How St. Andrew's baseball's gameplan vs MSU commit Landon Harmon paid off in MHSAA 2A title game
PEARL — St. Andrew's Episcopal baseball has been carried by one slogan all year long: Dominate the day.
Trailing by three in the fifth inning and facing East Union's Landon Harmon, a Mississippi State commit and Class 2A Mr. Baseball, the Saints needed to make their motto happen to win the third and deciding game in the MHSAA state championship series.
St. Andrew's (32-7) rallied to win 9-4 over defending champion East Union (25-7) at Trustmark Park on Saturday. The championship is St. Andrew's first since 2018 and its sixth overall.
"I think we can say the Saints dominated this day," St. Andrew's coach Mark Fanning said. "It was a great day for St Andrew's baseball."
After facing Harmon in Game 1 and recording one hit with no runs, Fanning said his team just needed to break the ice after getting shut out in the first four innings Saturday.
Indeed, the Saints did.
Down 3-0, an RBI hit by sophomore Justin Word and two infield hits from Friend Walker and John William Walker with the bases loaded, the score was tied 3-3 at the end of the fifth inning.
MORE HS BASEBALL: Sumrall baseball's Landon Hawkins blanks Ripley, USM signee Ty Long in MHSAA Class 4A championship
"To fall behind only makes it sweeter because some teams go away," Fanning said. "This team had no quit in them."
With Harmon out of the game, St. Andrew's had a five-run sixth inning, including a two-RBI hit by Blake Bell. Even with a 9-3 lead, Fanning was on edge during the final three outs.
"We never were comfortable until that last out was recorded," he said. "We know it's a great ball team over there and have a history of winning, and we're thrilled to defeat them for the state championship today."
How St. Andrew's handled Mississippi State baseball commit Landon Harmon
Word said that the most significant thing St. Andrew's said around the dugout when facing Harmon was to gather as much confidence as possible. They had to block out the accolades or even his previous state final stat lines tied with Harmon's name.
MORE ST. ANDREW'S: How St. Andrew's Episcopal baseball has utilized underclassmen to reach MHSAA state title series
"He's a really talented player," said Bell, who won MVP with four RBIs in the series. "We knew that coming in. We had seen him and so we felt a little more comfortable in our approaches. Our coaches did a really good job of giving us a good plan and prepping us."
Fanning and Bell hinted that St. Andrew's had to try to raise Harmon's pitch count and tire him out. At 103 pitches, he was relieved after five innings, allowing four hits and one earned run and recording seven strikeouts.
"We made him work," Fanning said. "We made him throw 103 pitches today, we made him throw 104 earlier in the week, and the heat also helped us."
Michael Chavez covers high school sports, among others, for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at mchavez@gannett.com or reach out to him on X, formerly Twitter @MikeSChavez.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: MHSAA baseball playoffs: St. Andrew's tops East Union, wins Class 2A
