DO YOU REMEMBER?

[JETDAWG]

Do you remember some of the great talent that played for state from 89-93 guys like Cohen, Raffo, Shave? My favorite was a good buddy named Rex Buckner. We had some serious talent in that 4 year stretch. For me those were the glory years.

[Coach34]

Tracy Echols, Pete Young were also on the 89 team. Other than 85- that team was our best chance to win the CWS and they got upset in the Regional by NC

[patdyeisstilldrunk]

If I remember correctly, UNC had to beat us twice....and they did. Those were great days - Cohen, Raffo, Bobby Reed, Harden, Echols, Shave, Mitchell, Barry and Ron Winford, and Pete Young coming in from third base as our closer. Trading hats and t-shirts with players hanging out in the LFL was always a blast. I remember trading with players from FSU, BYU, Central Michigan, Nicholls State.

[starkvegasdawg]

Was going to mention Pete Young. His typical home run usually scraped paint off the right field foul pole as it went by. If you looked up dead pull hitter in the dictionary you would have seen his picture.

[BrunswickDawg]

Later in that run - BJ Wallace, Jay Powell, and Carlton Loewer - had some talent too.

[Coach34]

Was going to mention Pete Young. His typical home run usually scraped paint off the right field foul pole as it went by. If you looked up dead pull hitter in the dictionary you would have seen his picture.

He damn near killed me with a line drive up the middle once...calling him the "300 pound SS" in hindsight probably wasnt a good idea

[Commercecomet24]

If I remember correctly, UNC had to beat us twice....and they did. Those were great days - Cohen, Raffo, Bobby Reed, Harden, Echols, Shave, Mitchell, Barry and Ron Winford, and Pete Young coming in from third base as our closer. Trading hats and t-shirts with players hanging out in the LFL was always a blast. I remember trading with players from FSU, BYU, Central Michigan, Nicholls State.

Don't forget Jody Hurst, a friend of mine who i grew up playing ball with in Meridian. Was a great team! I was at the 89 regional and was extremely disappointed! Already made plans to go to Omaha. Man that one stung.

[Homedawg]

If I remember correctly, UNC had to beat us twice....and they did. Those were great days - Cohen, Raffo, Bobby Reed, Harden, Echols, Shave, Mitchell, Barry and Ron Winford, and Pete Young coming in from third base as our closer. Trading hats and t-shirts with players hanging out in the LFL was always a blast. I remember trading with players from FSU, BYU, Central Michigan, Nicholls State.

If you mean we were undefeated and beat us twice back to back no. They beat us, we came back through losers bracket, beat them and our lack of starting pitching depth gave in, and we lost in finaks

[Homedawg]

Was going to mention Pete Young. His typical home run usually scraped paint off the right field foul pole as it went by. If you looked up dead pull hitter in the dictionary you would have seen his picture.

You mean left field?

[patdyeisstilldrunk]

If you mean we were undefeated and beat us twice back to back no. They beat us, we came back through losers bracket, beat them and our lack of starting pitching depth gave in, and we lost in finaks

Yeah you right -- My memories from 8-9th grade are a little hazy. Two things I distinctly remember about that weekend: UNC had a big blond-mustached pitcher who was a beast on the mound, and the UNC head coach walking out past home plate and applauding the crowd at DNF for several minutes.

[TStationDawg]

Brad Hildreth. Paul Petrulis. Steve Hagan. Jim Robinson. Raffo. Winford. Matt Carpenter. Loved all those guys. I was sitting right behind home plate when they let Jay Powell take his first college AB. Struck out Kesko style! HACKS! Great time period! What made me a fan!

[starkvegasdawg]

You mean left field?

Could have sworn I remember Pete batting left handed.

[M.Fillmore]

We lost game 3 to NC 2-1 on a sac squeeze play. They threw off speed stuff that we couldn't hit. We came back through the losers bracket (including the "ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR" game, where the fans shouted numbers to count the moves of the opposing pitcher's herky jerky motion).

We then went to Sunday and both teams had one pitcher left, we had Bobby Reed and UNC had John Thoden.
The UNC coach held Thoden out of the first game and Bobby Reed was his usual masterful self (I think Reed was something like 18-1 all time at Dudy Noble). For the winner take all game, UNC threw Thoden and we couldn't do anything against him. We had no pitching left and Pete Young came in relief in the 2nd or 3rd inning. He pitched his guts out but the damage was done. Pete got lifted in the 8th. I think UNC won something like 6-1. It was a great move by the UNC coach to hold Thoden out until the last game.

I have never been sicker at Dudy Noble. We were number 1, a fabulous fastball hitting team and there wasn't a single good off speed pitcher among the other seven teams at Omaha. We would have torched the field. UNC went 0-2 in Omaha. The Dawgs Bite cover showed Pete Young with the scoreboard in the background and a big caption that said, "That's Baseball."

I about puked in my seat, it still bugs me.

A line drive off Gene Morgan's foot in 1985 and this off speed 2-1 loss is what kept us from two Nattys in the 1980s.

[djaymsu5]

Don't forget Jody Hurst, a friend of mine who i grew up playing ball with in Meridian. Was a great team! I was at the 89 regional and was extremely disappointed! Already made plans to go to Omaha. Man that one stung.


Jody was an assistant coach of mine at WL. Good guy and I heard he could fly back in the day. What years did Jeremy Jackson play?

[djaymsu5]

We lost game 3 to NC 2-1 on a sac squeeze play. They threw off speed stuff that we couldn't hit. We came back through the losers bracket (including the "ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR" game, where the fans shouted numbers to count the moves of the opposing pitcher's herky jerky motion).

We then went to Sunday and both teams had one pitcher left, we had Bobby Reed and UNC had John Thoden.
The UNC coach held Thoden out of the first game and Bobby Reed was his usual masterful self (I think Reed was something like 18-1 all time at Dudy Noble). For the winner take all game, UNC threw Thoden and we couldn't do anything against him. We had no pitching left and Pete Young came in relief in the 2nd or 3rd inning. He pitched his guts out but the damage was done. Pete got lifted in the 8th. I think UNC won something like 6-1. It was a great move by the UNC coach to hold Thoden out until the last game.

I have never been sicker at Dudy Noble. We were number 1, a fabulous fastball hitting team and there wasn't a single good off speed pitcher among the other seven teams at Omaha. We would have torched the field. UNC went 0-2 in Omaha. The Dawgs Bite cover showed Pete Young with the scoreboard in the background and a big caption that said, "That's Baseball."

I about puked in my seat, it still bugs me.

A line drive off Gene Morgan's foot in 1985 and this off speed 2-1 loss is what kept us from two Nattys in the 1980s.

Yea I firmly agree if that ball doesn't go off his foot in 85' we win it all that year atleast.

[AlSwearengen]

We had some serious talent at that time and probably should have won a NC at some point. Typical Polk teams couldn't hit a curve and damn sure couldn't bunt when it was needed and it cost us. The N. Carolina pitcher that shut us down was a curve thrower.

[JETDAWG]

Polk was not a fan of small ball either, station to station and wait on a dinger. I guess the game was different then "hot bats" no BB-Core. We always had some guys that could hit 10 or more jacks a year.

[JoseBrown]

Tracy Echols, Pete Young were also on the 89 team. Other than 85- that team was our best chance to win the CWS and they got upset in the Regional by NC

Do you remember that big game Tracy had at UK? Where he got like 6 or 7 hits, and knocked in double digits I think? I can't remember exactly, but it was unreal! Those were some fun years! And Tracy could smoke a ball!

[maroonmania]

'89 was IMO the most talented team we've ever had all the way through the lineup. We had the following

1B - Tommy Raffo
2B - Jon Shave/Burke Masters
SS - Brad Hildreth
3B - Pete Young
C - Barry Winford/Jim Robinson
CF - Jody Hurst
LF - John Cohen
RF - Tracy Echols
DH - Richie Grayum

Pitchers - Bobby Reed, Tracy Jobes, Chris George, Pete Young, Chuck Holly, Chuck Daniel

Team finished 54-14 (20-5 SEC Champs). The only thing that holds the legacy of that team down is not making Omaha which was a crying shame.

[Corn Bread]

Jody was an assistant coach of mine at WL. Good guy and I heard he could fly back in the day. What years did Jeremy Jackson play?

Played a round in a golf tournament with Jody and his partner. Jody could hit the ever living hell out of a golf ball, and made it look easy.

[Commercecomet24]

We lost game 3 to NC 2-1 on a sac squeeze play. They threw off speed stuff that we couldn't hit. We came back through the losers bracket (including the "ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR" game, where the fans shouted numbers to count the moves of the opposing pitcher's herky jerky motion).

We then went to Sunday and both teams had one pitcher left, we had Bobby Reed and UNC had John Thoden.
The UNC coach held Thoden out of the first game and Bobby Reed was his usual masterful self (I think Reed was something like 18-1 all time at Dudy Noble). For the winner take all game, UNC threw Thoden and we couldn't do anything against him. We had no pitching left and Pete Young came in relief in the 2nd or 3rd inning. He pitched his guts out but the damage was done. Pete got lifted in the 8th. I think UNC won something like 6-1. It was a great move by the UNC coach to hold Thoden out until the last game.

I have never been sicker at Dudy Noble. We were number 1, a fabulous fastball hitting team and there wasn't a single good off speed pitcher among the other seven teams at Omaha. We would have torched the field. UNC went 0-2 in Omaha. The Dawgs Bite cover showed Pete Young with the scoreboard in the background and a big caption that said, "That's Baseball."

I about puked in my seat, it still bugs me.

A line drive off Gene Morgan's foot in 1985 and this off speed 2-1 loss is what kept us from two Nattys in the 1980s.

I'm with you on that. Losing that regional is one memory I wish I could erase. Was a horrible feeling. I'll never forget that saturday game against UNC. Pitcher kept bouncing curveballs and changeups up there and we kept swinging at them, on the first pitch a bunch too! I kept wondering why we didn't adjust and start taking that offspeed crap and getting into fastball counts, but we never did! Bobby Reed pitched a gem in that game on Sunday, only gave up a couple hits. Outside of the '85 team and this year's team that may have been the most talented. Dang shame we didn't make it to Omaha that year!

[Commercecomet24]

I've got the complete set of MSU baseball cards that I bought at that '89 regional! Talk about some memories!

[Commercecomet24]

Jody was an assistant coach of mine at WL. Good guy and I heard he could fly back in the day. What years did Jeremy Jackson play?

Jody is a great dude and yes he had some serious wheels back in the day, great base stealer and could cover some ground in CF. Funny thing about Jody, when we were younger he wasn't one of the "stud" players, he really started developing about 15 or 16 and turned out better than the majority of those "studs" lol! I always use him as an example to my players about how you never know when you're gonna develop and when it's all gonna click. He had a great career a State and some good years in the minors, got as high as AAA.

[Bama_Dawg]

Geez, this brings back memories of watching the Dawgs play in the Superdome to open the year in the Winn Dixie Classic (or whatever sponsor it was that year). Me and my high school buddies would pick a State player and refer to one another as that player all year during our baseball season.

Now let's go win this Super and take this train to OMAHA. And as the name says: Ole Miss At Home Again!

[TStationDawg]

AND LEAST WE FORGET. The GREATEST change up in the history of MSU Baseball: Jon Hardin. Made folks look straight silly with that thing. Looked like it was 50 MPH or something, guys just couldn't hold up.

[Dawgcentral]

Tracy Echols, Pete Young were also on the 89 team. Other than 85- that team was our best chance to win the CWS and they got upset in the Regional by NC

Tracy should be here on this sight if he isn't already. Very devout Bulldog. Something many might not know: Tracy was born right handed. His dad, Lamont Echols, taught him to hit and throw as a lefty. Coach Echols was a great baseball coach, and not shabby at football either. Coach Echols died just a couple of years ago. Did much for HS baseball in central Mississippi. He built a baseball field at Manhattan Academy practically by himself. Loved Butterfinger Candy Bars!

[Bucky Dog]

Could have sworn I remember Pete batting left handed.

You are thinking about his partner in crime, Richie Grayum. Those two guys could drink some damn beer and start some shit. They were like brothers who would get drunk and get in an argument with each other and sometimes fight about it. Crazy guys and damn good dirt bag baseball players!

[Schultzy]

Could have sworn I remember Pete batting left handed.

That was Richie Grayum, he was in that lineup and could rake as well.