By STAN CALDWELL/Sports Writer

HATTIESBURG — Pearl River Central will have to wait at least one more day to celebrate a region championship.

The Blue Devils ran into a buzz saw Thursday night, as Hattiesburg cruised to a 9-2 victory in a Region 3-6A battle at Smokie Harrington Park. PRC (16-8 overall) remains atop the region standings 6-2, a half-game ahead of West Jones, which plays a doubleheader at Terry on Friday.

The Blue Devils can still clinch the title with a win at Carriere Friday or a Mustang loss. The Tigers (12-8, 4-4) are locked into the 3-seed in the region.

“Give them credit,” said Pearl River Central coach Buddy Turnage. “I texted their coach last night and told him they have a great team. So competing against them, you have to bring your A game and I didn’t feel like we did that tonight.”

Hattiesburg put the Blue Devils on their heels right from the outset.

HHS freshman right-hander Amari Hill wasted little time getting the Tigers back in the dugout in the first inning, needing just nine pitches to get out of the inning. Five came on an at-bat from PRC junior Blake Gill, who reached on an infield single, but was left there.

Like their pitcher, the Tigers wasted little time jumping on sophomore right-hander J.J. Morrealle. Hattiesburg got he first two batters on base with a sharp single by senior Joseph Polk Jr. and a walk to senior Rod Page.

Senior Romarion Wilson drove both runners home with a double into the gap in right-centerfield, and HHS never looked back.

“I thought they did a good job, though, when he did miss a spot, they barreled it up,” said Turnage. “Not a lot of teams do that to him. I thought they had really good approaches at the plate, and it just went in their favor.”

The Tigers might have scored more than two runs in the first, but they ran themselves into two outs at third base, then loaded the bases with a pair of walks. However, Morrealle got out of the inning with a groundout.

But he wasn’t able to get through the second, as HHS posted three more runs to take a commanding lead. After getting a flyball out to open the inning, Polk reached on a dropped ball in the outfield, then Page and Wilson were both hit by a pitch to load the bases.

Junior Tyler Weatherspoon drove in a run on an infield single in the hole at third base, and two more runs scored on a single by junior D.J. Johnson. That brought an end to Morrealle’s night, with freshman right-hander Eric Mavor coming on.

Mavor got the Blue Devils out of further trouble, with a pair of groundouts, and he kept them in the game until the later innings.

“Coach told me to just fill it up, see what happens,” said Mavor. “Put the ball in play, get some outs and get out of the inning.”

The fast start was just the tonic for the Tigers, who lost a 5-4 walk-off heartbreaker on Tuesday at Carriere.

“The main goal tonight was to not be hungover from that emotional game on Tuesday,” said Hattiesburg coach Brent Barham. “We knew they’d come out fighting, but when you’ve got a guy like Amari Hill get on the mound and fill it up like he did was big for us.

“And one of our best players tonight was The Smoke. Having this big of an outfield and the speed we have helped keep a lot of balls in that were just routine fly balls. ‘Welcome to The Smoke,’ as we say when a ball’s hit pretty deep for an out.”

And that was indeed a big factor, as the Blue Devils smashed three balls in the first two innings that would have been home runs in any other park, and to be fair, the Tigers had a couple like that as well.

“It is a big park, but I thought we handled it well,” said Turnage. “And the thing is, they hit a couple of balls that would have been out anywhere else.

“But I thought we handled how big this park is really well tonight, and I didn’t feel like that was a factor. They just stayed on top of the ball and hit more line drives than we did.”

Mavor gave PRC a chance to catch its breath and start a comeback bid by retiring the Tigers in order in the third and fourth innings and the Blue Devils scored a run in each inning.

With two out in the third, Morrealle, now in the designated hitter position, hit an opposite-field double into the gap in left-centerfield and scored on a single by sophomore Kendall Morrison, who wound up on third when the throw from the outfield skipped into the HHS dugout.

But Hill got out of the potential jam on the next pitch with a flyball out to shallow rightfield.

In the fourth, sophomore Landyn Wilson drew a walk, went to second on a single by sophomore Talon Cipriano and took third on a walk to load the bases.

The run scored on a fielder’s choice up the middle that resulted in an error when the relay for the double play was misplayed, resulting in runners at the corners.

But once again, Hill used his next pitch to get out of the inning on a ground ball to third, then retired PRC in order in the fifth.

And after retiring the first eight batters he faced, Hattiesburg finally got to Mavor for a run in the bottom of the fifth, then added three more in the sixth, with Hill (4-1) working around a one-out walk to nail down the victory, and he needed just 91 pitches to finish it off.

“We swung the bats really well tonight,” said Barham. “We had a good practice yesterday, and the kids are great with the so what, next pitch mentality. Next game, next inning, it’s just having a short-term memory.”

That was pretty much the message Turnage delivered to his team as they prepare for Friday’s rubber game in the three-game series.

“The thing I always preach to our guys is we have to worry about the game that is in front of us,” said Turnage. “Ever if we had won tonight, we can’t look at tonight tomorrow. It’s got to be over. Tomorrow is another game and we’re at home, so we’ll see what happens.”