The Poplarville Lady Hornets are the Class 4A South State champions.

The Lady Hornets went on the road Tuesday night and swept homestanding Lawrence County 4-1 and 13-6 in the best of three slow pitch softball South State finals.

The wins not only move third ranked Poplarville to 26-2 overall on the year, but more importantly the Lady Hornets advance to play for the state championship Saturday in Jackson against the North State champion.

“It feels good, and we will enjoy this for a little while but we know we still have work to do,” Poplarville head coach Jonthan Ray said. “Each year over the past four years we have taken another step with this group of seniors, and it’s the leadership of that group that has gotten us here.”

In game one, Alysa Graeter limited the Lady Cougars to just the lone run and she also drove in a run while Kayla Ross had a big two run double and Paige Miller drove in a run as well.

Ross had three hits, including a pair of doubles in the win and Grater added two hits as well.

The Lady Hornets never trailed in either game, advancing to the state slow pitch finals for just the second time in school history.

In game two, Poplarville jumped out to a 5-1 lead after two innings before LCHS cut it to 5-3. But the Lady Hornets wrapped up the win scoring six runs in the third frame.

Ross and Graeter had three hits apiece in the game, while Janessa Dedeaux and Kelly Ladner had two hits each.

“We try and never look ahead,” Ross said. “We take it one out, one inning and one game at a time. We’ve got to keep doing that for one more day.”