By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

HATTIESBURG — Yet another prep baseball season wrapped up this week.
The annual D.M. Howie Crossroads All-Star games took place here at Milton Wheeler field on the campus of William Carey University, an that trio of contests once again served as the finishing touches on the yearly happenings on the diamond.
The South picked up a big 7-3 win over the North Tuesday night to begin a three night streak of all-star baseball games to wrap up the prep baseball season.
Picayune head coach Evan Nichelson guided the South to the win in the 2024 D.M. Howie Class 5A/6A/7A Crossroads Diamond Club All-Star game.
“It was an awesome experience,” Nichelson said. “Theres so much talent on the field from both sides. It was nice to sit back, roll the ball out, and tell the guys to just get after it. The state is represented well with some great young men who can play ball.”
A total of 18 players in the SouthMiss6 Sports coverage area were selected to compete in the three different contests, including a dozen in the larger classifications contest Tuesday night.

The South also took a 5-1 win in the smallest classification game that followed on Wednesday night, for Class 1A/2A, with the middle classification contest for Class 3A/4A wrapping things up on Thursday night.
And a pair of players from recently crowned state championship teams were back on the baseball diamond Tuesday night.
Vancleave’s Hunter Parker and East Central’s Nate Trochesett represented Region 4-5A, while George County’s Gage Reeves and a pair of players from Picayune represented Region 4-6A in Tanner Busby and Kyler King.
Parker’s Bulldogs just won the Class 5A state championship at Trustmark Park in Pearl and Reeves’ Rebels did the same thing in Class 6A.
From Region 4-7A, seven players were selected as Chris Fox and Simon Kruppa from Ocean Springs got the call as did Nico Williams, Ethan Surowiec and Ethan Garner from Gulfport. Biloxi’s Logan Fontenelle was picked, as was Harrison Central’s Tri Gaughf.
Also, in addition to Nichelson his assistant was Garrett LaRosa the head coach at Long Beach.

In the Class 3A/4A game, which took place Thursday, Brady Wallis of St. Stanislaus, Cohen Weinhofer of St. Patrick and Emile Pace of Poplarville were all selected.
And in the smallest school contest, Resurrection is well-represented with a trio of players in Hayden Porter, Luke Schnoor and Trace Tingle picked. That game will take place on Wednesday.