Vicksburg advances to Class 4A finals with 7-4 victory in Game 3

IUKA – With one swing, Vicksburg High’s Trey Prentiss made a disappointing Class 4A North State championship series turn into a great one.

Prentiss’ two-run home run in the fifth inning erased a one-run lead for Tishomingo County and sparked the Gators to a thrilling, series-clinching, 7-4 victory Saturday afternoon at Brewer Field.

The win sends the Gators (28-8) to the Class 4A championship series for the first time in school history. The Gators will face East Central next Friday at Trustmark Park in Pearl.

“When I heard that ping, I knew that ball was gone,” said VHS senior Delmon Robinson of Prentiss’ two-run bomb to right field. Robinson had led off the Gators’ critical four-run, fifth inning rally with his second walk of the game. He later scored on a double by Stanton Price to cut Tishomingo’s lead to 4-3, and finished with two runs scored and an RBI off three walks total.

Prentiss’ homer, off Tishomingo reliever Tyler Pritchard, put Vicksburg ahead 5-4.

“Stanton had just gotten a double and I wanted to pick him up, so I was just thinking about getting a hit,” said Prentiss, who to that point had been 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in the series. “I wanted to make a big impact for the team. We wanted to go to the championship series. That was the big question we had back at the hotel in Corinth. How bad did we want it? We want to go Trustmark Park.”

VHS coach Jamie Creel was beaming about the way Prentiss and his third baseman, Bowen Woodson, came back with redeeming efforts. Prentiss finished with three RBIs and two hits, and Woodson had a double, homer and two runs scored.

“Trey’s home run was the big play for us. But what I liked even more is that he came back against the kid who struck him out three times in Vicksburg. He stepped out and got a big single to get us another run,” Creel said. “Then Bowen comes back from a mental mistake and responds with a home run and a double.”

Woodson blasted a one-out home run off Pritchard to make it 6-4.

That was enough cushion for Price, who finished off the Braves with three scoreless innings of relief to earn his sixth win of the postseason. He struck out five and allowed no earned runs to improve to 11-1 on the season.

“No. 8 (Price) showed why he’s the best,” Creel said.

Jacob Thomas started and gave the Gators three good innings before his defense put him in a jam in the TC fourth inning.

Up 2-1, the Gators’ infield botched a ground ball for one error, which led to a game-tying RBI single by Jon Whirley. That was all for Thomas as Price came in.

A sacrifice moved Whirley to second. Then the Gators had Whirley in a rundown after Price induced a ground ball by Cody Duncan. The relay toss back to second was too high, allowing Whirley to escape to third and Duncan to go to second.

Price struck out Blake Long but then lost Matt Davis on a 2-1 change-up. Davis parked the ball in right-center, putting the Braves ahead 4-2 and sending their huge following into a frenzy.

TC’s good times, though, were short-lived. The Gators knocked starter Derek Wright out of the game after Robinson’s leadoff walk and Price’s double to left-center.

After the Gators’ four-run rally, Price gave up a leadoff single to Pritchard but came back to strike out Lee Griffin and Whirley, TC’s No. 3 and 4 hitters, to end the fifth.

Prentiss gave him another run to work with in the top of the sixth with a two-out single after Robinson walked and Price was intentionally walked to make it 7-4.

Up nextVicksburg vs. East Central Class 4A finals at Trustmark Park, Pearl Friday, time TBAPrice had a 1-2-3 inning in the TC sixth. He struck out the first man in the seventh, and then gave up a hit to Steven Glidewell. Pritchard then tried to slide into first on a ground ball to short, but was called out, leaving the Gators an out away.

Facing Griffin again, Price induced a harmless pop fly to Robinson in center to end the game.

“Last night I was able to get the blood flowing better to my arm with the good rest,” Price said “I was able to fight through it. The change-up (Davis) he hit, upset me. But once Trey hit that home run to put us back up, I knew we had it after that.”