‘We’re having fun every game.’ Pascagoula’s amazing run is within 1 win of a state title
If you had seen the look on Pascagoula baseball coach Richie Tillman’s face following Tuesday night’s Game 1 of the Class 5A state title series, you would have assumed the Panthers had taken a loss on a soggy night at Trustmark Park.
The scoreboard showed that the Panthers had thumped Saltillo 12-1 in six innings, but Tillman wanted to get a sobering message across to his players.
“We were kind of getting a little too confident, a little cocky. That’s not us,” Tillman said. “We need to play Panther baseball, do it the right way. If you play it the right way, good things happen.”
Pascagoula (22-16) has gone from a third place finish in its own region to one victory away from finishing off a sweep in the state championship series.
Even with Tillman giving a chewing to his players, it was hard for the Panthers to hold back smiles.
“We ain’t riding high yet,” senior right fielder Sean Smith said with a grin. “Next game, we will.”
Pascagoula will take on Saltillo (19-9) at 7 p.m. on Thursday night at Trustmark Park. If necessary, a Game 3 will be played on Saturday at a time to be determined.
While Pascagoula has overcome plenty of adversity in the playoffs, including a Game 2 loss to South Jones in the first round and a Game 1 loss to West Jones at South State, the Panthers had little trouble taking care of business Tuesday night.
Saltillo starting pitcher Drake Douglas had a nightmare of an outing, giving up two runs in the first and failing to record an out through the first six batters of the second inning before he was replaced.
Douglas walked four batters and hit three others while giving up six runs on three hits in one inning of work.
Just as it has all postseason, the Panthers took advantage of each Saltillo mistake to hold a 6-0 lead headed into the bottom of the second.
“That’s what you’re supposed to do if you’re going to win games,” Tillman said. “We left a lot of runs out there so I’m not really satisfied. I’m never satisfied. We have a little more work to do on Thursday.”
While the Pascagoula lineup pounded out 12 runs on nine hits, starting pitcher Brayden Scott held up his end of the bargain.
The sophomore right-hander allowed one run on five hits, striking out four and walking two.
He appeared to be even stronger after coming back from a 54-minute rain delay, holding Saltillo to a pair of singles over the final four innings.
“During the break, I just went to the pen and worked on what my pitching coach was picking up on,” Scott said. “I was just trying to get things right.”
While Pascagoula got a boost from Saltillo’s struggles on the mound, the Panthers had some big knocks at the plate as well.
None were more impressive than the one off the bat of Smith in the fourth inning when he lifted an extremely high drive to left that bounced over the wall for a bases-loaded ground-rule double that pushed across a pair of runs.
Thinking he had hit a simple pop fly, Smith pounded his bat on the ground as he headed toward first base.
“I thought it was a pop out and it just kept carrying. I’ll take it,” he said. “I thought I messed up.”
Back-to-back triples by sophomore left fielder Keilon Parnell and junior second baseman Hunter Johnson allowed the Panthers to close out the game in the sixth inning through the 10-run rule.
Johnson was 3-for-3 at the plate with three runs scored and one RBI.
Pascagoula is in a great position headed into Game 2 with freshman right-hander Griffin Wells taking the mound. He has given up just three runs in 23 innings of work this season, including a complete-game one-hitter against Pearl River Central.
At this point, a young Pascagoula squad is looking more and more like a team of destiny.
“We’re having fun every game,” Smith said. “It’s just like going out there playing with your friends every day. You just have fun and everything will fall in line.”
Junior lefty Benjamin Webb is expected to get the start Thursday for Saltillo.
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 11:03 PM.
