Blue Devils' season ends in South State
Carriere—West Jones beat Pearl River Central 8-3 on Friday night to complete a sweep of their series after the Mustangs won Game 1 by a score of 8-1 on Wednesday night in Soso.
Down 8-0 in Game 2, Pearl River Central plated three runs in the bottom of the seventh on a bases-loaded walk to Ethan Songy and Austin Dean followed with a single to left to drive in two runs for the Blue Devils.
Mason Treat shows the ball to the umpire after tagging the runner at second base on a pick off throw from catcher Hayden Dunhurst.
Junior Austin Diebold and freshman Dustin Robinson pitched for PRC.
The Blue Devils finished the season with a 23-13 record. West Jones improved to 27-5 and will play the winner of the Satillo – Lafayette series for the State Championship next week in Pearl.
Click on photo below for slide show of pictures from Game 2.
Head Coach Neil Walther reflected on his team’s season and his seniors.
“First, I want to say we just talked to those seniors and they just had a great run of four years with 98 wins, three South State appearances, and a State Championship (2017). I told them we have a successful baseball program and the most important thing is they take what they learned, not just baseball, but the other things with them in their lives and pass it on to their families and their children for years down the road,” said Walther.
“I feel we have good, high character kids and we just ran into a team that is playing really good baseball right now. I don’t think our guys ever gave in. They kept fighting every pitch and we did score three times there at the end when it can be easy to just lay down, but we didn’t do it.”
“We have a lot of guys coming back with experience for next years. We have a great coaching staff and they’ve already got plans for next year.”
