But of course, the goal in every sport Oxford participates is to win Championships. Oxford has 46 of them including 1 in Baseball back in 2005.
In that 2005 season, the biggest reasons this team claims is not because of any wins or hard work (although hard work was a big reason - 7 of the starting 9 in the batting order went on to play college and one got drafted into the MLB and this team totaled 36 wins) but it was because of two losses.
The two losses that team learned the most in is the 1-0 loss to South Panola in the middle of the season on the road - the only time that year the team was shutout - and an 8-7 loss to 4-seed Amory in the first round of the playoffs at home which at the time was with 4 teams in a double-elimination format. Those may have been the worst two games the 2005 Chargers played that season. In that game, Oxford was trying to rally from 3 runs down to try to tie it in the 7th and had a Home Run robbed of in that game to steal two runs from Oxford. Oxford proceeded to win the next 10 including beating Amory twice later on in the first round.
WAIT A MINUTE......this year, Oxford lost to New Hope 8-0 in the middle of the season on the road, the only time Oxford has been shutout this year - might have been the worst they played all year. Last night, Oxford lost to 3-seed Starkville 6-5 in the first game of the playoffs for the Chargers in a game that was right up there where nothing went their way, also tried to rally from 3 runs down in the last inning only to come up short and William Elliott had a Home Run robbed of two runs in that game.
This is so scary familiar to the 2005 year where Oxford won it all. Oxford lost the first game of that playoffs that year, beat the team that beat them then twice to advance and then won the next three rounds in sweeps to win it all. To make matters more interesting the school colors of Amory (who was in the same classification at the time as Oxford) were black and gold - just like Starkville's.
The 2005 Chargers learned from that experience and did not take any team for granted for the remainder of the playoffs, pounding each team scoring a minimum of 5 runs in each game and constantly getting double-digit runs and run-ruling a couple teams along the way including Amory and New Hope during the North Half Series (AT New Hope no less).
What makes this more scary for me: The International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) that I attended in 2005 was held in Phoenix, AZ and the reason why I could not see those 2005 Chargers win it all (yes shocking isn't it? I didn't see Oxford win a Big 3 Sport Championship). Guess where the ISEF is being held this year? That's right, in Phoenix, AZ.
History is in line to repeat itself. Let's see if the 2013 Chargers will take every game seriously from here on out. We could very easily play New Hope for North Half again, beat them and win it all the following series. Wouldn't that be something?
This is just scary thinking about it. If I'm not mistaken, we 10-run ruled Amory in the second game between us.....