Vicksburg High has a couple of baseball games this week that will determine whether they get a chance to play at Trustmark Park in May.

They’ve also got one there now.

The Gators will face Yazoo County at the minor league stadium in Pearl Thursday at 7 p.m. It’s part of an effort by the ballpark’s new tenants, the Mississippi Mud Monsters, to showcase baseball at all levels this spring. Tickets will be available at the gate for $10, or $8 in advance at Vicksburg High School. Proceeds from the advance tickets sold at VHS go to the school.

In addition to several high school games, the Mud Monsters are hosting a number of college games at Trustmark before they begin their inaugural Frontier League season on May 8.

Ole Miss and Southern Miss played at Trustmark Park earlier this season, and Mississippi State and Ole Miss will play their annual Governor’s Cup game there on April 22. Trustmark Park is also the site of the MHSAA championship series in May.

“We got an invitation from the stadium director and he asked if we had a free game on our schedule. We didn’t, but there was a game I knew might be a good opportunity, especially going against players I used to coach against. I talked with the coach at Yazoo County and he agreed with me,” Vicksburg coach Brandon Kincaid said.

Kincaid added he was excited about the unique chance to play in one of the state’s top baseball facilities, on the same field a number of pro stars have been. The Mississippi Braves, Atlanta’s Double-A team, called Trustmark Park home from 2005-24 before leaving for Columbus, Georgia, at the end of last season.

“I was talking to a couple of coaches and some of our players, and said most kids don’t get to play in a stadium like this until they make it to a state championship,” Kincaid said. “It’s a great opportunity to not only play on a professional field, but also play on the field under the lights that a lot of MLB players have played under.”

Playing Yazoo County has some extra personal meaning for Kincaid. He’s in his first season as Vicksburg’s head coach, and second overall at the school. Before that he coached at Yazoo City from 2012-23. He said a number of his former players there transferred to Yazoo County and will be on the field Thursday night.

“When I left, they didn’t have a coach at Yazoo City so some of my players went over to Yazoo County. And then me and the Yazoo County coach, even though we are rivals, we built a nice friendship since I started coaching. He has helped me out tremendously,” Kincaid said.

While the showcase game at Trustmark will be fun, the Gators (5-12, 0-2 MHSAA Region 2-6A) have some more important business to take care of this week. They’ll go to Columbus (6-12, 0-4) Tuesday, and then host the Falcons Friday at 7 p.m., in a two-game home-and-home series that will determine a playoff berth from Region 2-6A.

Warren Central (10-7, 4-0) and Ridgeland (8-6, 4-0) have separated as the top two teams in the region, while Vicksburg, Columbus and Neshoba Central (9-9, 0-2) are all winless in league play. Four of the five teams qualify for the Class 6A playoffs, so the Vicksburg-Columbus series is essentially an elimination round for both teams.

“Columbus is our No. 1 focus this week, with it being a do-or-die. We don’t want to split it and go into tiebreaker situations and leave it up to anybody at the association,” Kincaid said. “We want to take care of both games on Tuesday and Friday. Make sure we handle our business of Vicksburg Gator baseball and go ahead and come out with a win.”

Vicksburg has lost five of its last six games, but has shown some good flashes lately. It got out to big leads against Quitman and Ridgeland before losing, and routed Crystal Springs 13-0 last week.

“At the beginning of the season we were changing around the lineup to see who can play here, who was better playing together, who can bat after who. As the season has gone on, we started to find that,” Kincaid said. “As we found that, our players started to trust in each other more as well and they’ve become more of a team.”