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Wire-to-wire No. 1: Northwest Rankin caps dream season with 3-2 win over DeSoto Central to clinch MHSAA 6A State Championship

“We knew this group of seniors was going to be special,” Northwest Rankin coach K.K. Aldridge said.

PEARL — They’ll talk about it at Northwest Rankin in perpetuity, any time one or more Cougars gather to reminisce about the 2022 season.

They’ll put Nick Monistere up there with Cougar greats like Todd McInnis and Tyler Moore, and remember Sunday’s Championship win over DeSoto Central with the comfort of knowing this team didn’t finish runner-up, like the great NWR teams did in 2003, 2004 and 2021.

They’ll say “Remember those shots Nick hit? They would have been out of any other park in the state.” And they won’t be wrong.

But most of all, they’ll remember Ryan Herbison finishing off a gem of a Game 3 by striking out Ryan Musselwhite on a 2-2 pitch with the potential tying run at second base. They’ll remember the dog-pile, the high fives yes, and the tears.

That was the scene Sunday at Trustmark Park, where the Cougars put the finishing touches on a season in which they were ranked No. 1 from wire-to-wire with a 3-2 win over DeSoto Central.

“We knew this group of seniors was going to be special,” Northwest Rankin coach K.K. Aldridge said. “From the time they were eighth and ninth grade, just to see them go about their business day-to-day and constantly put forth effort, support each other, pull the young guys up… to see them reap the rewards of that effort is really special.”

The Cougars’ win gave them their first state championship since 2005 and second in school history. They won Game 1 by a score of 9-4 Friday night before losing Saturday’s Game 2, 11-3.

The hero in Sunday’s decisive game was senior Ryan Herbison. The right-handed reliever hadn’t started a game all season, but got the ball in Game 3 and pitched with the ease of chewing bubblegum.

Herbison tossed a complete game, going seven innings and giving up two runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and one walk.

“I had a deja vu moment stepping out there on the mound in that last inning,” Herbison said. “Because I’ve been dreaming of this my whole life. The bond this team has — we’ve been together through thin and thick, and it’s just a rare thing to have on a high school team.”

Herbison worked around some trouble in the first inning, then gave up a run in the second. Kristian Sprawling singled to right to bring home Clint Brown from third and gave DeSoto Central the 1-0 lead.

The Cougars (34-3) got that run right back in the bottom of the inning, when Christian Cameron singled, went to second on a fielder’s choice, went to third on a hit-by-pitch and came home on a wild pitch.

That tied the score at 1-1, where it remained until the bottom of the fifth, when Evan Rogers singled and came around to score on Nick Monistere’s RBI double that reached the warning track and burned the DeSoto Central left fielder.

Not to be outdone, DeSoto Central got the run right back in the top of the sixth, when Josh King brought Connor Keough home with an RBI groundout towards short.

“We were going to be hurt — win, lose or draw,” DeSoto Central coach Mark Monaghan said. “Because this group was so special and we weren’t going to play together again, but the guys competed and I’m super, super proud of them.”

With the score tied 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth, the Cougars loaded the bases with singles from Christian Cameron and Tucker Jones and a hit-by-pitch on Mason McCaleb. Herbison drilled a grounder to DeSoto third baseman Ryan Moore, who went for the routine play at first but watched as his throw pulled the first baseman off the bag.

That play gave Northwest Rankin the 3-2 lead, and after Tyler Pearson doubled with one out in the seventh, Herbison struck out Brock Tapper and Ryan Musselwhite back-to-back to clinch both the win and the series.

Monistere, the Southern Miss signee, earned series MVP honors. He was the winning pitcher in Game 1 and went 4-for-9 in the series with two doubles, a triple and four RBIs. All three of his extra-base hits would have been home runs in practically any other baseball park in the state.

“We got timely hits,” Monistere said. “They hit us in the mouth pretty good (in Game 2). Their guy on the mound was good again today, so we just had to string some hits together.”

Gavin Brassfield pitched admirably for DeSoto Central (21-12) in defeat. He went 5.2 innings and threw 106 pitches, allowing two earned runs on eight hits and one walk with seven strikeouts.

“We’ve thought all along that we had the best No. 3 starter in the state,” Monaghan said. “Gavin competed again today and pitched really well. We just didn't get the timely hits we needed and left too many guys on base."

(All photos by Austin Frayser)

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