By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

KILN — Region 4-6A foes Hancock and George County are set to face off in the Class 6A South State championship series.

Game one is in Lucedale Thursday night in the best-of-three series, with a berth in the Class 6A state championship series in Hattiesburg next week on the line.

The teams split a pair of league games against one another this season, with each team winning at home over five weeks ago. George County picked up a 10-6 while Hancock registered a 3-2 win. The run differential resulted in the Lady Rebels taking the top seed in the region while HHS took second for playoff purposes.

The Lady Hawks got to this round with a sweep of Picayune last week. Hancock won game one at home Thursday 6-0 and then headed to Picayune Friday to seal the series with a 7-3 decision.

In game two, Brooklyn Cuevas smacked a two-run home run for Hancock while Tegan DeWitt slashed a pair of doubles and drove in a run for HHS and collected a game-high three hits. Cambria Necaise posted an RBI-triple, and Abigail Carver had a triple also. Chaley Peterson had an RBI-double and Brylie Smith also had a double. Carver and Smith had two hits apiece.

Kaigyn Kulas had two hits to pace Picayune at the plate, while Brooklyn Kellar and Skylar Timmons each drove in a run apiece.

Peterson picked up the pitching win with help from DeWitt. Hayley Pascal took the loss.

In game one, DeWitt hurled a four-hit complete game shutout to blank Picayune. She struck out 14 and walked just one in the dominating performance in the circle.

The Lady Hawks had five doubles in the series opener as well, one each from Cuevas, Taylor Dunbar, DeWitt, Peterson and Kenleigh McIver. Dunbar and Peterson each drove in two runs apiece, while Dunbar recorded a game-high three hits and Cambria Necaise chipped in with two hits to the winning effort.

Allie Bond took the pitching loss for Picayune.