Back in 2014, Brookhaven Academy retired the baseball jersey of alum Corey Dickerson during halftime of a high school basketball game.

On Thursday, with Dickerson back on campus as the first-year head coach at Jackson Academy, BA unveiled a permanent fixture on the left field fence of Williams-Gillis Ballpark that features the No. 3 worn by Dickerson during his high school days.

Dickerson was joined at home plate during the ceremony that preceded first pitch by family and friends, including his high school football coach Ray Ishee, his high school basketball coach Dale Watts, and his high school baseball coach Stephen Cooksey.

After the pleasantries were over, the 6A Jackson Academy Raiders moved to 7-2 on the season with a 9-1 win over the homestanding Cougars.

Dickerson hit 45 home runs during his high school days at Brookhaven Academy and then went on to play at Meridian Community College before being drafted by the Colorado Rockies.

It only took three years for Dickerson to reach the big show, as his long MLB career included over 1,000 career hits, an All-Star game start while playing in Tampa Bay and a Golden Glove as an outfielder for Pittsburg.

Dickerson got into coaching last year as an assistant at Madison-Ridgeland Academy, before being hired to lead the program at JA in the ultra-competitive world of MAIS 6A baseball.

JA picked up a pair of big transfers before the season sophomore infielder Deuce Jenkins and junior infielder-pitcher Justin Word.

Jenkins previously played at Northwest Rankin and helped them reach the MHSAA 7A semifinals last year as a rare freshman starter for that tradition-rich program.

On Thursday, Jenkins blasted a pitch in the third inning that cleared the wall that sits in deep center field of the ballpark to put the Raiders up 3-0. He is the son of Justin Jenkins, who played football at Pearl High, Mississippi State, and in the NFL.

Word, a transfer from defending MHSAA 2A champs St. Andrew’s, started on the mound and went four innings. He struck out seven, walked one, and gave up one earned run on two hits. Word’s mom Melissa is a state championship winning basketball coach and the athletic director at Canton High.

The only losses this season for Dickerson’s first squad have both come to perennial MAIS powerhouse Magnolia Heights School by 7-5 and 5-4 scores. The Raiders will hope to be in the mix of the 6A race against defending champ Jackson Prep (9-2) and Hartfield Academy (8-1) when division play begins at the end of this month.

Brookhaven Academy and second year head coach Randy Spring started senior Liam Magee on the mound. Magee went five innings and struck out three before being replaced by Will Newell.

Outfielder Walt Smith got the two hits put up by BA on the night. Paxton Leggett scored the lone run of the game for BA in the third on a wild pitch.

With runners on first and third and only one out in the third with JA leading 4-1 after Leggett scored, Word got a strikeout and a ground out to kill any possible Cougar rally.

Brookhaven Academy will play three games next week in a Spring Break Tournament hosted by Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit. The Cougars are scheduled to play Copiah Academy on Monday, March 10 at 9.m. On Tuesday, Spring and his crew are scheduled to face Amite School Center at 9 a.m. and Cathedral School at 2 p.m. in Summit.

District play will begin on March 18 for Brookhaven Academy (3-6) with a home date against Columbia Academy (7-2). The teams will then meet for a varsity doubleheader at Columbia on March 21.