By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

GULFPORT — Gulfport ruled the prep baseball world in the state of Mississippi 40 years ago.

That season, in 1985, the Admiral won their first and to-date only state baseball championship by sweeping Tupelo in the Class 5A state finals.

Gulfport captured the crown by taking a Saturday doubleheader over the Golden Wave at Frierson Field in Clinton on the campus of Mississippi College. The Admirals took a 3-1 win in game one and followed that up with an exciting 9-8 decision.

The Admirals finished 29-6 overall and were also handed the title of top team in the state overall regardless of classification by The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson.

“Words can’t express my feelings or the feelings of my players about winning Gulfport’s first-ever state title,” GHS head coach Leroy Hardy told the C-L back then. Hardy died some years back.

Hardy was in his fourth year at the helm of the Admirals, and Gulfport had a hard road to the title. The Admirals and Pascagoula, which was the top team in the state in 1984 according to The C-L, finished knotted up at 14-2 apiece in District 8-5A play because of a GHS win in the regular season finale and needed a one game showdown with a trip to the Class 5A South State Tournament on the line.

The Admirals slipped past the Panthers 3-2 in 10 innings to end the season for PHS and move on to the tourney in Hattiesburg.

There, GHS finished second to Clinton to qualify for the overall state tourney after Gulfport avoided elimination with a 6-5 victory over home-standing Hattiesburg.

Then, in Clinton, the Admirals beat Southaven 3-1 to open the overall Class 5A tourney before falling to Tupelo 2-1 in the semifinals.

However, Gulfport bounced back to win three straight elimination games to take its first state title, beating Southaven again on Friday night 13-11 to move on to Saturday’s championship round.

“We had to beat some class teams to win it all,” Hardy also said, in late May of 1985. “Every team we played was a class act. Pascagoula had a super team. I felt like the two games we played with them should have been for the state championship.”

Then PHS head coach Johnny Olsen felt the same way.

“Gulfport and us were a lot alike, strong pitching and very good offensively.” Olsen said, on Sunday. “We’re we’re also loaded on the mound with lefty Jeffrey Ellis and Terry Graves leading the way. Our three big seniors were Ellis. Keith Coleman and Mike Moreland. I felt then and still do today that that was one of the best teams we had at PHS. Great group of young men. We were tied with Gulfport at the end of the season and had to play a winner take all for the South State championship at a neutral site. One of the best games I can remember. We ended up losing 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh. Gulfport went on to win it all.”

Against Tupelo in that final doubleheader, the Admirals rallied from deficits in both games. In the opener, Derrick Dowling was the hero for GHS as he smacked a decisive two-run home run. A trio of Admiral hurlers in Ben Lee, Micahel Necaise and Tom Luke combined on a five-hitter allowing just one run in the process.

It was Dowling’s eighth homer of the season. His big blow was the only home run of the overall state tourney.

In the series finale, the teams swapped knock out punches like a pair of heavyweight boxers. The Admirals went up 2-0, but Tupelo rallied to take a 5-2 lead after three. Gulfport countered with a five-run fourth to go up 7-5 thanks to a two-run single by Pepper Pounds, but the Golden Wave responded with three more runs to make it 8-7 entering the fifth frame.

However, Hardy’s squad landed the last blow, as Lee tied the game up at 8-8 in the top of the fifth. On the same play, a throwing error by a THS outfielder allowed Treadwell Kennedy to score the eventual game-winning run for Gulfport.

Lee and Cook Lewis teamed up to give Gulfport one of the top one-two pitching punches in the state that season, accounting for 21 out the 28 GHS wins. Lee went 11-2 overall including 10-0 in the regular season play. Meanwhile Lewis finished 10-2.

Lewis, a senior, hurled a pair of one-hitters that year, striking out 15 against Hancock North Central in one and 1 against Harrison Central in the other. Both of his losses that season came to Pascagoula.

And, the ambidextrous Lee, a junior who pitched mostly right-handed, tossed two one-hitters, three two-hitters and three-three-hitters all in complete game performances. He had seven games in which he struck out 10 or more batters.

One of those one-hitters for Lee came against Moss Point in district play, when he struck out 20 Tiger batters walking none and came within three outs of hurling a no-hitter.

Pepper Pounds combined with Dowling offensively to create all kinds of problems for opposing pitchers. Pounds ended the season hitting .395 with seven homers and 26 RBIs, while Dowling was at .381 with those eight homeres and a team-high 31 RBIs.

“Their best two arms were Cook Lewis and Ben Lee,” Olsen added. “Lewis had an incredible curve ball and Lee threw both righty and lefty. He would actually change gloves mid-inning and throw from a different side. Pounds was strong at the plate. as was Dowling.”