The Ethel Tiger baseball team swept the Salem Wildcats on Friday and Saturday to claim its place in the MHSAA Class 1A South quarterfinals that will begin this Thursday night. The Tigers moved to 23-5 on the year with the two wins over Salem and will play the Resurrection Catholic Eagles on Thursday at Pascagoula in Game 1 and will play Game 2 back in Ethel on Friday night. Game 3, if necessary, will be played back in Pascagoula on Saturday. The Eagles are 20-7 on the year and won Region 8-1A with a 5-1 mark and obtained home field advantage in thie season quarterfinal matchup with Ethel due to Region 8 being a higher number than Region 6, which flip-flops every year when both teams are seeded the same.
In Friday night’s 9-1 win over the Salem Wildcats Hayden Burns got the start and pitched brilliantly for five innings, yielding one unearned run on one bunt hit while walking none and striking out eight Salem hitters. Hayes Wood pitched one inning in relief yielding no hits or walks while striking out one and Tyson Steen pitched the final inning giving up no hits or runs while striking out the side. The offensive leaders for the Tigers were Tyson Steen with two doubles, three runs scored and an RBI; Hayden Beall with a sacrifice and an RBI; Burns with a double and an RBI; Wood with a single, two runs scored and an RBI; Alex Schuster with a sacrifice and an RBI; Tanner Reeves with a run scored; Brady Odom with a single and an RBI; Noah Steen with two runs scored and Cody Weeks with a single and an RBI.
On Saturday, the Tigers banged out 21 total hits against the Salem Wildcats which included four home runs of the bats of Wood, Tyson Steen and Burns, who hit two in Ethel’s 18-6 win. Wood got the start for the Tigers and pitched 4.1 innings, yielding six runs (four earned), on seven hits and two walks while striking out four. Tyson Steen pitched the final 2.2 innings and yielded no runs on one hit and a walk while striking out four Wildcat hitters. The offensive leaders for the Tigers were Tyson Steen with a single, double, home run, two runs scored and three RBI; Beall with two singles, a double, one run scored and an RBI; Burns with a single, two home runs, three runs scored and four RBI; Tanner Steen with an RBI; Alex McMullin with one run scored; Wood with a double, home run, three runs scored and three RBI; Schuster with three singles, three runs scored and two RBI; Blake Wilkinson with a run scored; Reeves with three singles and three runs scored; Odom with two singles, one run scored and two RBI; Noah Steen with one run scored; Weeks with a single and Cam Campbell with a single and an RBI.
Game time for Game 1 on Thursday night in Pascagoula will be at 6:30 p.m. and Game 2 will be played in Ethel on Friday night at 7 p.m. Game 3, if necessary, will be TBA on Saturday in Pascagoula.
