By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PASS CHRISTIAN — With the prep soccer playoffs in full swing and the basketball playoffs tipping off, Monday will also see the beginning of yet another high school baseball season not only in the “Southern Six” but across the state of Mississippi as well.
Almost all of the 24 squads in the “Southern Six” got rolling over the weekend with various “scrimmage” games, but beginning on Monday the games will begin to count for the next three plus months.
There are several interesting games to kick off the season on Monday, including an all “Southern Six” clash in Pass Christian as the Pirates take on visiting Hancock.
“We are excited to get started,” sixth-year Pass Christian head coach Ricky Smith said Sunday afternoon. “Our kids have done everything we’ve asked of them to get ready to play and I look forward to watching them compete. We’ve been dealing with some injuries, but it’s next man up and we will get a lot of guys some varsity experience on the first few games.”

That game will pit a pair of veteran head coaches against one another, as Smith and his crew welcome in the Hawks and Anthony Dewitt.
That contest in the Pass isn’t the only one on Monday featuring an all “Southern Six” affair, as three other similar season-openers see the same scenario as St. Patrick travels to Bay High and Harrison Central heads to St. Stanislaus while Long Beach travels to D’Iberville.
Elsewhere, Picayune battles Petal in an intriguing season-opening match-up in Poplarville at Dub Herring Field on the campus of Pearl River Community College in the Wildcats’ annual season-opening multi-day event.
In addition, Moss Point meets both Lumberton and Perry Central in a two game set at PCHS.
On Tuesday, Poplarville and Pearl River Central tangle at PRCC, while St. Patrick and Bay High face off again.
Quite a few teams won’t get started until later in the week, though, including both Pascagoula and Ocean Springs.

The Panthers and Greyhounds are the only two “Southern Six” squads with new head coaches in place this season, as Colton Caver takes over the Panther program and Ryne Long assumes the helm of the Greyhounds.
Pascagoula opens at home Thursday night, hosting defending two-time Class 5A state champion East Central while OSHS hits the road to open the year across the state line at Mary G. Montgomery just outside of Mobile in Semmes, Ala.

Resurrection, like ECHS also coming off two back-to-back state titles but in Class 1A, heads to Greene County Monday to begin the new season.