The Hattiesburg baseball team is set to represent the Pine Belt and Mississippi in the National High School Invitational – the premier high school baseball tournament in the country – in North Carolina.
Hattiesburg is the second team to ever compete in the tournament from Mississippi, too.
The Tigers hopped on a charter bus at 11 p.m. Monday to make it to Cary, North Carolina, by Noon on Tuesday. Hattiesburg coach Joe Hartfield joked the bus was a little quiet for most of the ride, but that was because they drove through the night.
“They’re excited,” Hartfield said. “They were super excited (Monday) night to get on the charter bus leaving at 11 o’clock at night. It was a unique experience.”
Hattiesburg’s first contest was Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. local time against Calvary Christian (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.), which is nationally ranked with a 12-1 overall record. Whether Hattiesburg wins or loses Wednesday, it’s guaranteed to play four games in four days at the NHSI.
The tournament is made up of 16 teams from across the country, and it’s put on by USA Baseball. To win the tournament championship, a team must go 4-0 throughout the week.
“They’re getting an opportunity to play some of the best teams in not only the Southeast, but from all over the nation pretty much,” Hartfield said. “It’s going to be exciting for those guys to see how they match up against some of these really good teams. It’ll be an eye-opening experience one way or another.”
Hattiesburg was announced to play in the NHSI in January during a selection show on USA Baseball’s website. Other than Hattiesburg and Calvary Christian, teams include: Orange Lutheran (California), Florence (Alabama), George Jenkins (Florida), Mount Carmel (Illinois), American Heritage (Florida), Santiago (California), Hanover (Virginia), John Curtis (Louisiana), Sandra Day O’Connor (Arizona), Mater Dei (California), Walton (Georgia), Mountain Ridge (Arizona), Trinity Prep (Florida) and the host team, Green Hope.
American Heritage is the defending champion.
During the selection show, Hattiesburg outfielder Joe Gray was listed as one of the top prospects to watch in the tournament. The Ole Miss signee continues to rank high in most mock drafts leading up the 2018 MLB Draft in June.
“I’m very excited,” Gray said on the selection show in January. “A lot of teams don’t get the opportunity to go to that tournament. For us to be picked to go, thank you for acknowledging us as a good team and having good prospects and good players overall to be good enough to play in the tournament.”
Through 14 games, Gray is leading the Tigers with a .488 batting average, 21 runs scored and five home runs. He second behind senior Dexter Jordan with 21 RBI. Jordan is hitting .463 from the plate with 23 RBI. Senior Kam Wells, sophomore KaDairus Hicks, senior A.J. Stinson and sophomore Caleb Tart are also all hitting above .300 to help Hattiesburg start the season 11-3.
Since Hattiesburg left for the tournament, former players of Hartfield have made comments about road trips with the coach, and most were funny stories, of course.
When asked about interesting road trips, Hartfield laughed immediately.
“I’m a little older than I used to be,” he said. “That might have been my players when I was a lot younger. We’ve always tried to have a good time. The tough part about doing a trip like this is everything leading up, but once you get on the bus and you head in that direction, I try to flip the mindset of ‘Now it’s time to have fun.’
“Not only do I want the kids to have fun, I want to have fun. I want them to see that I’m going to have fun while we’re doing what we’re doing on this trip, which is play baseball, visit a new place, eat together, sleep together and go as a team.”
As of Tuesday morning, Hartfield didn’t necessarily have anything planned off the field, but plans will be made once each day’s matchup is set. Besides Wednesday’s tournament-opening game at 12:30 p.m., the Tigers won’t know the next day’s game time until the conclusion of that day’s game.
Follow the Tigers on USA Baseball’s website or (at)PineBeltSPORTS on Twitter.
