Six baseball teams and six softball teams won golden gloves for their schools' trophy cases by capturing MHSAA state championships.
Baseball championship series were held last week at Trustmark Park in Pearl, home of the Southern League Mississippi Braves, softball a week earlier at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
Three schools competed in both. East Union achieved the baseball-softball double with 2A championships in both. West Lauderdale won 4A softball but lost baseball. Saltillo was defeated in both 5A series.
BASEBALL
6A: Lewisburg vs. Gulfport. Lewisburg has the stage's best pitching and proved it with 2-1 and 11-0 victories. Cayden Baker held the Admirals to two hits in Game 1 and Talon Haley pitched a three hitter in the clinching game.
Lewisburg is a young team with only two seniors on the roster, along with 15 juniors, six sophomores and three freshmen.
5A: East Central vs. Saltillo. After the Hornets and Tigers split the first two games, a 4-1 East Central win and a 2-1 Saltillo victory, the decisive game was anticlimactic. East Central scored six runs in the first inning and coasted to an 11-0 victory in five innings for the school's second straight championship.
Brason Owensby allowed only one hit.
4A: Purvis vs. West Lauderdale: Purvis swept, with both games going extra innings.
In the first game, Eli Lowe was one out away from a 1-0 Purvis victory until Jacob Wooten singled in the tying run in the bottom of the seventh. But Purvis scored two runs in the eighth for a 3-1 victory.
The second game went 10 innings. Purvis managed only four hits, but two came in the 10th inning, leading to a walk off sacrifice fly by JoJo Parker.
3A: Amory vs. St. Stanislaus. Amory rebounded from a 7-3 loss in Game 1 with 8-5 and 6-2 victories. The Panthers overcame a 2-0 deficit in the decisive game with one run in the third and five unearned runs in the fourth that included a successful squeeze bunt and two runs scoring on a wild pitch.
Seth Farni led off the game with a home run for St. Stanislaus.
2A: East Union vs. Pisgah: East Union had a couple of one-sided victories, 14-0 and 9-2. In the 14-0 win, Landon Harmon pitched a five-inning perfect game with nine strikeouts. Leadoff batter Jude Treadaway went six for six in the two games and scored seven runs.
1A: Resurrection Catholic vs. West Union. Resurrection repeated as state champion with 8-7 and 10-1 victories. In the first game, the Eagles overcame a 7-5 deficit with three runs in the seventh. Cole Tingle pitched a two-hitter in the clinching game.
Resurrection reached the championship series with a sweep of Ethel in the South State final.
SOFTBALL
All six series were sweeps.
6A: Northwest Rankin vs. South Panola. Northwest Rankin, the state's top-ranked team, won 6-5 and 4-2. Jolie Hays pitched a five hitter in the clinching game, allowing one earned run on five hits, with six strikeouts.
5A: George County vs. Saltillo. George County finished 30-3, including 8-0 in the playoffs, with 5-1 and 2-1 victories. Sidnee Beech singled in the winning run in the sixth inning of the clinching game.
4A West Lauderdale vs. North Pike. West Lauderdale dominated with 6-2 and 11-0 wins. Mabry Eason pitched a six-inning no-hitter and hit a three-run homer in the clinching game.
West Lauderdale advanced to the championship series with 8-7 and 1-0 victories over two-time defending champion Kosciusko in the North State final after the Lady Whippets defeated the Lady Knights twice during the regular season.
3A: Booneville vs. West Marion. Booneville won a third straight championship with 6-1 and 7-4 wins. Hallie Burns was the winning pitcher in both games, totaling 21 strikeouts.
2A: East Union vs. Loyd Star. East Union won both games by the same 3-1 score. Lucy Cochran, an eighth grader, was the winning pitcher in both games.
1A: Hamilton vs. Sebastopol. Hamilton won the first game 5-4 on a walk off double by Neelie Stahl, then closed out the series with a 9-2 victory. Madison Jones and Abigail Gill each had a two-run triple during a six-run fourth inning of the clinching game.
