By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

A trio of Region 4-7A members in the “Southern Six” are all vying to win their first-ever Class 7A South State playoff series.

And all three of those series are coming down to a pivotal game three Tuesday night.

Two of the contests will take place on the Gulf Coast, with the third going down closer to the state capital.

Both Ocean Springs and Gulfport, the top two seeds from the league, will host the deciding game in the best-of-three series’ while third seed Biloxi heads to Brandon for that rubber match.

The Greyhounds, who captured the first-ever Region 4-7A regular season crown, host Petal Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Both teams have won games on the road so far in the affair, as Ocean Springs evened their series with the Panthers taking a 4-2 win on the road Saturday night. The Panthers came into “The Tom” Friday night to open the best-of-three affair and returned home with a 5-2 win, and now the teams are right back at the same venue to decide which team moves on to the. Class 7A South State semifinals.

“”That was a big win obviously to stay alive,” first-year OSHS head coach Ryne Long said, after the game. “It was a struggle early, we hit some balls hard right at them and they made some really good defensive plays. We just battled, this time of year you gotta have guys step up in big spots and we did enough tonight to win.”

In Gulfport, at Herbert Wilson Field, the Admirals host perennial state power Oak Grove in the third and deciding game in that series Tuesday night at 7 also. 

The Warriors kept their season alive in the first round of the Class 7A playoffs with a tough 4-3 victory over Gulfport Saturday night in Game 2 of the best-of-three series at Harry Breland Field,

“We were prepared for a three-game series,” said Gulfport coach Jamie McMahon. “We play three-game (region) series on the Coast, and it’s a grind for us, but we’ve got a No. 3 started and a couple of other guys ready to go.”

Gulfport won game one at home Friday night 2-1 in the first of back-to-back one run decisions in this series. Nico Williams led the Admirals pitching attack in that win, giving up only two hits while striking out eleven batters in five and a third innings. 

“They have a great atmosphere up there and they have a great team,” said Williams. “But we played for State last year, so we know this environment and know how to handle it. We’ve done really well with not letting the moment get too big, and I think we’ll be ready.”

Biloxi heads to Brandon after staving off elimination at home on Saturday with a 5-1 win over the Bulldogs. After falling on the road Friday night in game one 7-3, the Indians returned home and knocked off the Bulldogs by that four run deficit at The Biloxi Sports Arena to force game three. The last game of all three of the series was originally set for Monday night but postponed a day due to weather-related issues.

On Saturday, Biloxi got a complete game pitching performance from Will Miles in the win. Miles allowed only four hits and struck out just two and walked just one in the impressive outing to earn the win.