By Curtis Rockwell/Sports Director

POPLARVILLE — Poplarville is one the verge of a trip to the Class 4A state baseball championship round.
The underdog Hornets went on the road and followed multi-sport standout Ty keys to a 1-0 upset of perennial state power West Lauderdale Friday night in the opening game of the Class 4A South State title series. Poplarville is set to host the Knights Saturday night in game two, and with another win can punch its ticket to the state finals in Pearl.

Keys, one of the top running backs in the nation who recently announced his commitment to Miami, Fla., proved his mettle on the mound as well in game one, as he hurled a two-hit shutout and kept West Lauderdale batters at bay all night.
Then, with the game still knotted up in a scoreless tie going to the top of the seventh, the Hornets made their mark.
Trip Jones led off with a double, and Chadwick Brown followed by drawing a walk. Then, Brayden Lee reached base on a WLHS fielding error to load the bases with no outs.
Chase Sones then sent a ground ball to second that scored Jones for the only run of the game.

Meanwhile, Keys set the Knights down in order through the first four frames of action. And although he allowed two runners to reach base in each of the fifth and sixth stanzas, he managed to work his way out of the jams with no damage done.
Then, armed with that slight one-run lead in the bottom of the seventh, West Lauredale’s David Marshall got on first to lead off on a Hornet error. He was then sacrificed to second, but Keys then induced two straight ground outs to end the game and seal the big win.
The double by Jones was the only hit allowed by Knights starting pitcher P. Raswon, who ended up getting saddled with the tough-luck loss despite turning in a complete game worksheet with 10 strikeouts.