GULFPORT — Something had to give Thursday night as Gulfport hosted defending state champion Northwest Rankin in game one of the Class 6A South State finals.
After all, as the Admirals and Cougars converged on Herbert Wilson Field neither team had lost a playoff game so far this postseason as both were 6-0 after three rounds of play.
Fortunately for Gulfport, it was the home squad that kept their perfect playoff streak alive in exciting fashion squeezing out a 6-5 win in 11 innings.
Game two is set for Friday night in Brandon, and a another Gulfport win would send the Admirals to the state championship round for the first time since the 2017 season. The Admirals are in the Class 6A South State finals for the first time in five years.
In a game that lasted close to four hours, Gulfport’s latest playoff win came in dramatic fashion, as Dawson Hall’s one-out RBI-single capped a two-run game-winning rally for the Admirals in that fourth extra frame.
The stanza started with GHS trailing 5-4, after the Cougars scored on a GHS error in the top of the frame to break the 4-4 tie. Ethan Garner led off the bottom of the 11th with a single, and Ethan Suroweic then followed with a single of his own. Jacob Palazzo then knotted things back up with his RBI-single to center that plated Garner and set the stage for Hall’s heroics several batters later.
The defending champs took an early lead with two runs in the top of the second stanza, but GHS battled back with a run in the bottom of that frame on a run-scoring single by Nathan Edwards.
The Admirals then took the lead in the third frame with two more runs. Suroweic led the inning off with a solo home run to left field. Hall added an RBI-single later in the frame to give GHS its first lead of the contest.
Two innings later, Gulfport extended its lead to 4-2 on a Nico Williams run-scoring single that plated Suroweic who had tripled to right field two at bats earlier.
But the Cougars scratched out a single run in each of the sixth and seventh stanzas to send the game into extra innings tied up at 4-4, before the Admirals rallied about an hour later to end it.
Suroweic’s three total hits, one double shy of hitting for the cycle as he finished with a homer, triple and single, were a game-high for the Ole Miss commit, and he drove in a run while Hall’s two RBIs were also a game-high.
The late rally by NWR in regulation spoiled yet another solid outing for Gulfport ace pitcher Josh Lee, who was looking for his fourth straight playoff win. He struck out seven in seven frames of work and allowed eight hits.
Joel Smith, the third GHS hurler of the game, picked up the win in relief with just over three innings of work as he struck out three and allowed just one unearned run on one hit.
