Pascagoula Pride Part 2: Panthers looking for first 5A State Title since 2012

Of the 24 MHSAA teams located in the six coastal counties, two of them are playing for a high school baseball state title next week.

Last night, we featured the boys from Resurrection Catholic. Tonight News 25’s Jeff Haeger checks in with Pascagoula High School.

Head Coach Richie Tillman said, “I’ll be honest with you, my second year as head coach, we won the state championship. My third year, we were runners-up, got beat in the third game, and I thought this was going to be a regular occurrence and it’s not. And now that I’ve gotten older, it’s very, very special.”

Playoff mustache and all, Richie Tillman’s Panthers haven’t been to this point of the season in eight years. Almost like they spoke it into existence after all that time. “When we came into this year confident, breaking down the huddle, state champs on three.”

The potential was always there for the 21-16 Panthers who put up 27 first-inning runs against Wayne County in March.

They turned around and lost to the War Eagles two days later on their way to a third-place finish in region 8 class 5A behind second place Wayne County and first place East Central. Only a matter of time until the arms caught up with the bats. “This has been a process. This wasn’t like it just happened really quickly. We’re a young team. I’ll be honest with you; I think it was when our starting pitching started picking up and Brayden and Griffin just really became dogs on the mound.”

Pitcher Brayden Scott said, “Makes it a lot easier on me when I know my team has my back and takes a lot of pressure off knowing that they believe in me and I can believe in them to do their thing.”

The offense does its thing a lot, scoring double digit runs in 12 of 37 games. As the team-leader in hits, doubles, and triples, Mississippi State commit Keilon Parnell grabs a lot of the headlines.

He’s only one of 11 Panthers that have played in at least 20 games that are hitting over .300, including junior second baseman Houston Johnson. “We see Keilon as – people see Keilon as a Mississippi State commit, but we see him as a brother, as a kid just like us and we just play the game and we just love each other.”

That brotherly love was on full display last week against West Jones. After dropping game one, the Panthers were trailing 3-0 three innings into game two, only to storm back with 13 unanswered runs.

In game three, the cardiac kids were trailing again, 3-2 into the seventh. “At the beginning of the seventh we huddled up, told them I loved them and I told them that we’re having a lot of fun. But I said let’s go have some more fun.”

“I knew we were going to score. I didn’t know how we were going to do it, but I knew we were going to do it. So, when it was 5-3, I saw 5-3 on the scoreboard and I was like this is it. We’re going to State.”

Three runs and a scoreless bottom of the seventh later, they were 5A South State champions.

Not too shabby for a team that actually came into the playoffs with more losses than they had wins. “It just brings joy to you. It makes you want to cry, but they’re tears of happiness, joyness so it feels good.”

“It takes a little bit to process it, but once you get a little process, calm down, re-focus and realize we’ve still got work to do.”

Saltillo awaits on the other side of the 5A bracket, but until then, the Panthers are still remembering to enjoy the moment.

On Thursday night, they went to the Biloxi Shuckers game as a team, just a few hours south of another Minor League ball park where history is just two wins away. “It’s going to take all of our heart and hard work this week to prepare for it, and just go out there and do what we do.”

“We’re going to be remembered for a long, long time because it’s been a while since this has happened. (And what does it feel like to you to be a part of something like that?) Great.”

Both Brayden Scott and Houston Johnson say the turning point in the season came all the way back on March 13^th in the form of a 5-4 walk-off win at home over the D’Iberville Warriors.

Here’s a look at the full schedule for next week, starting Tuesday at 7 p.m. and it’s the same time Thursday for game two. Same time Saturday as well for game three if necessary.