By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

OCEAN SPRINGS — The annual “Battle at the Beach” is in its ninth year of bringing in some of the top prep baseball teams from cross the Southeast region to South Mississippi to compete against one another on a yearly basis.

But this season, a “Southern Six” squad proved to be one of the most effective of the over 80 teams involved in the annual affair.

Ocean Springs produced its third straight solid performance over a three night home-stand Wednesday night, dispatching perennial state power Oxford 7-3.

The Greyhounds, under the guidance of second-year head coach Ryan Long, moved to 8-3-1 on the season with the win, which wrapped up their portion of play in the BATB.

Long’s crew began the week with a 3-3 tie with yet another perennial state power Jackson Prep followed by a 3-0 shutout of St. John Neumann out of Naples, Fla, on Tuesday, annually a solid program in the Sunshine State.

“I thought we battled all week, and I felt like our kids really competed and played hard.” Long said. “We fell behind against Prep and Oxford and they didn’t flinch, we have a group that’s been in the thick of it and I think that experience plays big in the kinda games we’ve had this week. We’ve been struggling a little offensively and I thought we really grinded out at bats and kept the pressure on and took advantage of our chances. We played solid defense behind our pitchers who kept us in games, it took all hands on deck and guys found a way to contribute. We have some work to do and some things to clean up here and there, but overall it was an awesome week of great baseball all across the coast.”

In the latest win, OSHS overcame a slight 3-2 deficit with a five run rally in the bottom of the fifth frame to take a lead it would never relinquish.

The decisive inning started with the speedy JayVon Williams reaching base on an error, while Labaron Brumfield followed that with a single. Locas Sinopoli then tied the game up at 3-3 with a groundout to short that scored Williams.

Cannon Hensarling then singled, and A. J. Arguello walked to load up the bases with one out. Justin San Miguel then provided the big blow of the frame when he sliced a three-run, bases-clearing triple to right field to give the Greyhounds their first lead of the night at 6-3.

Two pitches later, San Miguel trotted home on a passed ball to complete the scoring.

The only other inning that saw any offense to speak of was the third frame, when Oxford tallied a trio of runs to snap a scoreless tie. Brady Maloney’s RBI-single was the key blow for the Chargers, while two more runs scored on walks with the bases-loaded.

The home team responded, though, in the bottom of the stanza on Hensarling’s two-run single to set the stage for the climactic fifth frame for the Greyhounds.

Hensarling, a Nicholls State signee, collected a team-high two hits for OSHS, and he also had those two RBIs. San Miguel’s three runs batted in were a game-high.

Oxford out-hit OSHS eight to seven, and the Chargers got a pair of hits apiece from Maloney, Hayes Huggins and Logan Dorrell in the losing effort.

Tristen Fox, the second of a trio of Greyhound hurlers, picked up the win on the hill with just over four frames of scoreless work striking out five.

Huggins took the loss.

Ocean Springs will host its third perennial Magnolia State state power of the week Friday, as Sumrall comes calling.