By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

The annual Major League Baseball Draft will take place Sunday night.

The event, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, takes place this time in the deep South at the Coca-Cola Roxy in The Battery Atlanta, near Truist Park, and kicks off MLB All-Star Game week in the home of the Braves.

It also seems ironic that the annual process this year is at the home of many of South Mississippi baseball fans’ favorite team, and that’s because this year also marks the 35th anniversary of one of the biggest for the “Southern Six” in the history of the annual affair as well as the Braves.

After Atlanta nabbed Larry “Chipper” Jones, a high school infielder out of Florida as the top overall pick, it was South Mississippi’s time to shine.

In 1990, a trio of “Southern Six” prep high school standouts were selected in the top 125 overall picks in the MLB Amateur Draft out of right at 1,500 selections total players picked.

Then Stone County High’s Sam Hence and Howard Battle of then Mercy Cross High were in that number as was former Long Beach High product Bobby Reed who had at that point just finished up his career at Mississippi State University.

Hence was first up as the Tomcat was grabbed in the supplemental round (between the end of the first round and start of the second) at 39th overall by the Cleveland Indians.

Reed was next when the Texas Rangers took him with the 89th overall pick in the third round.

And, with the 123rd overall pick in the fourth round, Battle went to the Toronto Blue Jays.

During Hence’s senior season at Stone County, the speedy outfielder earned the “Mr. Baseball” Award presented by the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. He hit an almost inexplicable .518 that year, with 11 home runs, 44 runs batted in and 27 stolen bases.

Battle led the Crusaders to back-to-back Class 1A state champions. As a pitcher his senior season, he went 12-3, and at the plate hit .446 with 11 home runs and 53 RBIs as well as 23 stolen bases.

Both were also outstanding on the football field for their respective schools. Battle, who turned down a football scholarship to Tulane to begin his pro baseball career, threw for over 1,800 yards and 23 touchdowns from his quarterback spot his senior season and was also named Class 1A First Team All-State as a defensive back on the other side of the ball.

Hence, who also turned pro out of high school, was a Class 3A All-State First Team selection on the gridiron as a running back and return specialist. He was also one of the top track and field athletes in the state of Mississippi that year.

Both players were picked to play for their home state in the prestigious Alabama/Mississippi All-Star Football Classic that Summer but each decided to forgo the game.

Reed left Starkville as MSU’s second all-time starting pitcher in number of wins recorded and he led the Bulldogs to a College World Series appearance in 1990.

In fact, he and his MSU teammates were in Omaha at the time he was drafted because up until 2021 the MLB Draft took place in June. That season, he led the team in innings pitched, with 140 1/3, had a 15-4 record in 22 starts, a 3.01 earned run average, and two shutouts as he garnered all-SEC honors.

In addition to that South Mississippi trio, Petal High’s Gary Hust went 56th overall in the second round to the Oakland Athletics, and then later in the draft George County High product Shane Hale was taken in the seventh round out of the University of South Alabama by the Baltimore Orioles.

In the first round of that same draft, the Orioles drafted Mike Mussina.

Other standout MLB players in addition to Chipper Jones in that draft included Carl Everett, Brett Boone and David Bell.