#2 Pearl River thumps No. 19 MGCCC to advance to Regional Championship

Dylan Dunaway - PRCC Sports Information Director

POPLARVILLE, Miss. — No. 2 Pearl River moved one step closer to hosting a Super Regional Thursday night, crushing rival No. 19 Gulf Coast 10-1 in seven innings in the Region 23 Tournament winner's bracket game.

Weather permitting, the game will be at 2:30pm Saturday.

"I like those kind of wins — that was a really good day and I'm really proud of my guys," head coach Michael Avalon said. "That's a big win with the layoff and some unfortunate weather. These guys have stayed locked in and ready to go.

"That game was intense. That's our rival, and that was a really good arm we faced. We had our hands full early, but these guys are locked in."

The Wildcats now advance to the Championship of the Poplarville Regional. The Wildcats are slated to play the winner of Northeast and Gulf Coast tomorrow at 1 p.m. The Tigers and Bulldogs will play at 10 a.m. in an elimination game. With a victory, PRCC will host East Central in a best-of-three Super Regional May 14-16 with an automatic berth to the NJCAA DII World Series on the line.

Pearl River (47-7 overall) broke things open early against Gulf Coast (38-18). Camden Clark (Laurel; West Jones) struck out two of the three batters he faced in the top of the first to give PRCC some momentum in the bottom half. The damage came with two outs. Caston Thompson (Jayess; Brookhaven Academy) singled through the right side, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored when Topher Jones (Hernando) saw nine pitches before smacking a backside double into the right-center field gap, 1-0.

Two more big Wildcat runs scored in the third. Jacob Keys (Brandon) worked a walk before Thompson bashed a two-run home run over the center field wall. Thompson's 13th blast of the year gave the Wildcats a 3-0 lead.

Clark had to get himself out of trouble in the fourth inning and did it masterfully. The Bulldogs loaded the bases before he forced a weak line out to second base. The next batter made him work for it, but Clark painted a fastball on the inside part of the plate for a called strike three, stranding the bases loaded.

The Wildcat offense rewarded Clark's Houdini act with a four-spot in the bottom half of the inning. Ethan Garner (Gulfport) started the frame with a bang, sending a ball off the wall in right field for a triple. Keegan Giger (Petal) slapped a single through the left side to bring him home. Jones drew a bases-loaded walk for a run, and Jaxon Milam (Phenix City, Ala.; Glenwood Academy) kept things going by sending a sinking fly ball into left field that got down for a two-run double, 7-0.

The Bulldogs broke through for their lone run of the night in the top of the fifth, scoring a run before Drew Harrison (Madison; Germantown) tallied a strikeout to end the frame. The run was matched with two outs in the bottom half when Keys hit a ball deep down the left field line for an RBI double, 8-1.

Drew Harrison (Madison; Germantown) delivers a pitch against Gulf Coast (Hannah Mills/PRCC Athletics).

Harrison's breaking ball was elite in the sixth inning as the right-hander struck out the side to send PRCC right back to the plate to hit — that's when the Wildcats officially put the game out of reach. Milam singled before Jackson Hood (Madison; Germantown) blasted a 3-2 pitch deep over the wall for a two-run homer, becoming the second Wildcat with double-digit homers and extending the lead to 10-1.

A fly out and two more strikeouts in the seventh inning ended the game on the run rule for Pearl River, sending the Wildcats to the Regional Championship.

Clark moved to 6-2 on the season with 4 1/3 innings of one-run baseball. He allowed two hits, walked three and tallied seven strikeouts. Harrison was electric in 2 2/3 innings of work, striking out six of the nine batters he faced.

"Cam was competing and making big pitches," Avalon said. "He gave us some energy when he got out of the bases-loaded jam. Drew was really good behind him. Those two went really well together. Coach (Gavin) Schmidt said that he liked those two together tonight, and it worked really well."

Thompson, Milam, Hood and Garner each had two hits in the game. Thompson, Jones, Milam and Hood all had two RBIs. Thompson also scored three runs.

TICKETS

Tickets for the Region 23 Tournament are $15 per day and are on sale now at PRCCAthletics.com/tickets.

TUNE IN

All home Pearl River baseball games are livestreamed for free at PRCCMedia.com/Gold. Fans with Roku, Amazon Fire or Apple TV devices can also watch the Wildcat broadcasts by downloading the "Pearl River CC" channel from their app stores.

Games will also be available over the air in Pearl River County by tuning into 1320-AM and 106.9 FM. The radio broadcast is also available at WRJWRadio.com and by downloading the WRJW app.

For the latest on Pearl River Community College athletics, follow us on X (@PRCCAthletics) and Facebook (PRCCAthletics).