By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

HURLEY — Last week, South Jones senior standout Southern Miss commit Dylan Causey ended the season for defending Class 5A state champion Vancleave.

On Tuesday night, the big time Braves hurler returned to the mound and pushed yet another Jackson County crew to the verge of elimination.

Causey tossed a complete game five-hitter striking out eight in the process as South Jones slipped past East Central 3-1 in the opening game of the Class 5A South State championship series.

The Braves moved to 29-7 overall while the Hornets sit at 20-15. Game two is set for Wednesday night in Ellisville.

“He was good.” veteran ECHS head coach Bo Long said. “He never got rattled the few times that we put pressure on him. He was everything that the scouting reports said about him coming in.”

Causey moved to 8-3 overall with the decision, and his earned run average dropped to just over 1.00. He has won six out of his last seven outings with the lone blemish coming in a 1-0 game one loss to Vncleave in that series.

Causey allowed only an RBI-single to Hornet hitter Grant Vick in the bottom of the first.

That hit tied the game up at 1-1, after the Braves broke on top in their first at bat on a run-scoring single by Camden McDaniel.

From there, the contest was pretty much a solid pitching match-up between Causey and East Central’s Porter Martin. Unfortunately for the home-standing Hornets, however, the Braves got to Martin in the fourth on an RBI-single by Russ Thompson and a run-scoring sacrifice fly off the bat of Mylan Dykes to complete the scoring at 3-1.

Martin took the tough-luck loss, also going the distance giving up 10 hits and striking out four.

Anthony Tanner had two hits for the Hornets.

Eyan Butler collected a game-high threehits for the Braves.

“Martin threw a complete game for us, only giving up three runs,” Long added. “We just couldn’t get enough going offensively to give him the run support that he needed.”

East Central needs a win Wednesday night on the road as well as another Thursday night back at home to advance to its third Class 5A state title tilt in the past four years.