By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

For the second time in three days, Stone thumped Laurel in three innings to maintain its grip on the top spot in Region 4-5A Thursday night.
The Tomcats tore through the Golden Tornadoes 16-1 in the latest outing, and that comes on the heels of a 14-0 thumping on the road Tuesday night.
The Tomcats moved to 8-0 in the region race with the mercy-rule win, while the Golden Tornadoes drop to 0-6. The two teams are slated to meet again Friday night back in Laurel.
Stone led just 1-0 after the first frame, but followed that meager start up with nine runs in the second stanza and six more in the third inning to end the game early.
Conner Tice had a two-run triple to lead the Tomcats at the plate in the win, while Daylan Collins, Anderson Hickman, K.J.Galloway and Nolan Scott all drove in runs for Stone as well.
Tice hurled all three frames on the mound to pick up the win.

On Friday, the Tomcats go for their third straight sweep in Region 5-4A action following taking three wins from both of Wayne County and East Central.
And speaking of the Hornets, the back-to-back defending Class 5A state champions took another lump in the region race as Gautier knocked off the visiting Hornets 8-5 Thursday night.
The Gators overcame an early 4-0 deficit after East Central’s first turn at bat to rally and pull out the win.

Trailing 5-4 entering the bottom of the fourth frame, the Gators exploded for four runs to pull out the win. The winning rally began when Christopher Nelson hit a fly ball that the Hornets misplayed into a game-tying error as Issac Lopez crossed the plate to make it 5-5. Matthew Tanner followed with a run-scoring sacrifice fly to give Gautier its first lead of the night at 6-5, and a few batters later a ground ball off of the bat of Enrique Flores scored two runs when the Hornet infield kicked it around a bit.
East Central’s Anthony Tanner cracked a three-run home run in that big first frame for the Hornets to give ECHS a quick 3-0 lead and then Matthew Combs followed that up with a solo shot of his own to make it 4-0.
Frederick Nicholson and Flores each had run-scoring singles in a three-run first for the Gators as they wasted no time in bouncing back immediately.

Nicholson and Lopez had two hits apiece for Gautier in the big win. Tanner picked up the win on the hill. The Gators moved to 3-4 in the region race and pushed back ahead of the Hornets in the standings as ECHS dropped to 2-6.
Combs and Peyton McLean had two hits apiece in the loss for ECHS, while Tanner’s three RBIs were a game-high and Combs added a pair.
The two teams are slated to complete their three game region series Friday night back in Hurley, where the Hornets took a 6-3 win Tuesday night.