Campbell High School baseball players dubbed Larry Abner "the King Edward kid" after he passed out cigars on the bus ride home.

Coach Atos Dante "Joe" Lattanzi, broke the team's no-smoking rule for the state baseball champions on May 30, 1958. It's still the school's only state title in baseball.

handout from family (ENLARGE)

The 1958 Georgia state high school baseball championship team from Campbell High School in Smyrna.

Andy Sharp/AJC (ENLARGE)

Members of the 1958 state high school baseball team from Campbell High School gather at Lattanzi Field.

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Too small to make the team at 13, Abner, the Panthers' team manager, was big enough to capture the moment.

Half of Smyrna turned out to celebrate when the team bus rolled in from Thomaston 50 years ago.

The team beat Irwin County 2-0 in the first game and Waycross High School 3-1 in the second to take the Georgia state title in the AA division.

"We weren't supposed to win. We were the underdogs," said left-fielder Bob Beasley.

Locals expected the team to win the state title the previous year, but the Panthers couldn't stop Gainesville High School pitching whiz Duncan Nuchols in the regional play-offs.

Nuchols pitched the next year, but Campbell pulled ahead to win two games for the regional title.

Charles Beckett remembers Beasley turning the tide in the second game. The game was tied when a Gainesville hitter sent a high drive into left field.

Beasley turned his back to the infield and started to run. Without a fence to stop him, he ran down a hill, up an embankment and behind a telephone pole.

"Beasley disappeared and everyone took a deep breath," Beckett said. "All we saw was Beasley's glove reaching out from behind the pole and catching the ball."

"We didn't know how to lose," said Mack Cochran. "We were in the moment, Baseball was magic to us."

Team captain Don Blackburn played first base; Robert Fitzgerald, second; Ron Duncan, shortstop; and Cochran, third.

Kenny Cargile and Jimmy Cargal, both left-handed, were the pitchers.

"We were a good defensive team behind great pitchers," Cochran said.

Charles Beckett, known as Tootie, was the catcher. His older brother David was also a catcher.

"We were the Cinderella team, " said right-fielder Tommy Allen.

Most of the Smyrna team grew up playing Little League and Pony League ball together, coached by Lattanzi.

A Leo Durocher type, Lattanzi had a big personality that sometimes got him thrown out of games. The fans loved his passion.

"He didn't get mad often. When he did, he would stomp his feet and get thrown out," said center-fielder Seymour Giles. "Usually, we had lost a run. I think he used his temper to motivate us."

Lattanzi earned his "Joe" nickname from high school and college buddies who knew he loved Joe DiMaggio and the Yankees.

The son of Italian immigrants was a baseball standout at Piedmont College and was later inducted into the school's Sports Hall of Fame.

After a stint in the military, where he played baseball for a Navy team, Lattanzi and his wife, Peggy, moved to Smyrna. He was 28 when the team won the state title.

Even though she was nine months pregnant, Peggy Lattanzi attended the championship. She brought her baby doctor along — just in case.

"We were determined to win. We played for all the marbles," player Chuck Mann said.

Nearly 50 years later, 11 Panthers gathered again at Lattanzi Field, where they used to sweep away rocks with their feet to clear a place to play.

They recalled the 1958 season started off badly.

Most of the players had warmed the bench the year before. The Panthers lost two of the first three games.

Beasley said Lattanzi told them losing wasn't an option. The team started winning.

The players remember spill-over crowds watching from the fence around the field. Fans filled the bleachers at the field on Ward Road.

The Panthers credit Lattanzi, who died in 2002, with their success.

During 18 years at Campbell, the coach never had a losing season. His teams won one state title and 10 regional titles.

"He made you a man," Abner said in an e-mail from Kirkland, Wash. "He would walk through a brick wall for you and expected you to do the same."

"If another team was better, that was one thing," said Jim Pitts, who played first base and outfield. "But it was not OK to lose a game on mistakes. He wouldn't let you beat yourself."

Former outfielder Robert Tillery, who lives in Sterling, Va., said Lattanzi's influence has guided his life for 50 years.

"He was an excellent teacher in the classroom and on the field," Tillery said of the coach who was also a history teacher, assistant principal and athletics director. "He told us that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. Now, go run some laps."

Cochran said baseball was a big part of small town life in Smyrna 50 years ago.

So big it was scrawled forever in unofficial team cheerleader Janet Brown's diary.

"Jimmy Rawls kissed me. David Beckett was so sweet. Jimmy Cargal was so sweet," she wrote. "We accomplished it—our team won. We had a glorious time."