Pillow Academy’s baseball program has fallen on hard times in recent years with three straight losing seasons.
Pillow is 20-58-2 over the past three seasons. It begins a new season of hope Thursday with a new coach — Jud Thigpen.
Thigpen was a standout college player at Delta State, earning ABCA National Player of the Year and first-team All-American honors on the 2004 national championship team. He hopes to use his baseball knowledge to improve the Mustangs.
“I am new; I don’t know what happened before me. Everyone is starting with a clean slate with me and hopefully new attitudes,” said Thigpen, who was previously a scout for the Colorado Rockies. “I am pushing an atmosphere of working hard, playing hard and having fun. There is no excuse for not getting dirty and nasty on the baseball field.
“We’re going to be a scrappy, energetic team that fights and claws to the bitter end.”
Prior to his scouting work, Thigpen served two seasons as the manager of the Brockton Rox, a member of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.
In his first coaching job at the high school level, Thigpen is happy to have a veteran high school coach at his side in Neil Turner.
“Coach Turner has been a great help because he’s been coaching at this level for a long time,” Thigpen said. “We’ve got some pretty good depth to work with. We’ve got 15 good guys fighting for nine positions, and we’ve got some pretty good pitching depth.”
The PA coach says he is depending heavily on four infielder/pitchers in seniors Justin Perkins and Jay Smith and sophomores Cole Whitfield and Jacob Garrard. He is also excited to have versatile junior Lawson Tharpe back out this season.
Tharpe will likely lead off at the plate and will pitch and play both the infield and outfield as needed.
Eighth-grader Lake Giachelli, sophomore Garrett Brown and juniors Gabe Reifers and Harris Fondren will also see action on the mound.
Of the 27 players on the Mustang roster, only five are seniors. The other seniors Thigpen is counting on are outfielder Trey Cobb and utility players Austin Taylor and Cody McBride.
Thursday when Pillow hosts Lee at 6 p.m., Fondren, McBride and Tharpe are expected to be the starters in the outfield.
When not on the mound, Perkins will hold down the hot corner at third base, with Whitfield at shortstop and Garrard at first base.
Sophomore Tristan Burden will get the start in the first game at second base because of his defense, Thigpen said. Smith will play there as well as third.
Thigpen says Reifers will get the starting nod at catcher after a tough battle with sophomore Ethan Reichle, but that he must find a way to get Reichle’s bat in his lineup.
The PA coach says a talented ninth-grade group, led by Eli Burton and Parker Bariola, might get a chance to help out.
