By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

VANCLEAVE — On the heels of a meeting between their male counterparts on the baseball diamond last week, the East Central and Vancleave girls face off on the softball kind this week.

The longtime arch-rivals will meet for the Class 5A South State championship and a berth in the Class 5A state championship series in Hattiesburg next week.

Game one is set for Thursday night in Hurley with game two in Vancleave Friday night.

And there is a bit of a slight twist to this rivalry affair as well, as the Lady Hornets are playing in their fourth straight Class 5A South State championship series while the Lady Bulldogs are trying to help get veteran head coach Donna Bragg a trip to the state finals in her last season at the helm. She is retiring after this season.

East Central stands a solid 24-4 overall, and is coming off a two game sweep of North Pike in the Class 5A South State Semifinal round. The Lady Hornets won game one 9-3 before taking game two 4-1.

In game one, Baleigh Tullos and Bree Phillips smacked home runs for ECHS while Madi Eubanks drove in a game-high three runs. Phillps, Breyona Tanner, Kailee Lawson and Valarie Merrill each collected two hits apiece in the winning effort. Tullos and Tanner each drove in two runs apiece.

Tanner picked up the pitching win.

In game two, Abbie Huff went the distance to pick up the complete game win.

Kinsey Cochran led the Lady Hornets at the plate with a game-high three hits, including a pair of triples, and Lillie Evans chipped in two hits to the winning effort. 

Meanwhile, Vancleave is also coming off a sweep in the previous round knocking off Florence in two close games.

In game two, Brooklyn Rhodes was dominant in the pitching circle for VHS as she hurled a complete game three-hit shutout to wrap up the series with a 1-0 win. She struck out six.

In game one, ECHS took a 3-2 win by scoring all three runs in the top of the seventh stanza on the road to pull out the win.

Rhodes also went the distance in that one to earn the win, striking out eight and scattering just three hits.

East Central, the Region 4-5A top see, swept Vancleave in a pair of regular season games this year taking a 6-2 road win and a 7-6 home decision. Vancleave finished as the second seed.