By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

LUCEDALE — Within the past decade, George County has played for the state baseball championship three times in two different classifications.
And now, with expansion moving the Rebels up a level this season, veteran head coach Brandon Davis and his crew suddenly have some observers feeling that they have their sights set on making a return trip to the title tilt.
George County has won seven of its nine games in Region 4-6A play, including five out of the last six in league play. The success has vaulted the Rebels into a three-way tie in the region race with a 7-2 mark along with both Picayune and Hancock.

George County, which begins a three game region series with Pascagoula on the road Tuesday night, is coming off of back-to-back wins over previous league-leader Picayune to end last week.
After dropping game one when Picayune rallied from an early 4-0 deficit to pull out a 6-5 win, GCHS nipped the Maroon Tide 2-1 in game two in eight innings and then posted a 10-0 shutout in the rubber match on Saturday to take the series.

George County is currently ranked second behind Pearl River Central in the SouthMiss6 Sports “Super 7” Poll.
“We got some Clutch hitting in game two by Blane Green and Cayler Havard to go with a great pitching performance by Preston Macadory and Canyon Reeves,” Davis said. “Saturday we did an outstanding job of executing on offense and an outstanding performance on the mound by Carson Pierce. In both games, we played solid defense.”

That pair of back-to-back impressive pitching performances Davis mentioned were key for the Rebels and if combined with the usual strong outing on the hill by Rebel number one starter Andrew Nielsen could be an important factor down the stretch and into the upcoming Class 6A South State playoffs for GCHS.
On Friday night, Havard’s walk-off run-scoring double provided the winning run with one out in the extra frame at Claude Passeau Field just as Picayune was on the verge of really taking control of the region race. Green led off the eighth with a double and Havard then delivered his key blow.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth when Tripp Lightsey gave the Rebels a brief 1-0 lead with an RBI-single.

Canyon Reeves picked up the pitching win with two innings of work in relief of Peyton McAdory.
Less than 18 hours later, the Rebels got all the drama out of the way early on Saturday with a 10-0 win in just five frames.
Perhaps feeding off of the momentum from the night before, George County jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead with a run in the top of the first frame and then put the game away with six runs in the third inning.
Ben Davis, Green and Gage Reeves each had a pair of hits apiece to pace the Rebels at the plate, while Jacob Eubanks added a double. Davis, Reeves and Eubanks all drove in two runs apiece in the winning effort.
Carson Pierce went the distance for the shortened complete game win limiting Picayune to just one hit in five frames.

Heading into that series with Picayune, the Rebels were coming off a sweep of Long Beach and a series win over West Harrison taking two out of three from the Hurricanes to open region play. George County got off to a 7-0 this season start facing a pretty stout schedule before swinging into league action and the Rebels stand a solid 16-3 overall heading into the series with Pascagoula.
Gage Reeves is tearing the proverbial cover off of the ball for GCHS this season, hitting at a .446 clip with four home runs 20 RBIS, all of which are team-highs. Ben Davis is right around that .400 mark as well at .393, while Alex Wade, Tripp Lightey and Green are all at .365 or better.

Lightsey has driven in 16 runs, while the sophomore Havard, Davis and Nielsen all have 15 RBIs apiece. Nielsen and Havard each have cracked three home runs apiece also.

Head coach Davis led the Rebels to the Class 5A state finals in 2015 and the Class 6A state championship round in 2016 and 2018. George County needs just one more win to clinch a state playoff berth this season, but if the past two weeks is any indication the Rebels have a much further postseason journey in mind this season just like that trio of trips in the past decade.