Mississippi HS Team Preview: Sacred Heart Crusaders
January 6, 2025
The 2025 Mississippi high school baseball season is quickly approaching and, as usual, excitement is abound throughout the state. Players and coaches have been working in preparation for the upcoming season and, as is the case each year, there are some very talented players and teams across Mississippi.
Teams across the state have goals and aspirations to finish their seasons at Pearl’s Trustmark Park, in the State Tournament finals at the end of May, but there is plenty of work to be done before that becomes reality. We hope to familiarize our readers with many of the teams across the state as we preview individual teams across Mississippi. We will take you right up to first pitch this season with these team previews, eventually releasing our Preseason Power 25 rankings that’ll carry us into the opening week of action.
Please keep checking back throughout the season as we will be your one-stop shop for everything related to high school baseball across the state. Each week we will be releasing our Players of the Week and updating the Power 25 rankings.
Our 2025 preseason coverage continues today.
High School: Sacred Heart High School
Head Coach: Larry Watkins
MHSAA Classification: MHSAA 1A
District Number: District 8
2024 Record (Playoff Finish): 16-10 (Eliminated First Round)
ROSTER PREVIEW
+ No. Returning Positional Starters: 8
+ No. Returning Pitchers: 6
+ Key Returners:
- RHP/MIF Kyron Murphy (2025)
- RHP/3B Gabriel Pipkins (2025)
- OF Levi Green (2026)
- OF/RHP Brad Marrero (2025)
More Names to Know
2025s:
- LHP/OF Jackson Gamber (2025)
- MIF/RHP Foxx Reid (2025)
- OF Gary Duckworth (2025)
- C/UTL Darren Brown (2025)
- RHP/C Aiden Gibbs (2025)
TOP NEWCOMERS
+ Impact Underclassmen:
- RHP/1B Jameson Phillips (2027)
- CINF/RHP Braylan Graham (2027)
- C/2B/RHP Colter Garner (2027)
- OF/RHP Angus Van Orsdol (2028)
- C/2B Kelly Crimmins (2028)
2025 OUTLOOK
+ Sacred Heart returns 8 positional starters and 6 arms from last year’s team that finished the season 16-10 following a 1st round loss in the State 1A playoffs. Hall of Fame Head Coach Larry Watkins believes the experience of 9 seniors will be a major component in the Crusaders quest for a trip to Trustmark Park.
Top returners for Sacred Heart include seniors Kyron Murphy (MI/RHP), Gabriel Pipkins (3B/OF/RHP), and Brad Marrero (OF/RHP) along with junior Levi Green (OF).
Murphy returns after leading the Crusaders with a .457 batting average while also compiling the most innings pitched with 55 2/3. He along with Pipkins (.362), Green (.339), and Marrero (injured last season, .325 as a sophomore) will make for a tough heart of the line up for opposing pitchers.
Coach Watkins will also expect major contributions from seniors Jackson Gamber (LHP/OF), Foxx Reid (MI/RHP), Gary Duckworth (OF), Darren Brown (UT), and Aiden Gibbs (RHP/C).
Underclassmen looking to make their mark will be sophomores Jameson Phillips (RHP/1B), Braylan Graham (RHP/CI), and Colter Garner (C/2B/RHP), along with freshmen Angus Van Orsdol (RHP/OF) and Kelly Crimmins (C/2B).
Sacred Heart will begin regular season play on February 13th versus Richton.
Find more information on Sacred Heart High School’s 2025 season below:
+ Find more 2025 team previews on our MHSAA Season Preview page
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