By Stan Caldwell/Sports Writer

PEARL – When you break it down, baseball is a pretty simple game. You see the ball, you hit the ball.

Or in the case of Pearl River Central, you see the ball, but don’t hit the ball.

Saltillo’s Will Goodson shook off a month’s worth of rust to completely handcuff the Blue Devils, as the Tigers defeated PRC 5-0 in the deciding third game of the Class 6A State Championship Series Thursday at Trustmark Park.

With the victory, Saltillo (31-7) successfully defended its 6A championship from a year ago, and its third in the past six seasons. Pearl River Central (30-9) was denied a title in its second appearance in the finals, after winning in Class 5A in 2017.

“We got here; that’s important,” said PRC coach Buddy Turnage, who got the Blue Devils to the finals in his second season at the helm.

“It’s been a wild two years since I got here. Before I accepted the job, I knew certain things had to change, and bring us closer together. The proudest thing I ever hear is people telling me how close our team is, and it’s a testament to these guys.”

Goodson (5-0), a senior left-hander, pitched 6.2 innings of no-hit ball before running out of pitches in the top of the seventh inning.

“We haven’t faced a lot left-handers this season, to be honest,” Turnage said. “We’ve seen a lot of hard-throwing right-handers, even some crafty right-handers. But not a lot of left-handers.”

It wasn’t the cleanest no-hitter anyone will ever see, as Goodson walked five batters and hit two. But he struck out five and got the Devils to beat nearly every significant pitch into the ground for infield outs.

“The control wasn’t there sometimes,” Goodson said. “Just leaving it up was an issue for a little while. But getting the fastball in the zone when I needed to made the difference.”

Since the Tigers swept all of their previous playoff rounds coming into the state championships, Goodson was used sparingly, coming into the deciding game with just 15.2 innings of work.

“He did his job,” said PRC sophomore Benjamin Duhon. “He was mixing it up really well and keeping us off-balance.”

Sophomore right-hander Cole Bounds got the ball for the Blue Devils, and he pitched well enough to win for five innings. Bounds (7-2) allowed four earned runs on eight hits, and while he didn’t have any strikeouts, he also didn’t walk or hit a batter.

“That’s what Cole does, what he’s been doing all season,” Turnage said. “Cole wasn’t even the best pitcher on the team in eighth-grade, but the last two years, he’s been our No. 3 guy. There’s nothing that fazes him. He just keeps going out there and throwing strikes.”

Saltillo scored all the runs it would need in the bottom of the second, producing three runs on four hits.

Junior Tucker Phillips started the rally with a leadoff single and advanced to second on a grounder to first base.

Sophomore Jasper Gore smacked an RBI double to leftfield, then junior Madden McKissick hit the next pitch for a run-scoring single, advancing to second on an errant throw from the outfield. Junior Maddox Arriola made it 3-0 with a single up the middle.

Bounds settled in after that, retiring the Tigers efficiently in the third and fourth innings, and he worked out of a two-out jam in the fifth, when senior Levin Darsey singled, then stole second and third.

“I just had to keep strikes in my mind, and stay in the zone,” said Bounds. “We win some, we lose some, then I come in and shut everybody down, but today, it didn’t go our way.”

PRC played some great defense behind Bounds, but a throwing error on a grounder by Phillips cost the Devils an unearned run in the sixth

Junior E.J. Rogers drove in the run with a single to left, taking second on a throw to the plate. Childs followed with an RBI single for a 5-0 margin, and Bounds was done for the day. Duhon came on in relief and got three straight outs to get PRC out of the inning.

Goodson came into the seventh inning with 103 pitches, and he got two quick outs on fly balls. But he walked the next two batters to get him over the 120-pitch limit, and sophomore right-hander Lanston Kent got the final out on a strikeout to preserve the no-hitter.

PRC loses just four seniors, including two starters, but Turnage likes the direction of the program after his first two years on the job.

“We’re looking for the same tenacity we had this year,” said Turnage. “Sometimes the ball bounces out way in good situations, other times it doesn’t.

“But we’re going to get back to the grind, and get back on it in August, and keep rocking until next year. That’s going to be hard for these seniors going out the way they did. They’re not happy about it today, but come on, state runners-up and 30 wins. We’ll take it.”