By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

GULFPORT — Home-standing Gulfport rallied past Oak Grove Tuesday night to wrap up an opening round win in the Class 7A South State playoffs.

The Admirals trailed 6-3 entering the bottom of the sixth stanza after the Warriors broke a 3-3 tie with three runs in the top of the inning. But Gulfport erupted for four runs of its own in the bottom of the frame to pull out the improbable win in the rubber match of the three game affair.

“Two good teams just went at it for three games,” Gulfport veteran head coach Jamie McMahon said. “It was a great win for us to come back after being down three in the sixth. I’m really proud of our guys and how they picked each other up and kept competing.”

After the Warriors broke open the 3-3 tie with those three runs in the top of the sixth, Davis Ormes got Gulfport rolling on the comeback trail immediately as he led off the bottom of the frame with a solo home run to cut the deficit to 6-4. Ethan Garner added an RBI-single as well in the inning, and another run scored on an Oak Grove error to tie things up at 6-6. Prince Cottonham then delivered the decisive fourth run of the frame with an run-scoring sacrifice fly to centerfield to plate the go ahead run.

“I did not,” McMahon replied, when asked if he gave any type of motivational speech to his troops with their season on the line. “We had talked about just competing going into the game, so that was kind of what they kept talking about.”

Admiral bullpen ace Thomas Stennis then came on to try and save the game, but he struggled a bit in the top of the seventh hitting a pair of Warrior batters before finally working his way out of a two-on, two-out jam to seal the big win.

Garner and Javin Childres had two hits apiece to guide Gulfport at the plate, while Ethan Surowiec drove in a pair of runs with a two-run home run that provided that 3-3 tie in the bottom of the fifth frame. Both Childres and Joel Smith each had a double for GHS.

Surowiec, the second of a trio of Admiral pitchers, picked up the in and Stennis got a save.

Up next for Gulfport is a match-up with Northwest Rankin in the Class 7A South State semifinals beginning Thursday in Brandon.