Thursday’s opening matchup of left-handed aces in the Class 4A championship series could be one of the best of the week at Trustmark Park.

The Vicksburg Gators’ Stanton Price (11-1, 1.07 ERA) will square off against East Central’s Phillip Byrd (13-0, 0.90 ERA, 156 strikeouts) in Game 1 of the best-of-three series at 7 p.m. Game 2 is set for Saturday at 4 p.m.

Both teams have ridden their aces to the state championship series. Price has earned the win in six of the Gators’ eight playoff wins, and got a save in another. Byrd, a University of South Alabama signee, has won all four of his playoff starts and has one win in relief, along with a save. His 156 strikeouts is the best on the Gulf Coast.

VHS coach Jamie Creel said Byrd will represent something the Gators haven’t seen much of this season.

“He’s a Division I signee, 6-foot-5, 235 pounds who can bring it between 88 and 92 mph. We haven’t seen much of that this season. We faced a top flight pitcher in Donnie Tabb from Neshoba Central and the (Brett) Morgan kid at Tishomingo threw hard against us. And we faced the Stratton kid from Tupelo last year. But Byrd will definitely be the hardest thrower we’ve faced from the left side. He has all three pitches, fastball, change and curveball,” Creel said.

Audio SlideshowPrice is more of a control pitcher, hitting spots with his low 80s fastball, while mixing in curves and a change-up. Two of the wins came last week when the Gators defeated Tishomingo County in three games. The Gators won Game 1, 8-2, as Price went the distance. He surrendered just one earned run while striking out six. He came back on two days rest to close out the series with four innings on Saturday as the Gators rallied from a 4-2 deficit to pull out a Game 3 win, 7-4.

“Stanton is a special player. We’ve had great players here like Justin and Jordan Henry, but no one has laid it on the line for us like Stanton has,” Creel said.

Price said he was looking forward to facing Byrd.

“We’ve heard they had the Byrd kid, who throws 88 to 92, and we haven’t seen that this year. We did last year when we faced Shea Snowden of Brandon,” Price said. Snowden is now at the University of Alabama. “We just want to finish this out. It was really special that people were here to escort us in like the sheriff’s office and our fans to greet us.”

“It feels great to be able to play for a state championship. This is the closest I’ve been in any team sport and I’ve won an individual one in track,” said Gator center fielder Delmon Robinson.

The Mississippi State football signee started at point guard for the VHS basketball team that made it to the Class 4A Tournament in March. He also won the 2006 Class 5A high jump title in track. “It’s great to do something like this in my senior year,” Robinson added.

East Central comes in on a roll with seven straight wins in the playoffs. It swept West Jones in two games, 10-0 and 13-4, to claim the South State 4A title, its first since 1998. The Hornets’ only postseason setback came in the opening round against Picayune.

“We didn’t play very well in that series and definitely got some breaks,” East Central coach Gary Long said. Picayune had two dropped third strikes which allowed the Hornets to rally for two runs in the bottom of the seventh after being down 11-10 in the deciding third game.

“We’ve played pretty well since then. Everybody was saying that it would be West Jones and Vicksburg in the finals but we just got hot at the right time,” Long said.

The Hornet offense is led by Byrd, who is hitting .370 with five home runs and 35 RBIs.

Senior center fielder Caleb Dickerson, the leadoff man, and shortstop Andrew Evans set the table for Byrd and Trey Porter. Porter is the team’s No. 2 starter with a 9-3 record.