Ocean Springs, Pearl River Central break out the brooms; full 4/23 softball playoff round-up

OCEAN SPRINGS, MS (WLOX) - After flexing their muscles in their 2019 playoff debut - a 12-0 run rule of Pearl in six innings - the Ocean Springs softball team was back at home Tuesday night, and ready to break out the brooms.

The Lady Greyhounds swept Pearl with a 9-0 victory in game two, giving them a combined score of 21-0 for the series. Ocean Springs advances to the second round, beginning with a home contest against George County on Friday. The Lady Rebels ended Gulfport’s season with a sweep themselves, winning game two 6-2.

Elsewhere in Class 6A, Harrison Central swept their do-or-die doubleheader against Petal. With their backs against the wall after dropping game one, the Red Rebelettes rallied to beat Petal 9-0 and 3-1 to advance to the next round.

In a South Mississippi showdown, Pearl River Central broke out the long ball against Stone, using back-to-back solo homeruns by Isabel Martin and Payton Lee in the fifth inning to seal the deal. The Lady Blue Devils beat Stone 8-3, giving them a clean sweep of the first round series.

“It wasn’t going to be an easy game, but I thought we definitely came with our 'A' game and we knew what we had to do,” PRC senior Taylor Kauzlarich said. “We definitely made the plays we needed to play and you just have to be aggressive out there and I think we were today.”

“We have to clean up a bunch of things. It was good enough to win today and it was a really well coached team, Coach Gunter does a good job," PRC head coach Tony LaBella said. "There’s going to be a game at some point where one of those little mental lapses is going to cost us, so we’ve got to clean that up in practice tomorrow morning.”

PRC will be the only Class 5A team in our area to advance, as both Long Beach (8-7 loss to Wayne County) and West Harrison (4-3 loss to North Pike) see their seasons come to an end.

After taking a 1-0 series lead, Bay High fell couldn’t finish the job, droppings game two and three to Purvis by scores of 10-2 and 5-4.

Elsewhere in Class 4A, East Central and Vancleave both take game one victories, with the Lady Hornets beating Newton County 2-1 and the Lady Bulldogs beating Northeast Jones 2-1 in eight innings.

In our lone baseball playoff game of the night, the Gulfport Admirals saw their season come to an end, falling in walk-off fashion to Pearl 10-9.

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