By CURTIS ROCKWELL

Item Sports Editor

HURLEY — Different fi-eld, different day, different county, same result.

For the second time in three days, East Central pitcher Linsey Dickerson shutout Poplarville and for the second consecutive game her teammates gave her just enough support and East Central ended Poplarville’s season with a second straight 1-0 win in the Class 4A South State fast pitch semifinals Saturday.

The loss for second ranked Poplarville ended one of the most successful seasons in Lady Hornet fast pitch history at 25-5 while East Central, also known as the Lady Hornets, moves to 27-3 and moves on to the South State finals.

Fourth ranked East Central, which won the state title two years ago and lost in the state title game last year, will face top-ranked D’Iberville in the South State finals.

On Thursday in Poplarville Dickerson beat the homestanding Lady Hornets 1-0 before duplicating the feat again on Saturday. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth when ECHS pushed across an unearned run.

The game was the final one for three Poplarville seniors, Brandi Rester, Chelsea Theriot and Megan Ladner.

Ladner took the tough luck pitching loss in both games, despite just allowing three hits Saturday. Poplarville finished with four hits.

“We had runners on base, we just couldn’t score,” Poplarville head coach Jonathan Ray said. “That’s the way it goes sometimes.”