By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

CARRIERE — Pearl River Central will have a new head baseball coach to start a season for the first time in 18 years when the next school year begins soon.
And the veteran mentor that held that same post for most of the past 17 seasons has a new job as well.
Buddy Turnage comes from the Louisiana prep ranks to take the helm of the Blue Devils. Turnage spent the past three seasons just across the state line at Pearl River (La.) High School.
Last season, he guided the Rebels to one of their best seasons in program history as PRHS went 29-10 and made it to the Non-Select Division II overall semifinal round before falling to North Vermillion 6-1. Pearl River lost nine seniors off of that squad.
Pearl River knocked off No. 23 Morgan City, along with higher seeds in No. 7 West Feliciana and No. 2 Iota to get to the semifinals in Sulphur.

“The big thing that I try to bring to every program that I’m at is just the mental toughness side of it,” Turnage said, in a recent interview. “Baseball is a hard game. It’s a very difficult game to play, and the mental side of it is the big key. So, I definitely try to make sure my players are mentally tough.”

Turnage had been the baseball coach since 2021 at Pearl River and enjoyed a solid coaching career for many years serving at Loyola University in New Orleans in two different stints as pitching coach. Turnage has also served as the head coach at Chalmette and at Belle Chasse, earning Class 4A Coach of the Year honors with the Cardinals when he led them to the state semifinals in 2009.
Prior to going to Pearl River in 2021, Turnage served as the head baseball coach, assistant football coach and Athletics Director at Westminster Christian in Opelousas.
Turnage replaces Neil Walther, who after almost 17 extremely successful seasons leading PRC was unceremoniously relieved of his duties late in the regular season.
Assistant coach Jarred Rogers took over after Walther departed, and helped guide the Blue Devils to the Class 6A South State championship where they fell to eventual state champion George County in three games.
Walther recently landed at Oxford High School as the pitching coach for the Chargers under fourth-year head coach Cade Hoggard.

“After talking with Coach Hoggard, I really thought that we saw not only the game the same way, but the way to coach the game the same way,” Walther said. “I’m looking forward to getting started in Oxford. Plus it is the toughest district in the state, which will be fun. Four of the six have won a state title in the past 11 years and five of the six have played for a state title on multiple occasions.”
Walther was the most successful head coach in any sport, by far, at Pearl River Central High School. Since the 2008 season, he compiled an impressive 329-169 record while winning seven district titles, 15 straight playoff appearances, three trips to the South State finals and a state title.
Walther led the Blue Devils to the Class 5A state title in 2017, which still stands as the only state championship in a team sport in school history. The Blue Devils, ironically enough, knocked off Oxford in three games in the title series.
In fact, PRC had qualified for the playoffs just three times in the history of the school before Walther arrived in Carriere. He has over 500 total wins as a head coach in 26 years. He came to South Mississippi after serving as a head coach in two other stops one at Springs Valley High in French Lick, Ind., and also at Newburg High in Newburg, Missouri.