By Curtis Rockwell/Sports Director

PERKINSTON — Game one wasn’t much of one in the series opener of the Class 6A South State championship match-up.
Defending Class 6A state champion George County made sure of that.
The Lady Rebels thumped Pearl River Central 11-1 in just five frames here at Ross-Smith Field on the campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Tuesday night. George County now needs just one more win over the next two days to return to the state finals.

The Lady Rebels banged out 14 base hits in the mercy-rule shortened outing. A nine run explosion in the second erased an early 1-0 deficit and propelled GCHS on to the big win.
“Game one doesn’t guarantee the series, but it sets the tone for everything that follows.” George County head coach Anna Grace (Cooley) Rigby, who is in her third season leading her alma mater, said. “In a best-of-three South State Championship, the team that strikes first controls the pressure and the momentum, and that has been something we have focused on the entire playoff run. We have to keep our foot on the pedal moving into game two.”
That nine run eruption began with a solo home run by Kyleigh Howell to tie things up at 1-1. She also added an RBI-single later in the stanza, as GCHS sent 13 batters to the plate in the decisive stand. The big blows, though, were a two-run home run by Addison Davis and a two-run double by Blakely Slay.

Howell, Davis, Paisley Pipkins, Jordyn Bradley and Aryana Dixon each posted a pair of hits apiece to lead the winning hit parade. Hadleigh Tatum also had an RBI-double, and Bradley’s two hits were both run-scoring singles.
Addison Davis, George County’s senior Dandy Dozen standout, also was in complete control in the circle as she earned the pitching win with a complete game two-hitter, striking out 11 in the process.
PRC’s Addison Davis had both hits for her team, including an RBI-double in the first.

Lady Blue Devil Bayli Cucinello suffered the loss.
George County, now 27-6 and on a 10-game win streak, will head to Pearl River Community College for game two that PRC will host Friday night. The series was moved to two “neutral” sites after heavy rains.
PRC is 23-8-1.