Early in the season, the Pillow Academy baseball team traveled to Biloxi for the annual Battle at the Beach tournament, where they went 0-4 facing some of the top competition in the state.
But even as senior standout Lawes McCool and the Mustangs dropped their record to 4-10 with their winless weekend, head coach Jud Thigpen saw the signs of a squad that refused to quit.
“The thing that I remember most from that tournament is that they have time limits,” Thigpen recalled. “Lawes was pitching, and they said y’all have seven or eight minutes to go. Lawes was getting everybody up, saying, ‘Let’s go, let’s go, we can get one more inning.’ Lawes went out there, no warm-up pitches, and got the extra inning.”
Pillow couldn’t piece together a comeback in that extra inning, but they showed a resiliency that stuck with them as they peaked toward the second half of the season.
The Mustangs (15-17) won 11 of their final 18 games, losing just one conference series to a stacked Magnolia Heights team that cruised to the Class 4A title.
“I think this group really held themselves accountable,” said Thigpen, who claims his fourth Commonwealth Coach of the Year honor in seven seasons at Pillow. “They didn’t take any days for granted. Senioritus, whatever you want to call it — they didn’t have that. It just starts with leadership. The togetherness of this team is something I’ll never forget. We played some very good talent and got punched in the face a lot, but we always got back up. To the very end we fought.”
The Mustangs displayed heart in the playoffs, beating Winston Academy in the first round before battling Hartfield Academy during a second-round defeat. Especially down the stretch, McCool and the rest of Pillow’s seniors looked determined to extend their season after having their junior year wiped out abruptly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Sometimes when you get to your senior year, you get kind of tired of it,” McCool said. “But not having our junior made everything more eager and made me want to do it more.”
McCool finished the season hitting .313 with 18 RBIs, 26 runs and seven doubles to earn this year’s All-Commonwealth Player of the Year award. The versatile senior played eight different positions, including pitcher, where he struck out 32 batters in 30 innings on the mound.
“He was kind of the guy who, wherever we put him, we didn’t go down any,” Thigpen said.
- Contact Riley Overend at 581-7237 or roverend@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow @OverendOut on Twitter.
