The two remaining teams from Region 7-6A alive in the Class 6A South State playoffs didn’t fare well Tuesday night in the opening game of the second round of play.
Home-standing D’Iberville, the region champs, fell to visiting Petal 7-3 to begin that series while second-seed Ocean Springs dropped a heart-breaking 5-4 loss on the road at Brandon in 10 innings.
The pair of defats leave both “Southern Six” squads on the brink of postseason elimination and each in need of two straight wins to finish their respective series out to stay alive and extend their seasons.
In D’Iberville, the game was. tied at 1-1 going into the top of the third but the Panthers erupted for five runs in the frame to take control of the contest with a 6-1 lead. A two-run error by the Warriors didn’t help their cause, nor did a two-run single from Petal’s Cooper Nash.
The Warriors scratched out a single run in each of the fifth and seventh stanzas, but the die was cast for DHS after the eventful third frame from perennial state power Petal.
D’Iberville managed just four hits off of Panther starting pitcher Eli Waters, and Warrior catcher Colby Wilson had two doubles and drove in a run. Landon Adams added a triple for DHS.
Waters picked up the win in going the distance for PHS, scattering the four hits and striking out 11 while walking three. Eli Page started and took the loss for D’Iberville, working four frames.
Meanwhile, in Brandon, the Greyhounds fought valiantly and came close to pulling out a big upset over the Region 5-6A champion Bulldogs before falling 5-4 in 10 innings.
Brandon’s Jay McQueen won the game with a walk-off RBI-single in the botttom of the 10th for the Bulldogs.
After the Bulldogs took an early 1-0 advantage, Grant Russell smacked a solo shot over the left-center field fence to tie the game up at 1-1 for the Greyhounds.
Brancon bounced back quickly to take a 3-1 lead on a RBI single by J.P. Abt and then Mississippi State signee K.K. Clark’s RBI-double extended the Bulldog advantage to 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth.
But the Greyhounds rallied in the sixth stanza when Russell did more damage with a two-run single and Southern Miss signee McCarty English added a run-scoring single of his own to make it 4-3 OSHS. Russell led the Greyhounds at the plate with a game-high three runs.
The Bulldogs set the state for the three extra frames by tying the game up at 4-4 on an RBI sacrifice fly by Diego Maddox.
Brandon had a chance to win it in the eighth, but Ocean Springs reliever Cannon Hensarling worked his way out of a bases-loaded one-out jam by inducing a strike out and a ground out to end the inning.
Ocean Springs squandered a great chance to take the lead in the ninth on a sacrifice fly with one out by J.P. Ford to center field but it was ruled that Greyhound base runner Jack Jordan left third base too early while tagging up and after the appeal, he was ruled out.
McQueen then ended the game in the bottom of the 10th. Hensarling took the loss for OSHS.
Both series will resume Thursday night, as D’Iberville travels to Petal and OSHS hosts Brandon.
