By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

GULFPORT — As play began in the first-ever Region 4-7A competition this season, Gulfport was coming off an appearance in the Class 6A state championship series last year while both Biloxi and D’Iberville won league titles in Region 8-6A and Region 7-6A, respectively, last season.
But on Saturday, when the dust finally settled in the newly expanded alignment, Ocean Springs was the last squad standing in the region race for the crown.
The Greyhounds raced into Herbert Wilson Field here and grounded Gulfport 9-5 to capture the Region 4-7A title outright. Ocean Springs finishes play with a 12-3 mark in the loop while the Admirals end up as the second seed at 10-5. It marks the first region title for OSHS in seven seasons, since winning Region 7-6A in 2017.

“Man, I’m so proud of these kids,” first-year OSHS head coach Rye Long said, after a jubilant celebration. “We haven’t played particularly well this week, but they answered the bell today. It took a lot of toughness to come out swinging today, we’ve talked a lot about the importance of winning on Saturdays and it being “championship Saturday” and that’s how they approached it today. Again can’t say enough about this group.”

After falling at home Friday night 7-2 to even the three game series up at a game apiece, the Greyhounds wasted no time taking a quick lead they would never relinquish scoring runs in each of the first five frames of the game to take a 8-0 advantage.
“We didn’t play well at all today,” veteran Gulfport head coach Jamie McMahon said. “They put some pressure and we did not handle it. They took advantage of every mistake and it cost us.”

Chris Fox smacked a two-run home run for OSHS in the first inning to get the Greyhounds off to a good start. Michael Diaz drove in a run on a ground out and Maddox Moreland delivered an RBI-double to make it 4-0 in the third frame.
Fox was back at it in a three run fourth, as he belted a two-run double and Cannon Hensarling added an RBI-double as well and suddenly OSHS was staring at the region title with a 7-0 lead.
Meanwhile, Hensarling was in complete control on the mound as the southpaw sailed through the first four stanzas scoreless against the Admirals before running aground a bit in the fifth.
After OSHS made it 8-0 in the top of the fifth, Gulfport responded with their first three runs of the game including an RBI-double from Prince Cottonham and an RBI sacrifice fly from Nico Williams.
Ethan Surowiec chipped in a solo home run for Gulfport in the bottom of the seventh to make the scoreboard look a little more presentable, but the die had been cast earlier in the game.

“We got a great effort on the mound by Cannon, him and Chris Fox really controlled the game from that standpoint.” Long added. “I thought we were much better offensively today, we went back to our approach and hit some balls right on the screws and got huge hits with runners in scoring position. We played error free baseball today as well, and to beat a team of that caliber you can’t give them extra outs.”

Diaz collected a game-high three hits to pace the Greyhounds at the plate, but Fox wielded the big stick at the plate as he posted the homer and double and drove in a game-high four runs.
Surowiec, Davis Ormes and Javin Childres each had two hits apiece for Gulfport.
Hensarling worked just over five frames to pick up the win, while Moreland finished up for OSHS on the hill.
Cottonham started and took the loss for the Admirals, as GHS ended up using five pitchers in the contest.