Bernie coach, player leads SCAA squad with strong finish to 2023

With two outs in the seventh inning of its baseball game with Neelyville on March 20, Bernie held a 10-8 lead, and veteran Mule coach Marcus Massey thought his team had a good opportunity to open the 2023 season with a win.

One errant pitch later, which resulted in a three-run home run for the Tigers, and Bernie was 0-1 on the year, and on the way to losing eight of its first 15 games.

“We started out kind of rough,” Massey said of the spring season. “We couldn’t get things going. Even though some things were going pretty well, we couldn’t get things to go our way.”

Eventually, however, things did go the Mules’ way.

Bernie closed the spring by winning 11 of its final 13 games and finished 18-10 overall. The 18 victories were the most since 2016, and for that success, Massey was recently named the Stoddard County Athletic Association Coach of the Year.

“As time went on,” Massey explained, “we just kind of kept grinding. The kids bought in, instead of getting frustrated.

“It finally started clicking at the right time.”

At one point, the Mules won eight consecutive games, the final three of that stretch in claiming the MSHSAA Class 2 District 1 Tournament by beating Campbell, South Pemiscot, and Neelyville (an 8-2 win), which had beaten Bernie twice earlier in the season.

“The kids get the credit,” Massey said of the turnaround.

The District title was the first for the program since 2018, and when the Mules got past Greenville, which was 23-4 prior to battling Bernie, that gave Bernie its first Sectional championship since 2015.

Only a two-run loss to Chaffee, which advanced to the Final Four by beating the Mules, ended the positive mojo of Bernie.

“It was one of those things,” Massey said in discussing the potential of the Mules, “we knew that we would have a chance in the end if we worked really hard and things went our way.

“We didn’t know exactly what (the success) would be, or that we would win a District, but we felt like we had enough pieces, that if things went our way, we could have a chance.”

Leading the charge was the play of junior Jayden Robinette, who was named the SCAA Player of the Year.

Robinette “had a great year for us on the mound,” Massey said.

Robinette led Bernie in innings pitched and maintained a 1.50 ERA.

He was joined on the SCAA All-Conference team by senior teammate Reese Justice.

Other honorees included: Eli Ford (Advance with Zalma, senior), Jed Garner (Advance with Zalma, senior), Caleb Upchurch (Bloomfield, sophomore), Kaeden Kennedy (Dexter, senior), Landan Burchard (Puxico, freshman), Seth Abernathy (Woodland, junior), and Lane VanGennip (Woodland, senior).