The Ridgeland High School baseball team has been named 5A District 3 champions after mounting 12 straight wins, including six consecutive no-hitters as the regular season winds down.
RHS head baseball coach Eddie Easley, who is in his first season with the Titans, credits his pitching unit, led by pitching coach Tanner Moulder, for carrying the team on their shoulders and putting themselves in a position to win.
The Titans’ feat of six consecutive no-hitters is almost unheard of in baseball. However, Easley says he has several reliable arms who have been dependable, especially down the stretch.
“We have a saying around here that if our pitchers can hold the other team under five runs, we should win every game, and they’ve done that. We try to score more than five offensively, but we know that our pitching staff is going to hold the other team under five,” Easley said. “We are blessed with a lot of arms and that will definitely be beneficial for us in the playoffs with the pitching depth that we have.”
Easley believes another reason his team has found lightning in a bottle is due to the fact that they were battle-tested early in the season. RHS faced off against 6A opponents in Ocean Springs, Brandon, and Clinton before getting into divisional play.
Once Easley noticed his team competing with tougher foes, and even beating one of them, he had an easy message to sell his team regarding their future.
“If you can compete with a Brandon and Ocean Springs, and some of the other teams we’ve played, you just feel like you can beat anybody,” Easley said. “I told our guys, ‘You’re not going to play anybody tougher than who we’ve already played,’ and they just bought in. Once you get the buy-in from your guys, they go out there and play the game hard. They play the game the right way.”
The Titans are scheduled to play five regular season games before gearing up for the playoffs.
