By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

WIGGINS — Stone snapped Vancleave’s 23-game Region 4-5A win streak Tuesday night.

The home-standing Tomcats nipped the defending Class 5A state champions 5-4 in eight innings. The defeat was the first in league play for the Bulldogs in one year and three weeks, since the first game of region play last season.

Vancleave still retains the top spot in the region race after the result at 9-1 with five games to go, while Stone took a big step towards returning to the Class 5A South State playoffs moving to an even 5-5.

Nolan Scott’s RBI-single scored pinch runner Jaxon Miller for the walk-off win with two outs in the bottom of the extra inning.

“The kids played hard from the first pitch to the last pitch,” Tomcat head coach Sean Miller said. “We pitched well and played good defense. We also had some timely hits. We have still yet to play a complete game all year. But our kids found a way to win so it’s a step in the right direction.”

The two squads swapped leads throughout the first five frames, before Braxton Jones’ RBI-single plated Jhase Jackson to knot things up at 4-4 in the bottom of the fifth setting the stage for the climactic ending.

Scott collected two hits and drove in two runs to pace Stone at the plate, while Jackson had two hits as well.

Kellan Burge started and tossed the first five frames for the Tomcats, before Jones came on in relief and followed up with three one-hit, score-less stanzas to earn the win. The two Tomcat tossers combined to limit Vancleave to just four hits.

Vancleave ace southpaw Hunter Harper tossed seven innings before Max Bates relieved and couldn’t make it out of the final frame to take the loss.

Bates had the only extra base hit of the game with a double for the Bulldogs with an RBI-double in the second.