By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

While one defending state prep baseball champion from Jackson County began region play last week, yet another follows suit this week.
But the situation facing East Central is much different.
The Hornets, coming off back-to-back Class 5A state championship campaigns, head to Vancleave Tuesday night to open Region 4-5A action against one of their longest-running rivals in the Bulldogs.
Not to mention, in all likelihood, Vancleave is the main contender to vie for the league regular season crown with ECHS this year.
The Hornets and Bulldogs meet in a three game series this week, beginning at “The Landing” Tuesday night then heading to Hurley Friday night before returning to VHS for a matinee Saturday afternoon.

These two longtime arch-rivals are responsible for three state championships between them in the past five seasons, as Vancleave won the 2018 Class 4A state title followed by the Hornets’ recent Gold Ball run.
Both squads are off to pretty solid starts as each faced a pretty demanding non-region portion of their respective schedules. East Central stands 6-4 overall and Vancleave sits at 7-5.
The Hornets lost seven starters off last year’s Class 5A state title winning team.
“Getting off to a good start (as far as the record goes) was more important this year than ever,” veteran Hornets mentor Bo Long said recently. “With so many new faces in the lineup, they needed to see that they know how to find ways to win games and they’ve done a great job of that so far.”
Due to weather-related issues, the Hornets have played just one game in the past 10 days. East Central fell to Baker High out of Mobile, Ala., 6-2 last week.
Cody Baria had two hits to lead ECHS at the pate, while Anthony Tanner and Matt Combs each had a double and Peyton Maclean and Nate Trochessett each drove in a run apiece in the loss.

Vancleave head baseball coach Justin Edwards reached a career milestone on Saturday afternoon.
Edwards, in his sixth season at the helm of the Bulldogs, picked up his 100th career win at VHS in a 6-3 win over visiting Hancock.
Edwards took over the Bulldog program after the 2018 state championship season ended, when Daniel Best left VHS for the top spot at Brandon High School after guiding the Bulldogs to a 29-7 record and the 2018 Class 4A state title.

All Edwards, who came to Vancleave from Gulfport High after serving six seasons as an assistant coach under Jamie McMahon, has done is average right at 20 wins a game during his tenure and led the Bulldogs to four state playoff appearances in five seasons. The only year VHS did not make the playoffs was when the season was cut short in 2020 due to COVID.
On Saturday, Bulldog senior Hunter Parker made sure that his head coach got that historic win just before Vancleave begins Region 4-5A play this week as he tallied a game-high three hits and drove in a run while Asher Henley drove in a pair of runs in the winning effort as well. Aidan Tapp had two hits for VHS also.
Tanner West picked up the win on the mound.

The other defending back-to-back state champion out of Jackson County is resurrection. The Eagles swept Lumberton in a pair of games last week to open Region 8-1A action and now have won 38 straight league games.