St. Stanislaus celebrates third South State title with TBT crawfish boil

This afternoon, the Blind Tiger in Bay St. Louis hosting a crawfish boil for the St. Stanislaus baseball team in celebration of its first South State Championship since 2015.

Next week, the Rocks are going for their third state crown against Amory in the 3A state championship series.

After scheduling tough and starting the year just 3-6, Stanislaus now 21-12 and getting hot at the right time, having already swept McLaurin, Enterprise, Seminary, and Clarkdale, the same team that knocked them out last year.

In large part, SSC led by its five-member senior class comprised of Ole Miss signee Seth Farni, East Mississippi signees Hill Gainey and Hugh LeMasters, and Pearl River signee Kyle Stegall, and Hayes Henry as well as junior standout Chesley Rhodes, with a team high .468 batting average.

They all stare at the 2010 and ’15 banners in right field every day at practice and at games and say this moment has been a long time coming. St. Stanislaus Head Coach Brad Corley said, “It’s been an extremely fun ride. It’s a grind. I mean it’s eight wins. You’ve got to beat five teams twice, so we know how difficult that is and how special it is to be here.”

Gainey said, “Oh yeah, I mean we’ve talked about this since the preseason where we’re going to state, we’re winning state. We want to be known as that new 2015 team, but it’s going to be 2023 now, so it’s going to be exciting.”

Farni said, “It’s being on all of the same page. It’s staying present every single day in practice, not getting too high, not getting too low in who you are and understanding that, hey, whether you’re 0-4 or you’re 4-4, the next guy can pick you up and the next guy can do the job. We’re a family here, and this is our goal. This is our ultimate goal is to win a state championship.”

SSC and Amory get the ball rolling at 4 p.m. Tuesday from Trustmark Park in Pearl for game one of the 3A state championship series.