By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PASCAGOULA — Resurrection’s quest for a third straight Class 1A state championship remains alive.

For the second consecutive Saturday, at home with their backs against the proverbial wall, the Eagles responded in fine fashion and staved off elimination this time with an 8-0 win over visiting Taylorsvile in game two of the Class 1A South State finals. Resurrection dropped an exciting 3-2 loss on the road in game one on Thursday.

Now, RCS will play its fourth elimination game in its past five games as it heads back to Smith County Monday night for the rubber match with the Tartars with a trip to the Class 1A overall state finals on the line.

“Again, the kids responded well with the season on the line,” second year RCS head coach Aron Frederic said. “We got off to a really good start, from the first at bat of the game. The senior leadership on this team showed today.”

And one of those seniors, shortstop Justin San Miguel, set the one for the night right off the bat for RCS when he smacked a solo home run over the center field fence to lead off the bottom of the first for the Eagles.

But the home team was far from done. The Eagles then loaded the bases with two outs, and Harris Hinkle drew a walk to make it 2-0 followed by Phillip Lauchassee doing the same to raise the total to 3-0. Bryce Brown’s ground ball was misplayed into a two-run error by the Tartars, and before most fans were settled into their seats RCS had a commanding 5-0 lead entering the second stanza.

And that really would be all senior pitcher Trace Tingle would need to keep the RCS season alive for at least one more game. All he did was hurl a complete game, one-hit shutout striking out 11 in a dominating performance to pickup the win on the hill.

“Trace showed the competitor that he is in the performance he had on the mound tonight,” Frederic added.

Just for good measure, Tingle decided to get in on the fun offensively as well as he smashed a solo home run to lead off the second to make it 6-0.

San Miguel’s RBI-single in the third made it 7-0, and Michael Wayne Decoteau completed the scoring with a run-scoring sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Tingle walked four and his teammates committed two errors behind him.

He worked his way out of a two on, one out pickle in the op of the fourth by striking out back-to-back Tartars to end the threat.

Taylorsville’s Ty Barnes then led off the top of the seventh with the only hit of the night for his team, a triple, and Tingle then hit the next batter. But he induced the next Tartar hitter to line into a double and then closed the win out with a ground ball out.

San Miguel had game-high totals in hits with two and RBIs with two, and Carter McCammon had a double for the Eagles.

“On Friday night, I thought that we played well enough to win, it just did not work out for us.” Frederic concluded. “We could not get anything going after the first inning. We had some opportunities late but it didn’t go our way. But now, we’ll go back to Taylorsville with a chance to advance.”

Last week, RCS welcomed in Ethel in game two of that Class 1A South State semifinal series after also dropping game one of that series on the road. The Eagles won game two on Saturday 9-0 and then won game three on the road 9-8 Monday night to survive and advance.