Mississippi HS Team Preview: West Marion Trojans
January 28, 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: West Marion High School
Head Coach: Derrick Jerkins
MHSAA Classification: MHSAA 3A
District Number: District 8
2024 Record (Playoff Finish): 28-12 (State Runner-Up)
ROSTER PREVIEW
+ No. Returning Positional Starters: 5
+ No. Returning Pitchers: 2
+ Key Returners:
- RHP Trace McDonald (2025, Pearl River CC)
- RHP/SS Kolby Stringer (2026)
- C Braxton Albritton (2026)
TOP NEWCOMERS
+ Impact Underclassmen:
- MIF Caden Turnage (2027)
2025 OUTLOOK
+ West Marion returns 5 positional starters and 2 pitchers from last year’s team that finished 28-12 after a runner-up finish to the 3A State Champions, East Webster. Head Coach Derrick Jerkins will count heavily on those two arms as his Trojans look to make another deep playoff run.
Top returners for West Marion include senior Trace McDonald (RHP, Pearl River CC recruit) along with juniors Kolby Stringer (RHP/SS) and Braxton Albritton (C).
Stringer (9-0, 0.76 ERA, 140 K) and McDonald (7-2, 1.74 ERA, 83 K) create one of the more lethal pitching combinations in the state and will look to repeat their 2024 success. Albritton helped pace the lineup last year hitting .311 with a team leading 33 runs batted in.
Coach Jerkins will also expect production at the top of the order from sophomore Caden Turnage (MI).
West Marion will begin regular season play on February 11th versus Columbia.
Find more information on West Marion’s 2025 season below:
+ Find more 2025 team previews on our MHSAA Season Preview page
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