MAYFLOWER — At long last, after a devastating oil spill in 2013 and the destruction wreaked by a major tornado in 2014, spring has brought joy to Mayflower.
The Golden Eagles are state baseball champions, having knocked off Fordyce in the Class 3A state championship game at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s Baum Stadium, 6-1, on May 23.
“If you’d looked up into the stands at Baum, you would’ve seen sports is something that brings the community together, that people have pride in, rightfully so,” Mayflower coach Joe Allbritton said. “We’ve had such a great year athletically. The football team went to the (state) quarterfinals; (boys) basketball went to the final; baseball won. Winning begets winning.
“In a small town, with a small high school, people put a lot into athletics. It’s defining. And sports has as much impact on these young men as anything else. I know it did on my life. I think that’s why we emphasize it so much.”
Tyler Herrin, the Golden Eagles’ senior center fielder, agreed.
“The town of Mayflower is a wonderful place,” he said. “The fans are amazing, and they were at every single game. We have been through a lot in this small town, but we pulled together as a team, kind of like baseball, and we overcame it.
“I wouldn’t want to have played for another school.”
Tyler Godwin, the senior pitcher who was named MVP of the state tournament after his win in the title game, agreed the championship brought a sense of pride to the town.
“I think it shows that the people of Mayflower always come together, no matter what,” he said.
It’s been a long journey to the school’s second state baseball championship after the first one in 1996. Allbritton, 42, was still in college at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock then. The closest he’d come to a state championship was being a sophomore on the junior varsity squad when J.A. Fair High School lost to Conway in the 1989 championship game.
So he, along with all of the other townsfolk, is relishing this one.
“I felt a mix of emotions,” said Allbritton, a former civics teacher who is now the assistant principal at Mayflower High School. “I was so excited for the kids. Just watching the excitement in their faces was incredible. I felt somewhat elated because we’ve worked really hard for this, and we’ve gotten close, and you realize how much luck is involved. There are so many good teams.
“I had more tears of joy than anything. The whole feeling — it’s everything they say it is, and the next day, we’ve got to get back to work because summer ball starts (Monday). But I think it has opened a new door for us.”
The Golden Eagles closed their campaign 19-11. They won the 3A-5 Conference, finished runners-up to Benton Harmony Grove in the district tournament and third in the Class 3A Region 2 Tournament.
But they found their stride in the state tournament at Genoa Central, knocking off West Fork in the first round, 8-0; the host team (and defending state champion) in the quarterfinals, 8-1; and Benton Harmony Grove in the semifinals, 15-2, before moving on to Fayetteville to face Fordyce, the team that had eliminated them in the last two state tournaments, 6-1.
Mayflower outscored its state tournament opponents by a combined 37-4.
In the regional, the Golden Eagles played three one-run squeakers, beating Bald Knob, 3-2; falling to Harding Academy, 9-8; and knocking off Bismarck, 3-2.
“We finally found those three pitchers who could get us through the state tournament,” Allbritton said. “We threw a freshman, Brady Wilcox, in the final round of the regional. That got us the (No.) 3 seed for state.”
At the state tournament, he went with senior Drew Duncan against West Fork, senior ace Godwin against Genoa Central and Wilcox again against Benton
Harmony Grove, then had Godwin ready again for the final the next week.
“He threw a gem,” Allbritton said, referring to Godwin’s four-hit, 10-strikeout performance against the Redbugs, who finished runner-up to Genoa Central last year.
Allbritton was head coach at Mayflower from 2000-03, when the Golden Eagles experienced limited success, he said. He was reassigned as an assistant to Brandon Bates for two years but returned to the helm in 2006.
“My first season back, we won the district championship,” he said. “In 2007, we went to the state tournament for the first time since we’d won in ’96. We beat Cave City, which was something like 34-0, in the first round and then lost to Horatio, which won it all.
“In 2008, we went to the quarterfinals. We beat Prescott and then lost to Marmaduke, the eventual champions. In ’09, we went again. That was one of the most talented teams I’ve gotten to coach, but we lost to Rivercrest in the first round.”
He said 2010 and ’11 were competitive years, but the Golden Eagles didn’t qualify for the state tournament.
“In 2012, with a group of sophomores, we went back and lost in the first round to Genoa, which eventually won it all,” he said. “In 2013, we lost to Fordyce in the semifinals. Last year, we drew Fordyce again in the first round and lost, 1-0.”
Nine seniors graduated off that team. Allbright had seven (three-and-a-half starters, he said) in 2015.
“I felt like we had a really good shot to win it this year,” he said. “We were not as talented as we have been in the past, and when you don’t win with talent, people start to doubt you. We just struggled as far as our nonconference schedule. We schedule heavy, and the last two or three years, we’ve done real good against Greenbrier, Vilonia, Maumelle, but this year they beat the crap out of us.
“We were trying to find our way.”
Now going on to play college baseball are Godwin (headed to Crowder College in Missouri), shortstop/pitcher Duncan (the leadoff batter who struck out just three times all year, going to UA-Fort Smith) and center fielder Herrin (“a power threat, glove threat and base-stealing threat,” Allbritton said, who will go to Central Baptist College in neighboring Conway).
Godwin said the title was a reward for the hard work, perseverance and time put in on the part of all the Eagles.
“And it also means a lot to me because I wanted to win it for my coach,” he said. “He deserves this title. He works harder than any coach I know.”
Duncan agreed.
“Making it (to the championship game) in basketball and coming up short just makes this win even sweeter, knowing it was the last opportunity the seniors had to bring a state championship to Mayflower, but even sweeter winning it for Coach A,” he said.
Herrin said the title meant the world to him.
“It’s not just a trophy or a ring; it’s more than that,” he said. “It’s a bond that will last forever and memories that will never be forgotten. I love my teammates, and it took every single one of us to seek out this goal.”
Other seniors were catcher Justin Case; pitcher/first baseman Austin Grundy (who scored 31 on his ACT); right fielder Adam Dycus, the Golden Eagles’ starting quarterback; and outfielder/courtesy runner Dakota Brown.
Allbritton also praised the work of his assistants, Coty Storms and volunteers John Atkins and Chance Lefler.
“We played really good baseball,” he said. “We pieced together some things. Adam Dycus had never played high school baseball until his senior year. He had his struggles, but he is a competitor, and he is a winner. He took coaching and was one of those key pieces of the puzzle.”
Now the Golden Eagles own four state championships, having also won two in track and field.
However, in Mayflower, especially this year, sports have provided much more than winning and losing.
“This team embodied that — coming together as a team, overcoming all obstacles to win it all,” Allbritton said. “That says something about the people involved.”