FULTON, Miss. – Itawamba Community College head baseball coach Rick Collier has beennamed Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) Coach of the Year after a championship season this spring.
Collier's squad posted a 41-8-1 overall and 24-4 conference records to earn the MACJC Championship and finished the year ranked No. 2 by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).
The Indians also hosted the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament and defeated No. 1 LSU-Eunice in the quarterfinals. During the regular season, Collier's team swept the then No. 2 ranked Jones Bobcats and No. 4 Pearl River Wildcats in back-to-back weekend series. In the final month of the season, the Indians had a 13-game win streak, including the sweep of Mississippi Delta to clinch the conference title.
After the successful season, five Indians earned postseason honors, highlighted by Houston Harding's selection as an All-American by the NJCAA, and one player had his named called during the Major League Baseball draft as Jackson Lancaster was selected by the Seattle Mariners.
Three players on the 2019 squad will continue their careers in the Southeastern Conference with Austin Powell heading to Ole Miss, Harding to Mississippi State and Lancaster to Missouri. Four additional players are moving to the next level as well with Justin Medlin going to Middle Tennessee State, Kyle Crigger to Louisiana Tech, Austin King to Alabama State, LaBryant Siddell and Hunter Hughes to Mississippi College.
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