Heartache in Hattiesburg: MS Coast drops two state titles in final innings
George County’s title defense ended in an extra-innings heartbreak.
The Rebels held a 6-4 lead heading into the final frame of the 6A state championship series finale Friday, but South Panola scored twice to force extras and added two more in the eighth to grab an 8-7 walk-off win over the reigning champions.
It was the final chapter for a senior class that created a softball power in Lucedale.
“They’re incredible,” coach Anna Grace Rigby said of her three-time South State champion seniors. “They got pulled up in eighth grade. They’ve played for three state championships and won it twice. They played for a South State championship five times. We had a five-win season the year before they got here.”
Seniors Hadleigh Tatum, Aryana Dixon, Blakely Slay, Jordyn Bradley and Addison Davis combined for five hits and two RBIs in the third game of the series and 15 hits and six RBIs for the week.
Greyhounds come close
A historic Ocean Springs season ends one win shy of a state championship.
Hernando defeated the Greyhounds in a winner-take-all game three in Hattiesburg on Friday, 9-7, ending the most successful campaign in Ocean Springs fast-pitch softball history.
A furious five-run, sixth-inning rally gave the Greyhounds a 7-4 lead, but it would last only one out into the bottom half of the frame. Hernando answered with two home runs and its own five-spot to spoil Ocean Springs’ bid for its first state championship.
The first-time South State champs got RBI knocks from Laynee Davis, Addison Johnson, Kerrigan Scott, K’Lee Gum and two from Taylor Farra.
Each of the resilient Hounds’ final four runs were scored with two outs.
Defensive miscues took their toll in the loss. Hernando’s first score came in the second inning on a two-out error and its go-ahead score was a sacrifice fly off the bat of Hayden Hodge, immediately following a three-base error in the fifth.
Gum led the Greyhounds during the series with six hits, while Farra had four RBIs.
Ocean Springs ends the season with a 29-11 record.
The Mississippi Coast is still in search of its first top-class fast pitch softball title since Harrison Central in 2016.
This story was originally published May 15, 2026 at 4:53 PM.
