By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

HURLEY — East Central heads to Laurel Thursday night to wrap up a three game series in Region 4-5a play.

And, after a bit of a slow start to both the season and in the region race, the Hornets are looking to use another win over the Golden Tornadoes to power a strong finish to the regular season and homefield advantage in the opening round of the state playoffs.

East Central swept visiting Laurel in a doubleheader on Tuesday, giving the Hornets their fourth straight league win. Veteran head coach Bo Long, who guided the Hornets to back-to-back Class 5A state championships in 2022 and 2023, had guided ECHS to seven region wins in their past eight outings as the Hornets head to “The City Beautiful” Thursday night.

“When you play the schedule that we do on the front end, it can feel like a slow start even if things aren’t quite as bad as they seem,” Long said. “If my math is right, we need to beat Laurel and then take two out of three next week (against Wayne County) and we should be the two seed. That will be huge for us.”

On Tuesday, the Hornets quickly ended the opener after the top of the third inning at 10-0.

Jaxon Cripps had a two-run home run and an RBI-single in the seven run first frame for the Hornets, while Pacey Baria collected a three-run double also in the inning.

Matthew Combs smacked a two-run home run in the second stanza.

Porter Martin, who had an RBI-single in the first inning also, worked all three innings to get the win on the hill.

The road back home didn’t get any better for the Golden Tornadoes in the nightcap as the Hornets recorded a 13-0 shutout that also lasted just three LHS turns at bat.

Combs had two doubles and drove in three for ECHS, while both Brody Long and Cripps had two hits and drove in a run each.

Long got the win on the mound.

Vancleave, which swept ECHS in the opening week of league play, leads the loop at 9-1 while East Central sits at 7-4 and Wayne County is 6-4 after knocking off Gautier Tuesday 14-5. While ECHS ends its series with Laurel Thursday night, the Vancleave-Stone affair and the War Eagles-Gators match-up will close out each with games Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Vancleave and Wayne County face off to wrap up the regular season next week in a key series, while Gautier and Stone battle next week as well.