By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

HURLEY — East Central took both home games in the best-of-three series to dispatch North Pike in the opening round of the Class 5A South State playoffs.

The home-standing Hornets clinched the match-up and moved on to the second round with a 6-2 win over the Jaguars Monday night. East Central faces Florence in the Class 5A South State semifinals later this week.

East Central advances to the second round of the playoffs for the fifth straight season.

“They played us a tough three games,” veteran Hornet head coach Bo Long said. “I was proud of our guys bouncing back from the game one loss. We pitched and played well on defense. We gotta get more consistent next series with our hitting.”

Despite two runs in the second from the visitors Monday night, East Central took a lead it would never relinquish with a three run rally in the first frame.

Anthony Tanner’s two-run double put the Hornets up quickly 2-0 and then he scored on a passed ball and it was 3-0.

After the Jags cut the deficit to 3-2, East Central responded with a run in the fifth on an RBI-double by Jaxon Cripps to make it 4-2.

Brody Long drove in two runs in the sixth stanza for ECHS to complete the scoring.

Christian McFaul started and worked four frames to earn the pitching win, and Tanner finished up the final three innings to earn a save.

Tanner had two doubles and drove in a game-high three runs to pace the Hornets offensively. East Central managed just four hits off of a pair of Jag pitchers.