By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

For the second straight season, a pair of perennial state playoff participants in the “Southern Six” have gotten off to inauspicious starts in region play.

But, after last week, both Biloxi and East Central hope the end result is the same as last year once again.

Both the Indians and the Hornets sit in last place at 0-3 in their respective region races as week two play begins for each Tuesday night. Biloxi, which is coming off of a sweep at the hands of Ocean Springs in Region 4-7A action, faces arch-rival Gulfport in a three game set.

Meanwhile East Central, after being swept by defending Class 5A state champ Vancleave last week to open Region 4-5A ply, meets Stone this week in a three game series.

Last season, after the same exact results happened to both teams in their league-opening series, both teams rebounded late to qualify for their respective state playoffs brackets.

East Central, which one back-to-back Class 5A state titles in 2022 and 2023 before yielding the crown to VHS last season, has qualified for the south state playoffs for 15 years.

Visiting Vancleave won its sixth straight regular season game over longtime arch-rival East Central Saturday night.

The Bulldogs pulled out an 8-5 win in eight innings to wrap up their second straight three game sweep of the Hornets in the opening series for both teams in Region 4-5A play.

But Saturday, the Bulldogs had to rally to accomplish the feat again trailing 5-3 entering the top of the seventh stanza.

The Bulldogs moved to a solid 12-4 overall with the decision, while East Central dropped to 5-10.

Last season, ECHS finished the regular season strong and grabbed the third seed in Region 4-5A for state playoff purposes. The Hornets even went on to win a first round series for the fourth straight season as well.

Meanwhile, Ocean Springs completed a dominating three game sweep of Biloxi in the Region 4-7A opening series for both teams Saturday with a 5-1 win over the Indians here at The Biloxi High Sports Complex.

The win was the sixth straight for second year head coach Ryne Long’s Greyhounds, who are also unbeaten in their last seven games. Ocean Springs moves to 12-3-1 overall, while BHS falls to 6-8 overall.

After the same slow start last season Biloxi like East Central also rallied to seal the third seed in the region and avoided missing the state playoffs for the second time in four seasons and for just the fourth time in the past 22 years.