Madison Central baseball to play for state title

Madison Central baseball will play for a MHSAA 7A state championship this week for the first time since 2021.

The Jaguars will play rival Brandon on Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday, if necessary, with plenty at stake on the biggest stage. 

It has been a great season so far for Madison Central and the Jaguars seem to be playing their best baseball at the right time.

Madison Central currently sits at 25-7 on the season and clinched the Region 2-7A championship with a 6-2 record. The Jaguars carried that momentum from region play into the postseason, only losing one game so far throughout the entire state tournament.

The only postseason loss for the Jaguars was against DeSoto Central in the opening round, where they went on to take two out of three games in the series. Madison Central went on to sweep Oxford in the quarterfinals and then swept region opponent Tupelo in the semifinals, outscoring opponents 32-11 between the quarterfinals and semifinals. 

As for Madison Central’s opponent, Brandon, the Bulldogs currently sit at 23-12 on the season and took an 8-1 win in the earlier season matchup between the two teams on February 15th.

Brandon finished second in the Region 3-7A standings, but have also gotten hot during the right time during the state tournament. The Bulldogs also lost their only game of the postseason in the first round against St. Martin, but went on to win two of three in that series. Brandon then swept Ocean Springs and Oak Grove in the quarterfinals and semifinals, outscoring those two opponents 47-8 in four games. 

In what should be a very competitive series, games one and two will take place on Thursday and Friday night at 7 PM. Game three, if necessary, will be on Saturday, with the game time to be announced. All games will take place at Trustmark Park in Pearl.