hornets will compete for the Class 4A State Championship title starting on Tuesday at 10am, Wednesday at 7pm and Friday at 10am if a third game is needed. We’ll see you at Trustmark Park, Hornet Nation!
