Over the next few days The Daily Leader will wrap up area schools’ baseball seasons in a three-part series, starting first with the Loyd Star Hornets and the Bogue Chitto Bobcats.

Loyd Star

The Hornets had a strong season after their 2017 state championship, going 20-7 for the year, including a 10-2 mark within their district.

After dropping the first two games to Enterprise, the Hornets had to win seven consecutive league games to win the district title, and they did just that.

Loyd Star played four seed Pelahatchie in the first round of the playoffs, and soundly won the series, outscoring Pelahatchie 20-2 over the two-game series.

After knocking off Pelahatchie, they moved to the second round where they took on a game Taylorsville team.

The Tartars knocked off Loyd Star in a slugfest in game one of the series 12-7, and Taylorsville ended the Hornets’ season a day later, knocking off Loyd Star 4-3 in game two of the series.

The Hornets were a juggernaut at the plate, hitting over .320 for the season while boasting a team OPS of .908.

Cade Hodges led the team in hitting with a .513 batting average and a .894 slugging percentage, good for a 1.515 OPS.

James Beard hit .388 for the Hornets on the year, and slugged .752, good for a 1.261 OPS.

The Hornets were led on the mound by Dylan Case and Dane Smith, who both threw more than 40 innings for Loyd Star.

Case threw 45.2 innings on the season, striking out 41 and boasting a 1.99 ERA.

Smith threw 43 innings for Loyd Star and struck out 52 hitters on the year, while boasting a 1.95 ERA.

Bogue Chitto

The Bobcats had a strong season after moving up in classification for the first year, as they posted a 7-5 mark in the district, giving them the three-seed in the playoffs.

The Bobcats fell in the first game of the playoffs to two-seed Mize, before rebounding at home and pushing the Bulldogs to a third game.

Mize would win game three of the series at home and end the Bobcats’ season with a 12-12 mark.

Tucker Lambert and Connor Price were the leading hitters for the Bobcats throughout the season, as both posted batting averages over .400.

Lambert hit .455 for the season, while 571 slugging-percentage, good for a 1.586 OPS.

Price hit .439 on the year, with a .549 on-base percentage and a .606 slugging percentage, good for a 1.155 OPS.

The Bobcats had a two-headed monster on the mound in Trey Nettles and Tanner Gunther, both of whom posted ERAs of less than 3.5.

Nettles threw 40.1 innings for the Bobcats, and only surrendered 38 hits. He struck out 34 hitters and had a 2.95 ERA.

Gunther threw 36.2 innings for the Bobcats on the year with 31 strikeouts and a 3.25 ERA.