By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PEARL — And it all comes down to this.

Vancleave and Lafayette will face off here at Trustmark Park for the third time in four days Saturday night at 7 p.m., in the last athletic event of any type sanctioned by The Mississippi High School Activities Association this season.

And oh yeah, the Class 5A baseball state championship is on the line as well.

The Bulldogs bounced back to even up the best of three series at one game apiece with a workman-like 2-1 win Friday night here at the home of the Class AA Mississippi Braves. Both teams are trying to secure their second ever state title on the diamond in program history, with Vancleave’s only other crown coming in 2018 and Lafayette’s in 2006.

The Commodores won game one on Wednesday night 8-7 in a 12 inning marathon.

“I expect another dog fight,” Bulldogs sixth-year head coach Justin Edwards said. “We’ve had two of them already, no reason to expect anything different.”

Vancleave got a masterful mound performance from senior starting pitcher Tyler West in game two to stave off elimination and live to play one more day.

West tossed a complete game, scattering seven hits including six singles and had 11 strikeouts to improve to 11-2 on the season for Vancleave. It marked West’s 10th straight win, including four consecutive in the playoffs.

“Tyler has just continued to go out and give us quality starts and that one he pretty much put us on his back and he carried us,” Edwards added. “After the second inning we were struggling offensively because their guy settled in and kept us off balanced, so Tyler just took the baseball and said I’m going to win this game and I think that’s what he did.

“Tyler was unbelievable tonight, a fantastic outing.”

West got all of the support he would need from his teammates before he even stepped on the hill as the Bulldogs broke on top 2-0 in the top of the first frame.

Asher Henley singled to lead off the game Hunter Parker followed with a double that put runners at second and third. After an out, Hunter Harper’s run-scoring sacrifice fly plated Henley to give Vancleave a lead it would never relinquish at 1-0 and Layton Eder followed that with an RBI-double that scored Parker and it was 2-0.

And then, as the VHS offense cooled off, the Bulldogs turned it over to West. He allowed only an RBI-single to Foster Crockett with two outs in the bottom of the second in cruising to the win.

“No, I wasn’t surprised at the way we bounced back tonight,” Edwards concluded. “I thought we fought when we weren’t our best on the offensive side. Sometimes that’s just the case. Their arm (Trent Harris) was good. Gotta hand it to him. He really settled in nicely after the first. Fortunately, we had our dog on the mound that could carry us also.”

“Their guy was great. It was that simple, he was very good,” said Lafayette coach John Walker. “We didn’t put together any great at-bats tonight, we had some good hits so give him credit. We simply got beat tonight and Tanner Harris pitched really well tonight and that happens. We will be ready for tomorrow for Game 3 and see what happens. This is two very evenly matched teams.”

Edwards is expected to send yet another senior righty hurler to the hill in the rubber match in Levi Tapp, as the Bulldogs look to bring the fifth state baseball championship back to Jackson County in the past three seasons and their second in six years. Both Resurrection in Class 1A and Eat Central in Class 5A won the past two state titles in their respective classifications.

Levi Tapp, who saw action briefly in game one, has a recent history of success in game three action in the postseason on the mound for Vancleave. With the Bulldogs knotted up at one game apiece in the South State semifinals against longtime arch-rival and two-time and defending Class 5A state champion East Central, Tapp hurled a complete game five-hitter striking out six while walking none in earning the win in the series clinching win.