POPLARVILLE, Miss. — No. 1 Pearl River baseball came up just short in a pitcher's duel Wednesday afternoon, falling 2-1 to No. 13 Jones College in the winner's bracket game of the Poplarville Regional.
The Wildcats return to action Thursday at 2 p.m. in an elimination game against No. 24 Copiah-Lincoln. The winner will face Jones at 6 p.m.
"In great games, someone plays well and still gets beat," head coach Michael Avalon said. "Things didn't go either team's way at times. The bottom line is they made one more play than we did and won the game. We knew today was going to be a battle."
Cal Culpepper (Meridian; Clarkdale) delivered in just his fourth start of the season. The right-hander worked around traffic throughout his outing, tossing five scoreless innings while keeping the Bobcats off the board.
Pearl River stranded eight runners over the first six innings before Jones finally broke through in the seventh. A single off the center-field wall plated the game's first run, but Nico Williams (Gulfport) fired a strike to second base to cut down another runner before a second run could score, keeping it a 1-0 game.
The Wildcats answered in the bottom half of the inning following a Jones pitching change. After two quick outs, Jackson Estes (Madison; Germantown) battled through a four-pitch at-bat before launching a 347-foot solo homer over the wall in right field to tie the game at 1-1. The blast marked his 10th home run of the season.
PRCC put two more runners aboard in the eighth, but Jones escaped the jam to set up the decisive ninth inning. Back-to-back infield singles and a sacrifice bunt moved runners to the corners before the Bobcats executed a safety squeeze, bringing home the go-ahead run for the eventual 2-1 final.
LEADING THE WAY
Culpepper tossed five shutout innings, allowing two hits, two walks and two hit batters while striking out five. JP Abt (Brandon; Hartfield Academy) worked two innings, surrendering one run on two hits and a walk. Landon Watts (Picayune) pitched the final two innings, allowing one run on four hits while striking out three.
Pearl River managed four hits on the afternoon. Ethan Garner (Gulfport) walked twice, while Jackson Hood (Madison; Germantown) doubled and drew a walk. Estes provided the Wildcats' lone run with his seventh-inning homer.
HOW TO WATCH
All Region 23 Tournament games will be livestreamed for free at PRCCMedia.com. Fans with Roku, Amazon Fire or Apple TV devices can also watch the Wildcat broadcasts by downloading the "Pearl River CC" channel from their app stores.
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