PEARL — Gulfport hasn’t won a state baseball championship in 38 years. And that almost four-decade drought continued Thursday night.
After a 2-1 win in game one of the Class 6A state championship series on Tuesday, Lewisburg scored early and took the momentum Thursday night in game two and proceeded to sweep the Admirals 11-0 and take its second state title in 10 seasons.
It was the first state championship for the Patriots since their first as a program in 2013. Gulfport’s lone state crown came in 1985. The latest loss marked the second defeat in the Class 6A state championship for veteran head coach Jamie McMahon’s squad in six seasons, as they fell to Tupelo in three games in 2017.
Lewisburg was making its fourth appearance overall in the state finals and first in five years since 2018 when the Patriots fell to Hattiesburg in the Class 5A state finals.
The Patriots got off to a quick start in their quest for their second state title, scoring a pair of runs in the top of the first frame to take a 2-0 lead as Talon Haley brought home a run on an RBI-sacrifice fly and Jarrett Morris plated a run on a run-scoring ground out.
Still hanging on to the 2-0 advantage entering the top of the fourth frame, Lewisburg doubled its lead to 4-0 on a ground-out by Trae Cagle and an RBI-single from Gunner Gilmore.
The deficit for Gulfport reached five runs in the fifth, as Austin Hannigan caught GHS sleeping and stole home to make it 5-0.
Lewisburg added yet another run in the top of the seventh on an RBI-single by Hannigan. Morris then tacked on a two-run single to make it 8-0. Gilmore then added a two-run single down the line to make the score 10-0. Easton Fesmire then joined the scoring parade with an RBI-single to make it 11-0 and complete the six-run uprising seventh stanza for LHS.
The southpaw Haley, a Vanderbilt commit, picked up the win on the mound for Lewisburg, while Nicholas Williams started and was saddled with the loss for Gulfport.
Ethan Garner had a pair of hits for Gulfport in the loss, and Jacob Palazzo added a double. The Admirals maned just six hits total in the two losses against Patriot pitchers. Admiral ace pitcher Josh Lee suffered the tough 2-1 loss in game one after allowing just two hits to the Patriots. In that game, Gulfport was held to just two hits by Baylor commit Cayden Baker, who tossed 6.2 innings of work and had five strikeouts for Lewisburg. Haley came in to record the final out and secure the win.
The Patriots finish the season at 29-8, while the Admirals end their campaign at 25-14.
