Baseball often brings surprises and unanticipated experiences. And Saturday in a Region 4-6A marathon at Richie Tillman Field in Pascagoula, that’s exactly what happened as the George County Rebels beat the Panthers 5-0 in 11 innings.
All five George County runs were scored in the top of the 11th inning as Garrett Dixon had a two-run single, Jacob Eubanks hit a two-run home run, and Ben Davis added an RBI single.
For 10 innings, neither team could get anything going because of the marvelous pitching from Pascagoula’s Griffin Wells and George County’s Carson Pierce and Canyon Reeves.
“Our pitching kept us in the game,” said George County coach Brandon Davis. “Both Carson and Canyon have done it for us all year. Pascagoula played pretty well, and they are a different team with Griffin on the mound. He’s a very good competitor.”
Pierce started and went five innings, giving up just one hit and fanning six. Reeves, who got the win in relief, took over in the bottom of the sixth and allowed only three hits and struck out eight.
In Mississippi high school baseball, the maximum single-game pitch count is 120. After Wells threw eight innings and 114 pitches, Pascagoula coach Colton Caver had no choice but to replace Wells after the Panthers senior and future Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Bulldog gave up only three hits with no walks and 10 strikeouts.
George County handled Pascagoula 13-0 on Friday night and Wells made sure that didn’t happen Saturday.
“Technically, we could have probably put him out there for two more batters, but we felt like he was gassed,” said Caver. “Griffin has given us three or four good starts in a row and as team captain he really stepped up. We just didn’t perform behind him at the plate. George County has a great team and for our guys to come back after last night and go 11 innings with a three-loss team says something about us.”
Pascagoula’s best chance to win the game came in the bottom of the ninth.
With one out, Denzel Melendez beat out an infield single to the shortstop and then advanced to second on a bad throw. Adrian Rosado, who took over for Wells to start the ninth, earned a walk and Panthers catcher Jared Loper also got a free pass to load the bases. Then Reeves struck out back-to-back Panthers to end the inning.
Now Pascagoula and George County have to scoreboard watch a little bit heading into the final week of the regular season. George County has cemented a playoff spot, but with some good baseball this week and a little luck, the Rebels have an outside chance at winning the region.
“Our guys showed today why they are competing for a district championship and that’s been our goal since the beginning of the year,” said Davis. “Without looking at all of the scores from other games, either way we know we need to go out there and win three against Hancock next week.”
Since West Harrison rallied to beat Long Beach on Saturday, the Panthers must sweep the Hurricanes to slide into the fourth and final playoff spot.
