By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

WIGGINS — Visiting Vancleave took a big step in securing a berth in the upcoming state baseball playoffs for the 13th straight season to end last week.

Now, the Bulldogs can take an even bigger jump in that same direction this week.

Vancleave took a pair of wins over Stone in Region 4-5A play to close out that series and move into a tie with arch-rival East Central at 5-4 in league play. The Tomcats, meanwhile, drop to 4-5 and out of the playoff seeding for the moment.

After knotting up the series at one game apiece with a 1-0 win in eight innings Thursday night at home, Vancleave carried that momentum over into the series final on the road Saturday and broke out the big sticks collecting a season-high 15 hits in the winning attack.

Six of those hits came in a game-winning seven run top of the seventh that erased an 8-4 Stone lead in the process and secured the series win for the Bulldogs.

Dane McElroy tallied a game-high three hits to pace VHS at the plate, including a double, and he drove in two runs while Kyle Capers produced three RBIs as well. Harris Henry, Conner Mitchell, Wyatt Adams, Cam Sherrod and Chase Parker each also chipped in two hits apiece to the winning effort also. Mitchell had a double.

Aiden English, the last of a trio of Bulldog pitchers, earned the win in relief.

Brax Batson cracked a three-run home run for the Tomcats that put Stone up 8-4 in the bottom of the sixth. He finished the game with two hits and a game-high four RBIs, while Matthew Hendry also had two hits and Charley Paslay had a double.

Stone starter Dalton Danzey took the loss with six innings of work, as the Tomcats fell to 13-9 overall.

Vancleave, now 12-9 overall, takes on East Central in a three game series this week.