Hancock upsets Ocean Springs in 6A softball thriller

Jennah Necaise slapped a two-out, two-run seventh-inning triple to help lift Hancock to a 7-5 win over Ocean Springs in the deciding third game of the Class 6A softball playoffs.

The Hawks (12-12) will meet Brandon Monday in the third round. The win also marks the first time in about a decade that Hancock has made it past the second round. The last time the Hawks went this deep in the playoffs, they were knocked off by Oak Grove, which went on to win the state title, in the South State championship.

“It’s huge for the girls,” said Hawks coach Bo Breland. “This is the furtherest we’ve made it in 10 years. I told the team that if they believed in themselves, we could do anything.”

Ocean Springs (23-4) opened the series Tuesday with a 10-4 win in Kiln. Hancock forced a third game Friday with a 4-3 win in eight innings.

“We came off the bus ready to play,” Breland said. “I told my girls that if we could win the first game, we could win game 2. I told them the first game would be the toughest.”

In the second game, Ocean Springs jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first on the strength of RBIs from Aeryn Tapp and Fallon Groves.

“I knew we could come back,” Breland said. “I knew (Ocean Springs pitcher Kylie Taylor) was getting tired. I told my team to look for a pitch over the middle they could grove.”

However, over the first two innings, Taylor was strong for the Greyhounds. But, in the third, the Hawks were able to push across the plate on a hitsbatsman, error, and two walks.

In the fourth, though, the Hawks came through with four hits, including a Necaise RBI double and Brooke Fagan RBI single, to tie the game at 3-3.

Mikalia Fox put Ocean Springs back up by one in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI single into left, but the lead would be short.

In the sixth, three Hancock singles led to a Lana Stallings sacrifice fly to right field as the Hawks tied the game at 4-4. In the seventh, Rylee Swilley and Anna Peterson walked with sacrifices by Brailey Smith and Gabby Luaga putting runners on second and third.

Necaise’s drive turned into a triple when the Ocean Springs rightfielder slipped trying to catch the ball. Necaise would score on an error to short.

Taylor would cut the Hancock lead to 7-5 with a solo homerun to leadoff the bottom half of the seventh. However, Hancock pitcher Swilley, who pitched all 15 innings Friday, came through with a double play to end the Greyhounds’ threat of coming back.

Necaise finished 3-for-4 with three RBIs in the nightcap. Fagan was 2-for-3 with an RBI, walk, and hitsbatsman.

Kennedy Bahr and Tapp had two hits each for Ocean Springs in the nightcap.

Hancock won the opener 4-3 in eight innings. Lana Stallings started the eighth inning on second because of international tie breaker rules. Taylor opened the inning with a pair of strikeouts, but the second strikeout was a dropped strike three to Swilley, forcing a throw to first to complete the out. Stallings went to third and scored when Smith grounded to short, but the throw to first was high.

This story was originally published April 29, 2017 at 1:16 AM with the headline "Hancock upsets Ocean Springs in 6A softball thriller."