By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PEARL — Vancleave has ridden the success of a solid starting pitching staff to the verge of a Class 5A state baseball championship this season.

And the Bulldogs will look for those hurlers to continue that solid work on the mound this week as they face Lafayette for all the marbles.

Game one in the best of three Class 5A state championship series is set for Wednesday night at 7 p.m., here at Trustmark Park, home of the Class AA Mississippi Braves. Game two will follow at the same time on Friday night, and a third and deciding game if needed would be contested at some point on Saturday.

Vancleave has powered its way to six wins in seven playoff games this season, thanks in large part to a prolific one-two punch from its starting pitchers in Hunter Harper and Tyler West along with the occasional effective outing from third starter Levi Tapp thrown in.

“Our starting pitching has been the backbone for us, especially throughout this playoff run,” sixth-year Vancleave head coach Justin Edwards said. “(Pitching coach Jason) Coach McDonald has those guys well prepared for their outings and we’ve gotten very quality starts from Harper, West, and Levi Tapp.”

And one needs only to look back to the last two rounds of the playoffs to see that. Against longtime arch-rival East Central, in the Class 5A South State semifinals, Vancleave bounced back from a loss in the first game with two straight wins to survive and advance.

After the Hornets got to Harper in game one in a 4-1 win for ECHS, West, a senior right-hander, twirled a 3-0 shutout on the road in game two to even the series up. West, facing the two-time and back-to-back Class 5A state champions on their home field with his teams season on the brink of elimination, went the distance in the masterful performance picking up the win striking out six and scattering five hits and walking just one in the dominant outing.

Tapp, also a senior righty, then followed that up with a complete game outing in a 4-1 win in the rubber match of the series scattering five hits and striking out six while walking none in earning the win.

“Levi Tapp was phenomenal on the mound. He pounded the strike zone and competed all night long against a good offensive team,” Edwards said, after the game.

Harper, who led off the VHS playoff run with a complete game three-hitter in a 7-1 win over North Pike, then took the mound and set the tone in game one in the Class 5A South State championship on the road against South Jones and paved the way to an 8-1 thumping of the Braves.

The junior southpaw dominated South Jones, as he went the distance on the mound to pick up the win allowing six hits while striking out seven and walking none and out-dueled Southern Miss signee and Class 5A “Mr. Baseball” Cole Richardson in the process.

West then secured Vancleave’s first trip to the state championship round in six years with his second consecutive Saturday shutout performance as he dominated the Braves from start to finish in picking up the win on the hill in game two 3-0. He scattered just two hits and struck out seven in blanking the Braves. It marked just the third time this season that South Jones suffered a shutout.

That trio of runs would be all West would need to secure his third straight win in the playoffs and ninth straight overall. He hasn’t lost a game since late February against George County, and he has a record of 10-2 and an earned run average of right at 1.00 with 87 strike outs.

Harper, who is expected to take the hill in game one on Wednesday, is 7-2 this season and has been Vancleave’s number one starter most of the year and brings an ERA of right at 2.00 into the title tilt.

Also, in addition to his game three heroics against East Central, Tapp was key in several of the Region 4-5A series finales this season as well

“They’ve all been extremely efficient, they have all gone after hitters and filled up the strike zone,” Edwards concluded. “None of the three rely on overpowering stuff, but they can all throw three pitches for strikes and all are extremely competitive.”