‘We bounce back real fast.’ Rivals East Central, Vancleave off to electric start in playoffs.
They say lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice, but try telling that to East Central’s Hollis Porter.
Six innings after lightning strikes danced beyond the outfield wall and delayed game one of the South State Championship series, Porter found his own electricity in right field Saturday where he sent a ball that cleared the bases and broke open a tight matchup with district rival Vancleave.
The ball careened off the Bulldog outfielder’s shoulder and rolled to the roll for a two-base error that gave the Hornets a 6-3 lead and the eventual 7-3 victory to go up 1-0 in the series.
“I had been seeing curveball first pitch all night so I had it in the back of my mind and he threw it up there,” Porter said afterward.
It was the seminal moment of a close battle featuring premier, Division I bound pitchers who had their nights muddied by defensive miscues.
Vancleave’s Carson Robb, a Southeastern Louisiana commit who entered the game with a 0.56 ERA, was charged with four earned runs in six innings. Two of those runs came in the first inning when the Bulldog left fielder lost a pop fly in the setting sun.
“They lost a fly ball when it was twilight and let us score two early, that was very huge for us,” East Central head coach Bo Long said.
The Bulldogs scored three runs in the fourth inning, two charged to starting pitcher and Southern Miss commit TJ Dunsford, to put the Hornets on the ropes.
That’s when East Central rallied with a big sixth inning.
“We’re a team where we bounce back real fast,” Porter said. “We just got right back out there and went at it and started to fight.”
The Bulldogs were able to run Dunsford out of the game after four innings and even had the tying run at the plate in the seventh but were unable to recover from the sixth inning error.
“They were better than us late,” Vancleave head coach Justin Edwards said. “They got big hits when they needed them. Hats off to East Central, that was a great job by them, but I’m proud of our guys and I’m ready for game two.”
High stakes rivalry
East Central and Vancleave have earned their spots as 5A’s top South Mississippi teams this postseason and both come out of Region 8.
Just 15 miles apart, the two schools have a deep-rooted rivalry that has consistently held playoff implications. With the two competing directly against each other for a spot in the state title series, the stakes in the rivalry are higher than ever.
“Yeah, I’d love for it to be another way,” Long said with a laugh. “South State is big enough ... it’s not that we dislike (Vancleave), it’s just that it makes it a lot heavier. I’ve tried to preach to them, let it be the South State. Don’t it be the South State against Vancleave. Treat it like another team.”
Game one was played in front of an overflowed crowd in Hurley with both crowds encircling the park, including open truck beds in the outfield.
For a moment, East Central’s ballpark had a higher population than the 1,279-person town it rests in.
“We’ve got a great community,” Long said. “I’m not going to say it’s been this many people at all of our games, but it hasn’t been far off. We have awesome community support. Just love this little town.”
Game two of the series will be played in Vancleave on Monday at 7 p.m.
