NATCHEZ — Through Adams County Christian School’s 0-5 start to the season, Brandon Ross has been the one constant.

ACCS baseball head coach Richy Spears said Ross is playing as good as any player in the state right now. The comments Spears’ receives from other coaches about his catcher’s defensive abilities are long-winded.

“He is a spark,” Spears said. “Behind the plate, he’s as good as anybody I’ve coached. There’s no question. Anytime he gets up there to bat, he’s got a chance to hit the ball out. He works hard and takes pride in it.”

While Ross’ senior season hasn’t transpired as planned so far, it hasn’t deterred him from working hard and getting better everyday. After all, Ross has long-term goals.

Ross, who played linebacker for the South All-Star team in December, wants to scratch playing catcher for a Mississippi All-Star team off of his list.

“That’s my goal. I made it for football and I’m going to try to repeat it for baseball,” Ross said. “And after that, I want to play baseball somewhere.”

Making a team is the end goal, but Ross has his eyes focused on the present, trying to find a way to lead his team to victories on the diamond.

“It’s tested my patience a good bit, but we’ve just got to work hard to overcome,” Ross said. “You can’t let it bother you too much, or it’ll mess up your game.”

Ross is the natural leader of a team that only has two seniors starting. He thinks back to his days as a sophomore when ACCS had seven seniors in the starting lineup, and he realizes that the lessons former players taught him years ago are the same ones he’s trying to preach to this young team.

“I’ve accepted the fact that I’ve got to pump them up,” Ross said. “We have a lot of kids that are inexperienced, and I’m here to try and motivate them to do their best. Don’t worry about the crowd. Do your job.”

Ross admitted the weather has impacted the team’s practice time, and as a result, ACCS’ fielding has led to multiple errors, which have produced losses.

“If we picked it up and eliminated the mistakes we would only have one loss,” Ross said.

Despite his team’s struggles, the word on Ross’ ability is out. Ross said that Copiah Lincoln Community College coaches came to watch him play in a 4-0 loss to Brookhaven Academy Tuesday night.

“The coach said he liked what he saw, so I have to keep working hard and make him like it a little more,” Ross said.

Working hard isn’t foreign to Ross, and as far as he’s concerned, he isn’t anywhere close to letting off the gas pedal.

“I need to elevate it further and further each game,” Ross said. “You can’t just believe that you’re already there. You’ve got to work and keep working.”