photo by

Trinity Episcopal baseball players celebrate during their sweep of Adams County Christian School Saturday. With the wins, the Saints clinched the District 3-AA MPSA title.

Trinity Episcopal Saints wrap up District 3-AA title

By Jeff Edwards (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Tuesday, April 15, 2008

NATCHEZ — The Trinity Saints might have moved up a classification this year, but they have done something they are very familiar with — win a district championship.

The Saints wrapped up the District 3-AA title on Saturday with a doubleheader sweep over cross-town rival ACCS and will be a top seed when the South State playoffs start.

Trinity is 17-4 overall and 9-1 in district play, and a main reason for that success is the play and leadership of the team’s five seniors; Parker Brumfield, Clint Easom, Matthew Freeman, Brian Sanderson and Matt Barnes, coach Matt Mason said.

“The first thing it takes is senior leadership,” Mason said. “We’ve got five seniors who have stepped up and led the team this year by coming out and working hard every day. It takes a team effort for us to win and we play well as a team.”

The Saints moved up from Class A to Class AA this season, but Mason said it wasn’t that big of a deal because Trinity was used to playing AA teams in non-district games thanks to aggressive scheduling.

“When we were in Class A, we scheduled a lot of AA schools,” Mason said. “So we had a good indication of what we were getting into. We felt we had a good chance to win the district title. We just had to work hard and play like we are capable of playing.”

Mason said he emphasizes pitching and defense, which has done very well for Trinity this season. But he gave credit to assistant coach Ron Rushing for helping improve the team’s hitting.

“It really helped that we got coach Rushing to come in and work with the hitting,” Mason said. “It has made a big difference. It’s also given me the chance to spend more time working on pitching and defense. We’re a complete team now.”

With the district championship sewn up, the Trinity seniors have completed a trifecta, wining the district title in football, boys basketball and baseball. They also have a chance to win the district championship in track.

“This has been a special group of senior players,” Mason said. “It really says a lot about them that they can win the district championship in four different sports.”

Trinity will play a district doubleheader at Prairie View today in a make up of games that were rained out last week and then will travel to play Central Private on Thursday in a non-district contest.