Vancleave punched its ticket to the Class 5A state baseball championship on Saturday, completing a sweep of South Jones.
The Bulldogs (27-7) beat the Braves 8-1 on Friday in Vancleave and 3-0 on Saturday in Ellisville to claim the South State championship and advance to the state title series next week against Lafayette.
The Commodores (26-7) swept New Hope 10-7 and 1-0 to capture the North State title.
On Saturday, Vancleave’s Tyler West pitched a gem. The senior went seven innings, allowing just two hits and striking out seven in tossing the shutout.
Hunter Harper’s RBI double in the first inning gave Vancleave a lead it would never give up.
Max Baates extended the lead to 2-0 in the second with a run-scoring single. A balk in the sixth plated the third and final run for the Bulldogs.
Hunter Parker had a pair of hits to lead the six-hit Vancleave attack.
Dylan Causey took the loss, allowing three runs on six hits over five-plus innings.
Causey and Evan Butler had both hits for South Jones.
On Friday, the Bulldogs came out swinging against the Braves with 12 hits in their Game One win.
Vancleave tallied three runs in both the first and second innings to take an early 6-0 lead.
Martin Shaw, who paced the Bulldogs with three hits, drove in a pair of runs with a single in the first inning. West’s groundout in the second inning plated the fourth run. Harper had a sacrifice fly to score another run and Shaw made it 6-0 with an RBI single.
Cole Richardson hit an RBI double in the fourth to put the Braves on the board, but Vancleave put the game away in the seventh when Aiden Tapp doubled to score a run and Shaw came home on an error.
Harper went the distance for the Bulldogs on the mound, allowing just one run on six hits while fanning seven.
Tapp, Asher Henley, and Layton Elder each had two hits for the Bulldogs.
Cole Richardson took the loss while Cambridge McDaniel collected a couple of hits for South Jones, which ended its season at 26-7.
CLASS 6A
George County and Pearl River Central will play a third game to determine the South State championship after they split the first two games of the 6A series.
The Blue Devils took the opener 4-0 on Friday and the Rebels responded with a 4-3 victory on Saturday.
Game Three is scheduled for Monday, weather permitting, at 7 p.m. in Carriere.
In Game Two on Saturday, George County (27-5) scored first on Cayler Havard’s RBI single.
PRC tied the game on Kendall Morrison’s sacrifice fly in the third inning.
The Rebels regained the lead in the home half of the third inning on a single by Ben Davis and Havard added a sacrifice fly that made it 3-1.
The Rebels scored their fourth run when Gage Reeves was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the fourth inning.
The Blue Devils got a run back in the sixth on Jacob Johnson’s RBI single and Blake Gill belted a solo home run in the seventh, but that was as close as PRC (24-8) would get.
On Friday, Jacob Johnson gave up just three hits over four innings as the Blue Devils blanked the Rebels in Game One.
Johnson was dominant on the mound, striking out six and walking none.
The Blue Devils took a 3-0 lead in the second inning on Brayden Lee’s two-run single and Morrison’s groundout.
Lee paced PRC’s attack with three hits.
Andrew Nielsen took the loss.
CLASS 1A
Resurrection Catholic pitcher Trace Tingle tossed a two-hitter as the two-time defending state champion Eagles (24-5) beat Taylorsville 8-0 on Saturday in Pascagoula to even their series at 1-1 and force a third game Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. in Taylorsville.
Tingle struck out 11 batters as the left-hander went the distance.
The Eagles jumped out to a 5-0 first-inning lead against the Tartars (18-11). Justin San Miguel’s solo homer highlighted the inning.
Tingle blasted a solo homer in the second inning and RCS added single runs on a hit by San Miguel in the third and a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Noah Westbrook took the loss while Trey Barnes and Terry Barnes had the only Taylorsville hits.
Taylorsville took the opener 2-1 on Friday as winning pitcher Ford Matthews had an RBI double and scored the go-ahead run on an error in the fifth inning.
The Eagles scored first on Carter McCammon’s RBI single in the first inning, but Matthews shut the door the rest of the way. He struck out 13 over six-plus innings and gave up one run on eight hits.
McCammon suffered the loss, giving up two runs on five hits over six innings.
