By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

LUCEDALE — For the second consecutive night, George County junior Ben Davis smacked a home run against Hancock.

And, for the second straight night, the Rebels won a close Region 4-6A battle over Hawks by scoring two runs in their final at bat.

But, the second straight exciting finish resulted in George County’s first region title in eight years.

The home-standing Rebels slipped past Hancock 3-2 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh inning Friday night. The win moved GCHS to a solid 13-2 in the region race and gives it the top seed in the loop for the upcoming Class 6A South State playoffs.

“We do a lot of little things right and so far have come up with big hits when it matters and got huge outs when it matters,” GCHS veteran head coach Brandon Davis said. “I really think the biggest difference is that they don’t panic and they don’t give up.”

Trailing 2-1 since the top of the fourth frame, the Rebels threatened a bit but still needed to rally entering their final at bat to hold off Picayune in the region race.

The younger Davis, the son of the head coach, and Blaine Green got things rolling with back to back bases on balls to led off the bottom of the seventh.

After Hancock recorded an out, and both runners moved up on a passed ball, Cayler Havard’s run-scoring fielders choice drove in Davis to knot things up at 2-2. An intentional walk to Tripp Lightsey loaded up the bases, and Garrett Dixon followed that stroking a run-scoring single to right field for the walk-off, game-winning hit.

“Base running mistakes almost cost us the game, but baseball’s a funny game,” the elder Davis added. “The guys who made the mistakes made up for it later in the game. We can score from anywhere in the lineup, and we have the pitching and defense to keep us in games until we can score.”

On Thursday night, in yet another crucial region contest, the younger Davis belted a solo home run to lead off the top of the ninth inning and snap a 2-2 tie en route to a 4-2 win in the Kiln. The Rebels won three out of their final four region games in their final at bat of the contest, including two of those in extra innings.

Friday night, Davis cracked his second straight solo shot in two at bats, as he deposited the fifth pitch he saw from Hancock starter Brandon Arcement over the right field fence at Claude Passeau Field for his third home run of the season.

But that would be all Arcement would allow until the fateful seventh stanza. While he was shutting down the Rebels over their next five at bats, Landon Shields came up with an RBI-double in the second for the Hawks to tie the affair up at 1-1 and then two innings later Chace Brown gave HHS the lead at 2-1 with a run-scoring double of his own.

Brodi Ceechi, the third of three GCHS pitchers, picked up the win with less than an inning of work after he recorded the final two outs in the top of the seventh. He combined with both Carson Pierce and Gage Reeves to limit Hancock to just five hits. 

Arcement eclipsed the 100-pitch mark working into the seventh stanza, but suffered the tough luck loss even though he departed after the two walks to lead off the frame. Aroyn Howard replaced him and finished up as the Rebels pulled out the win.

Dixon collected a game-high three hits to lead the game-winning 10-hit attack, while Havard added a pair of hits also. Havard and Gage Reeves each doubled and Davis had the solo homer.

Shields, Brown and Hunter Kuhn each had a double apiece for the Hawks.

Picayune beat Long Beach 3-2 Friday night to also finish 13-2 in Region 4-6A play. But George County took two out of three league games from the Maroon Tide two weeks ago giving the Rebels the head-to-head tiebreaker and George County’s first region title since 2016.

“I’ve coached a lot of talented teams in my career with talented individuals on the team,” the elder Davis, who has guided the Rebels to the state title series three different times in two different classifications over the past decade, concluded. “But this is one of the best baseball teams I’ve ever had the privilege of coaching.”