By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

LUCEDALE — Last season, on its march to the Class 6A state championship, George County survived an elimination game in the south state playoffs four different times.

On Monday night, the Rebels repeated that success in their first do-or-die test this year.

George County bombed upstart West Jones 11-1 in just five frames here at Claude Passeau Field before a massive standing room only crowd in the rubber match of that Class 6A South State semifinal match-up. The win moves the Rebels to 22-10 overall and they now advance to the South State finals for the second straight season where they will face Pearl River Central for the second consecutive year.

“Absolutely the experience of playing in these type of games last year helped,” veteran GCHS head coach Brandon Davis said. “Knowing it’s a seven inning game with ebbs and flows helps you handle falling behind early. We don’t panic because we feel like if we keep it close we can have a chance to win at the end of the game.”

In the third game against the Mustangs, Davis turned to perhaps the top closer in South Mississippi and handed Canyon Reeves the ball for just the second starting assignment of his career. All he did, after giving up a lone unearned run in the top of the first, was settle in and shutdown West Jones the rest of the way and wind up with a worksheet of five singles allowed, eight strike outs and no walks to earn the win.

The side-winding Reeves also helped himself out at the plate in the big rally for the Rebels when he smacked a two-run home run in the 10 run third frame that erased that early 1-0 deficit.

“All of his wins have come in relief before this,” Davis added. “He’s a gamer and he was amazing out there. And then he hit a home run also.”

Grant Reeves also provided a big blow in that explosion with a three-run triple, while Ben Davis also had a run-scoring single in that inning and he ended the game as well with an RBI-single in the bottom of the fifth.

The Mustangs didn’t help themselves out at all committing four errors in the loss that led to seven unearned runs.

Brodie Cecchi also had two hits, including a triple, for the Rebels, joining Davis and Grant Reeves with two hits apiece.

Dash Piper started and took the loss for the Mustangs, allowing just two earned runs out of the 10 he was credited with. West Jones ended the season at 16-14.

“We knew Piper was going to throw strikes so we had to be aggressive,” coach Davis concluded. “Our short game once again was productive.”