By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

FLORENCE — East Central won its 20th baseball game of the season Wednesday night. And it was without a doubt the biggest win of the season for the Hornets.

East Central staved off elimination for the second straight game and for the second time in three days with a timely 5-2 win over home-standing Florence in game three of that Class 5A South State Semifinal series.

The win pushes the Hornets to 20-14 overall, but more importantly, into the Class 5A South State championship series for the first time in two years. East Central will have home-field advantage as it takes on South Jones later this week with a trip to Trustmark Park in Pearl on the line.

“They never panicked when we couldn’t get anything going early,” veteran Hornet headmaster Bo Long, who led East Central to the Class 5A state title in 2022 and 2023 said. “They never panicked and capitalized on the opportunities we had late. Defense played great. We turned double plays in the first and second innings to get us off the field.”

The first four frames of the rubber match was an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel between Hornet starter Christian McFaul and Eagle hurler Andrew Woods. Neither allowed a run until Brody Long’s RBI-single put ECHS up 1-0 in the top of the fifth.

However, Florence responded immediately in its next at bat when Brad Griffin socked a two-run home run off of McFaul to put the Eagles up briefly 2-1.

But the Hornets bounced right back as Anthony Tanner led off the top of the sixth stanza with a single and Grant Vick followed with a walk. Matthew Combs then offered up a sacrifice bunt that the Eagles mis-played into a two-run error as both Tanner and Vick crossed the plate in the process and suddenly ECHS was up 3-2 with a lead it would never relinquish.

Porter Martin drove in a Combs to make it a three run rally in the sixth for the visitors, and Grant Vick drove in an insurance run in the last frame to complete the scoring and seal the win.

Meanwhile, on the mound. Tanner took over for McFaul to open the sixth and allowed just one walk in the sixth and one in the seventh to record a save as McFaul got the win.

“McFaul was solid and pitched a great five innings and Tanner came in and threw well to close it out.” Coach Long added. “When he’s right he’s hard to hit.”

Tanner had two hits and Combs two RBIs to pace the Hornets offensively.