By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

MOSS POINT — The College Baseball Foundation (CBF) has announced 21 standouts who will be inducted as part of the 2025 class of the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

And former Moss Point High standout Earl Sanders is in that number.

The class is comprised of players, coaches and other builders of the game, all of who have positively impacted college baseball including Sanders, the former Jackson State stalwart.

A 1983 graduate of MPHS, Sanders starred at Jackson State for three years before he was drafted in the first round of the 1986 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft with the 26th pick by the Toronto Blue Jays. While at Jackson State, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Sanders was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Hitter of the Year and the Pitcher of the Year in 1986, the first player ever to achieve that status in the same season.

In his junior year with the Tigers, Sanders played in 51 games and hit .432 with 17 homers and 60 RBIs in 1986 at the plate and he also went 11-2 with a 3.32 earned run average with 107 strike outs in 97 innings on the mound. He helped lead JUS to a SWAC championship as well as the NCAA South Regional hosted by LSU.

At that time, several of those numbers were program records at JSU. His 24 total career pitching wins, 36 career home runs and 145 RBIs were also program records at that time.

Sanders is currently the head baseball coach at Tougaloo College. His impact there has been so significant that the school named the baseball field in his honor.

“From game-changing players to pioneering leadership, their achievements capture the spirit and evolution of college baseball,” CBF Board of Trustees Chairman Craig Ramsey said of the new class.

The 18th induction class will be honored at the 2026 Night of Champions on February 12, 2026 in Overland Park, Kansas, the home of the College Baseball Hall of Fame. The event will serve as the ceremonial start to the 2026 college baseball season, which begins on February 13, 2026. For more information regarding the 2026 Night of Champions and to reserve your tickets, please visit the CBF website.

To be eligible for the College Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, players must be out of college for 15 years and have completed one year of competition at a two-year institution in the CCCAA, NJCAA or a four-year NCAA (Division I, II or III) or NAIA institution. Ballot-eligible coaches must be retired for two years or be active and no less than 75 years old.

Each year, more than 200 representatives nationwide vote on the College Baseball Hall of Fame induction class. The voting body is comprised of national and regional college baseball media, active and retired coaches, former players, former inductees, college baseball historians and members of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) collegiate baseball committee.

“We are beyond excited to welcome the 2025 Hall of Fame Class as we continue our planning for what will become their ‘home’ in Overland Park, Kansas in the College Baseball Hall of Fame,” CEO/Executive Director of the CBF and College Baseball Hall of Fame Tom Jacobs said. “This is another stellar class that represent the absolute best of college baseball. We look forward to celebrating and honoring their accomplishments as well as those of our CBF award winners at the 2026 Night of Champions. We hope you will join us for their special evening!”

The College Baseball Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 2006. Since that time, 175 players, coaches, umpires, administrators and contributors have been selected for induction.

And now, that includes a former Moss Point High Tiger.