Local teams in playoffs
Published 7:00 am Tuesday, April 22, 2014
All three prep baseball teams in Pearl River County have qualified for the state playoffs. And that trio will prepare for the postseason with a few final tune-ups this week.
Poplarville will close out the regular season hosting Picayune tonight at 6 P.m. The Hornets, who finished second in region 8-4A, will travel to Magee Thursday night to open the Class 4A South State playoffs.
Picayune will travel to Jones County Junior College Thursday afternoon at 4 to face Oak Grove. The Maroon Tide, the Region 7-5A champs, won’t start the playoffs until Thursday, May 1st.
Pearl River Central, the Region 6-5A champs, will travel to Petal tonight at 7. The Blue Devils will then face St. Stanislauson Wednesday.
Pearl River Central will also begin the state playoffs one week from Thursday, on May 1st. The Blue Devils begin postseason preparations on Saturday, falling on the road to West Jones.10-5.
Cody Miller started and went four innings dropping to 4-2 on the year. Miller allowed three earned runs of the six in the first four frames and was relieved by Blake Caruso and Cordel Eastland.
West Jones got on the board quickly with three runs in the bottom of the first, helped by two PRC errors in the inning.
The Blue Devils responded with four runs in the top of the second, highlighted by a two out bases clearing double by Christian Travis to put PRC ahead 4-3.
West Jones came back with two more run in the second and one in the third to take a 6-4 lead.
The score would remain 6-4 entering the bottom of the sixth inning when the first six West Jones hitters reached base, five of those on walks before Cordel Eastland came in the game and retired three batters in a row to limit the damage.
The Blue Devils scored their final run when Dylan Spiers hit a double following a Wesley Mitchell single.
Mitchell and Christian Smith each had two hits on the day and the Devils had 11 total hits. PRC threatened every inning but ended up leaving nine runners on base for the day.