In a season that could have been, the Mississippi Delta Community College Trojans overall record saw 13 wins, 30 losses and one tie. The final weekend of the season saw the Trojans fall to Meridian last Friday, 13-6 and 5-4. The Trojans conference record was 9-19, tied for 12th place with Copiah-Lincoln.
Head Coach Luke Stanley has been busy recruiting and getting his Trojans fine-tuned for the 2024 season. Looking back on the 2023 season, the Trojans were literally underwater, much like their record. With only two home games played this season at the Jimmy Bellipanni Baseball Complex due to standing water and poor field conditions, the team had to travel for its own home games. Under the direction of Dr. Steven Jones, vice president for Administrative and Student Services, the baseball field will undergo some work this summer to hopefully fix the problematic outfield.
“We had a lot of freshmen get action and got some good experience as far as arms,” Coach Stanley said. “Tate Anderson and Colby Lafayette got a lot of innings under their belt. We’ll be bringing in a lot of hitters as far as freshmen go. I think our class is going to be just fine.”
In looking at the league, Coach Stanley noted, “We played fairly well at the beginning then hit a cold spell and then played well toward the end. But we fell off in the middle on both sides of the ball. We have a strong league that has a lot of high-end teams and we competed with them. We just came out on the downside.”
With only two years to have a player, JUCO teams all face the same challenge and rotation of rosters.
“It will be tough replacing those sophomore hitters. They did a good job. We’re losing the heart of our lineup and that will be a challenge for the guys returning,” he said.
The Trojans are losing eight players, several have signed to play on the next level. His recruiting class is pretty much filled up but the Trojans are hosting a showcase at the end of May for local high school players to show their talent.
“They go through a pro-style showcase where they’ll demonstrate their defense, show how fast they can run and show off their hitting capabilities. If they pitch, we’ll put them on the mound. We try to put a lot of guys at one time through that.”
The showcase will include other JUCOs around the state. The event takes place Monday, May 29 at 1 p.m. Those interested should show up as there is no signup.
Post-season awards for the MACCC have not been decided. MDCC awards include:
• Brennan Duhe and Dylan Dendy – MDCC Hall of Fame
• JP Allen – HPER Award
• Wes Warnock – Most Outstanding Male Athlete.
The Region 23 Tournament begins this weekend. East Central captured the MACCC regular season title and have a bye in the tournament.
Region 23 Tournament Format will be MACCC teams 2 through 9 (2 vs. 9, 3 vs. 8, etc.) play best-of-three qualifying series May 4-6 at higher seeds:
• #2 Meridian hosting #9 East Mississippi
• #3 Pearl River hosting #8 Southwest Mississippi
• #4 Itawamba hosting #7 Hinds
• #5 Jones College hosting #6 Northeast.
The winners that survive the series will continue play at LSU-Eunice on May 15. The Louisiana team is ranked number one in the NJCAA DII standings with a 48-3 overall record. MACCC teams in the national rankings include #3 Pearl River, #5 Meridian, #11 East Central and #15 Itawamba.
To stay on top of all things Trojan athletics, check out www.MDCCTrojans.com.
