Two championships are better than one, especially if your name is Craig Beesley.

With a 4-2 victory against Smithville High School in Game 2 of the MHSAA Class A State Championship Series Friday, Cathedral won its fourth state championship in baseball, and Craig tied his father, Ken Beesley, with two state championships as head coach.

In reality, numbers are just numbers. Deep down, I like to believe this championship was the sweetest for Craig for a variety of reasons. Of course, there’s the obvious reason of Andrew, his son, being a pivotal part of the team, recording a .750 batting average in the state championship series and also leading the team with a .476 batting average this season. However, I harken back to a conversation I had with Craig months ago, before the season even started, as to why this championship is all the more special.

With baseball nearing, I was at a Vidalia/Cathedral girls basketball game, and I sat next to Beesley, who was taking the stats for the Green Wave. Naturally, I picked his brain about the upcoming season. Amongst friends and family, he had already answered every question I proposed, spouting off answers as if it was all he thought about.

“You have to be feeling pretty confident about that lineup with returning players like Zach Flattmann, Andrew, Craig Bradley, Pate Shirley and JJ Jenkins, right?” I asked him.

Craig was cautious, always seemingly finding a new worry, and I like to believe that’s because no person was putting more pressure on the Cathedral head coach than himself. Although, he did jokingly say his wife was holding him to pretty high standards, especially after the football team just won a state championship. Jokes aside, Craig knew he had a championship caliber club, and with the addition of Quinton Logan, a player who would go on to hit 10 home runs and post a 9-0 win/loss record with the Green Wave, how could Cathedral not win a state championship?

Thus, that created a general feeling in the community that the state championship was Cathedral’s from the beginning of the season, and as a coach, those are hard expectations to live up to, no matter the talent. Take into account that these are high school kids, as well, and though this was a great bunch that stayed out of trouble, it’s easy to buy into your own hype at such a young age and goof off. In fact, you saw Cathedral do just that at the beginning of the postseason, and it took a loss against Sacred Heart to get the Green Wave’s attention and get them refocused. From that point on, Cathedral didn’t lose again — winning by scores of 11-0, 8-0, 14-4, 13-1 and 4-2.

An out away from that final win, Craig stood by his team in the dugout. When Sam Parker struck out Smithville’s Blake Comer, the dugout emptied in celebration. If you look at it frame by frame, assistant coach Brett Hinson, undoubtedly the most nimble coach on the Green Wave coaching staff, was the first to the mound, but Craig wasn’t far behind him. It was as if in one motion, running toward Parker and the rest of the team, Craig grabbed that monkey off of his back and slammed it to the ground, releasing himself of all the added pressure he placed upon himself.

Indeed, two championships are better than one, for Craig’s coaching career, for the Green Wave athletic program and for all of the students and fans involved. Perhaps even better than the school winning state championships in football and baseball in the same season is the friendly rivalry developing between Beesley and assistant baseball coach Ron Rushing, who served as head coach for the 2014 football championship.

“After the game, I told Ron the pressure is back on him to hold serve and win again in football,” Beesley said.

With so many players returning for both baseball and football, I have a feeling this could be a seesaw battle between Rushing and Beesley.