By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

VANCLEAVE — Last season, Vancleave had already clinched the Region 4-5A title before the final week of regular season play even began.

The Bulldogs then went on to march through the state playoffs en route to capturing the Class 5A state championship.

Now, once again, Vancleave has secured the region crown with two weeks before the upcoming Class 5A South State playoffs start. And the Bulldogs only hope that once again serves as an omen once the postseason gets underway.

Vancleave clinched the series with Stone on Saturday with a 10-2 road win in Wiggins. The Bulldogs bounced back to take the series with that decision following a 4-1 home win Friday night after the Tomcats handed VHS its first league loss of the season Tuesday night.

The Bulldogs head into the final series of the regular season against last place Laurel at 11-1 in the region race and will once again be the top seed in the loop.

“Clinching the region title with games left on the schedule is a hard thing to do,” said first-year VHS head coach Zac Haarala. “It just shows how hard our guys have worked and their resilience up to this point. One of our team goals going into the season was to win the region again and it’s great that we have accomplished that but we also understand that this is just step one to getting to where we want to be at the end of the season.”

In Saturday’s series finale with Stone, Vancleave got a home run out of Conner Mitchell, a triple out of Martin Shaw and a double from Max Bates. Shaw and Bates collected two hits and three RBIs apiece for VHS, while Kyle Capers added two hits to the winning effort.

Carter Doze and Tony Craven teamed up on the mound to keep Stone at bay most of the day, and Doze earned the pitching win with almost five frames of work.

Brax Batson took the loss for the Tomcats.

Ayden Obenhaus and Carter Williams each had two hits apiece for Stone.

On Friday night, Vancleave broke open a 1-1 deadlock with a three-run rally in the bottom of the sixth stanza to even the series at that point up at one game piece.

Hunter Harper’s RBI-single put the Bulldogs up 2-1, while Dane McElroy followed with a two-run single to provide the home team with some insurance and seal the deal.

Shaw had two hits to go along with McElroy’s two RBIs for VHS.

McElroy also had a solid outing on the mound to earn the win, coming within one out of a complete game. He scattered four hits and struck out eight while walking five, and Bates came on to record the final out and grab a save.

Dalton Danzey suffered the loss for Stone, working almost six stanzas.

Kellan Burge had two hits for the Tomcats, including a double, and Nolan Scott had a double as well.

Stone enters its series with Gautier this week to wrap up the regular season with a 5-7 region mark.