Following an historic season highlighted by a 29-5 final record, No. 1 final rankings from Maxpreps.com and Scorebooklive.com, the 5A East co-championship and No. 1 playoff seed, and the first baseball state title in school history, eight Marion Patriots garnered postseason awards. Starting pitchers Chase Armstrong and Ben Gerrard capped their senior seasons by earning all-state and all-conference honors. Senior centerfielder Gage Watson, senior catcher Dylan Kight, senior shortstop Connor Brinkley, senior leftfielder Luke Bullins, senior rightfielder Kaleb Catt, and junior utility man Jett Sutton landed on the all-conference list. Armstrong hit and pitched his way onto the 2022 all-state list as the Arkansas State signee fashioned a 13-0 record with a 1.21 earned-run average while striking out 97 batters on the mound. At the plate, Armstrong batted .313 with a .425 on-base percentage, while recording a team-high 31 hits, including eight doubles, three triples, seven home runs, and 34 RBI with 27 runs scored. Gerrard emerged as the second conference starter for Marion this spring by posting an 11-2 record with three saves. The right-hander allowed 44 hits, 16 runs (12 earned), while striking out 90 batters with 24 walks. The MVP of the state championship game recorded a 1.46 ERA with a 1.18 WHIP (walks and hits per inning). Watson set the table for the 2022 state champs by leading off and covering a ton of ground in center field. The Missouri signee's .275 average with a .398 OBP came on 28 hits, including six doubles, two triples, and three home runs. Watson scored 31 times while driving in 28 runs, and he drew 21 walks. Watson stole a team-high 16 bases. The defensive whiz committed only one error this season. Kight caught every significant inning this spring for a Marion team that recorded a .961 team fielding average. The University of Arkansas-Rich Mountain signee paced the Pats with a .337 batting average and .533 OBP. Kight logged 29 hits, including seven doubles, three triples, and two home runs with 21 RBI, and 15 runs. The patient backstop walked 22 times and absorbed 14 hit by pitches. Brinkley anchored Marion's stingy infield at shortstop, making just five errors on 96 chances. The Southwest Tennessee signee had a hand in 14 double plays this spring, when he scored 12 runs, walked six times, and drove in five runs. Bullins was injured to start 2022, but he finished in a flurry, batting .286 with a .394 OBP with 17 runs scored, and 11 RBI. The Rend Lake signee committed only one error in left field. Catt recorded a .270 batting average this spring, with a .484 OBP. The rightfielder logged 17 hits, with two doubles, two triples, and a home run. He walked 27 times, scored 27 runs, and drove in 13 RBI while swiping 13 bases. Sutton started 17 games in the outfield this spring and fired 22.2 innings on the mound. The junior batted .268 on 11 hits, including two doubles, a triple, and two home runs in 2022. He scored eight times and plated seven runs. As a pitcher, Sutton surrendered only 15 hits and seven runs, only one of which was earned this spring. He struck out 29 batters and issued just six walks.