Blake Wilkinson tossed a complete game to help Ethel knock off French Camp Academy 3-2 last week, earning the Tigers a division split with the Panthers.
FCA had beaten the visiting Tigers 6-3 on Tuesday before Ethel regrouped and posted a 3-2 win on Thursday.
The split left the Tigers with a 13-8 record entering this week. They were to host West Lowndes on Monday in their final regular-season game before opening up the state playoffs Friday.
That is when the Tigers are scheduled to travel to Salem for Game 1 of a best-of-three series in the MHSAA Class 1A state playoffs.
Ethel lost a tiebreaker to French Camp and is the No. 3 seed out of Region 5-1A, while Salem is the Region 8-1A runner-up.
Game 2 of the series is scheduled for Saturday at Ethel, with the third-and-if-necessary game returning to Salem Monday (April 23).
The winner of the series will face either Leake County or Hamilton in second-round playoff action.
In last Tuesday’s game at FCA, the host Panthers scored four times in the second inning and Ethel could not recover.
Alex Schuster was 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored, while Wilkinson had a single and an RBI for the Tigers. Tyler Weaver had the team’s only other hit, Hayden Beall drove in a run and Tanner Reeves scored once.
Brady Odom was the losing pitcher, combining with Schuster and Wilkinson to allow four earned runs while striking out five.
Wilkinson went the distance on Thursday; however, fanning four and scattering five hits while allowing just two earned runs.
FCA led 1-0 and 2-1, but Ethel tied the game with a single run in the bottom of the fourth and won it in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the seventh.
Hayden Graves was 2-for-2 with a triple and he scored all three of his team’s runs.
Schuster had a double; Wilkinson and Cyrus Rone both singled and had an RBI; Odom had a single; Weaver drove in one run.
