This past week, the NFL had provided something that I think not just sports fan, but people in general desperately needed – something to look forward too.
The NFL Draft provided that. It was entertaining to see how they would juggle the social distancing, and the draft itself didn’t create too much drama, but it was no doubt a needed entertainment.
As a Saints fan, at first, the draft was a head-scratcher. However, after reading into the Saints’ draft picks as well as their free agency signings, I’d say it was pretty successful. The Saints haven’t had a horrible draft mistake in recent years. The worst being maybe being the 2015 draft, but in all fairness, the Saints have never really done horribly in the draft during the Sean Payton era. With that said, I’m satisfied.
Anyways, in the Pine Belt this would have been a week to look forward to because the high school baseball and softball playoffs would be getting started. Right now, teams would have locked up their playoff seeds and be preparing for the first round.
I’ll be entirely honest I’m not sure, which Pine Belt softball teams would have made a deep run. My highest expectation was for Purvis after coming off their deepest playoff run in school history last season.
Petal and Oak Grove both looked to have spurts of success, and it would have been intriguing to see how they would have panned out.
Lastly, a sleeper for I think most people, would have been the Sacred Heart girls. This was the only softball team I was able to watch, but their bats had a lot of explosiveness. From the way things look, they could have came away with winning a much weaker 1A Region 8.
As most would have guessed, the Pine Belt baseball teams would have all been primed for deep runs.
Now I will say, I don’t think Forrest County AHS or North Forrest would have made the playoffs. Still, I do genuinely think both Gatlin Steelman and Sean Pounds had their respective programs heading in the right direction. Both coaches were in what was essentially both their full first year as head coaches with their programs.
PCS never got to play to its fullest potential. In almost every game they played, either the hitting was off, and pitching was on or vice versa. I think Jarrett Hoffpauir would have had things figured out come playoff time, and who knows, the Bobcats could have surprised people.
From the way things looked, Sacred Heart baseball was on its way to an easy district title, a top seed and a likely appearance in at least the South State title series. With Larry Watkins leading that program, I think it’s safe to say you can’t doubt the Crusaders’ program moving forward.
Lumberton was hot and cold. I think they would have found a way into the playoffs if they were able to have consistency in the batter’s box, and yes, they were capable of doing that.
In 4A, I think Purvis slowly surprised by itself. The biggest worry for them was depth in both the lineup and pitching staff, but both seemed to be coming together. I’d imagine even without longtime contributors Dakota Walters and Jesse Johnson that they will be a team to beat next season. As usual, I would have pegged Purvis and Sumrall to be duking it out for their district title and both teams getting into the playoffs again. Before the season ended, Sumrall had yet to hit its stride and had hitting issues. However, they are a team that always comes alive for the playoff time.
Another one I bummed to say I didn’t get to see was Pearl River Central and Hattiesburg go at it. From the way things looked, those two teams were two unstoppable forces heading for a collision in 5A South. I think if Hattiesburg would have beaten them, then the Tigers could have had a real chance to play for another state title.
Lastly, Oak Grove and Petal I think would have battled it out for their district title and would have likely met again in South State. I know if you asked both those teams that question that they would have had said the same thing. Based on what I saw in the regular season, I truly think that game would have been a coin flip.
I hate to say this, but I think this year will go down as the most talented baseball group in Pine Belt history that was never seen.
