High hopes greet No. 3 Oxford

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HIGH EXPECTATIONS ARE THE NORM EVERY PRESEASON AT TOP-TIER national high school programs like the one head coach Chris Baughman oversees at Oxford High School. Often times, when a program consistently produces state championship results year-in and year-out, those expectations can become unrealistic.

But shed no tears for this year’s Oxford Chargers. If the expectations seem cruelly high before the regular season even begins against Olive Branch on the road at New Albany on Feb. 26, the Chargers have only themselves and the unmatched success they enjoyed last season to blame.

2015 was a very good year for Baughman’s program. OHS won its first 32 games, lost a 1-0 decision to New Hope in the second game of a best-of-3 series in the finals of the MHSAA Class 5A North Playoffs, and then rallied to beat South champion George County in two games to win the MHSAA 5A State Championship. The Chargers finished 35-1 overall while claiming the school’s first state title since it captured a 4A crown in 2005.

Based on the results of the 2015 campaign – and the fact it returns seven of its top position players and four of its top arms – Oxford High opens the season in the No. 3 position in the 2016 Perfect Game High School Preseason National Top 50 Rankings.

“It’s our hope to build off of what we did last year with the understanding that we’re our own team and not last year’s team. We do have to create our own identity with this year’s team,” Baughman said during a recent telephone conversation with PG. “But we do have most of our guys coming back … and that will hopefully give us a chance to make another run this year.”

Those returnees include a core group of four seniors, three of whom have signed with their hometown University of Mississippi: shortstop/right-hander Grae Kessinger (the grandson of former Chicago Cubs shortstop Don Kessinger and ranked No. 78 nationally in the class of 2016), outfielder/right-hander Houston Roth (top-500) and infielder/right-hander Jason Barber (top-500). Uncommitted senior outfielder/left-hander Sage Mullins also returns.

Kessinger hit .354 with 13 doubles, two triples and a home run with team-highs of 36 RBI, 45 runs scored and 19 stolen bases as a junior; he was 3-0 with a 1.58 ERA with 24 strikeouts in 17 2/3 innings pitched. Barber and Roth were also important two-way guys, especially from the mound.

Barber was 12-0 with a 0.00 ERA and eight complete-game shutouts in 11 starts, and struck-out 110 and walked only 14 in 78 innings of work; he slashed .337/.528/.697 with seven doubles and a team-high eight home runs, driving in 35 runs and scoring 20. Roth, a 6-4, 210-pounder, was 9-1 with a 1.26 ERA and seven complete games in 10 starts, and struck-out 95 and walked 17 in 61 innings; he hit .297 with 10 doubles, 23 RBI and 18 runs.

“They know what it takes to be successful and they’re obviously going to be really good players at the next level; we’re just really excited to have them all back for one more year,” Baughman said of his returning seniors. “They’re a really talented group of baseball players and a really good group of guys.”

And there is yet another senior on this year’s roster that will only make the Chargers all the more formidable. Six-foot, 215-pound catcher Thomas Dillard has transferred in from Briarcrest Christian School in Eads, Tenn., and should move right into the middle of the Chargers’ lineup.

An Ole Miss recruit like Kessinger, Barber and Roth, Dillard is ranked the No. 56 overall prospect in the 2016 class, and although statistics from his junior season at Briarcrest Christian were not readily available, he’s excelled at PG tournaments and showcases.

He was named to the all-tournament team at five PG WWBA tournaments from 2013-15 while playing with the Dulins Dodgers, and was named to the Top Prospect List at the 2014 PG Junior National Showcase, 2014 PG Underclass All-American Games and the 2015 PG National Showcase.

There are also several top-notch underclassmen that are expected to be of considerable help to the Chargers this spring. Catcher/infielder Ben Bianco, infielder/right-hander Carson Stinnett and outfielder Preston Perkins are the top juniors returning while sophomore Drew Bianco is back after slashing .315/.490/.458 with seven extra-base hits, 12 RBI and 29 runs in 34 games as a freshman.

The Bianco boys are the sons of Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco, who maintains a bit of a presence around the OHS program but no more than any other parent. Mike Bianco attends the game as a parent and doesn’t begin to tell Baughman how the game should be coached. “He lets me do my job and he trusts me to do my job and I really appreciate that,” Baughman said.

The entire community of Oxford is greatly influenced by the presence of Ole Miss and Baughman said the kids at Oxford High School seem especially impacted by the university. The success of the Ole Miss baseball program has certainly helped the OHS program, Baughman noted, simply by increasing the interest in the game among the townspeople.

“We’re a football school but not in the way you might think about a lot of other football schools,” he said. “We really excel in all sports, and we take pride in that, and I think that’s something the university influences over our kids.”

This is Baughman’s 13th season with the OHS program – he spent seven seasons as an assistant coach before becoming the head coach – and he and his staff first taking note of this group of seniors when they were pounding on their age-group peers at middle-schoolers.

The team’s progression has been sure and steady, with advancement to the third-round of the MHSAA Class 5A State Playoffs in 2013 and a berth in the North Finals in 2014 before last year’s state championship season.

“I knew we had the opportunity to be really good by the time they matured,” Baughman said. “I never would have thought that we’d be able to do what we did last year but I knew this group was special. I think they’re very deserving of (the attention) they’re getting, but on the other hand we know nobody’s going to hand us anything this year just because most of them are back.”

One of the challenges this year’s team faces – and something Baughman alluded to early in his conversation with PG – is creating its own identity separate from last year’s championship team, even though many of the same players are in place.

But like every other team in the country just setting sail into a new season, there are roles to be identified and learned on this OHS team, and Baughman has been especially pleased with the way his “next-level” players have slid into their leadership duties unpretentiously.

“That’s huge, when everybody appreciates everybody else, from the bullpen catcher all the way up to the number three-hole guy, it creates something special,” he said. “That’s what we’ll try to do throughout the course of the first few weeks before we get into division play is just try to make sure everybody understands their role and appreciates everybody else’s role.”

It probably is unrealistic to expect another 32-game win streak over the first two months of the 2016 season, replicating the 2015 campaign; even another 35-1 won-lost record seems improbable. Another state championship? That, on the other hand, doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Maybe it’s just the way Baughman and his staff go about their business.

“We try to build good young men first,” he told PG. “We preach every day to them to make good decisions and hopefully everything else will take care of itself. We come and we work hard, we try to really battle in everything we do and we just hope to take care of (responsibilities) not just on the baseball field but in everyday life.”

Baughman hesitated for a moment before completing his thoughts: “Baseball teaches you so much about dealing with failure along with dealing with success and we really try to build our program around those core values,” he concluded. “We try to build young men first and making sure we keep the right priorities in line and then we worry about being good baseball players after that.”