By CURTIS ROCKWELL

Item Sports Editor

Over the last month, Picayune has been perfect on the baseball diamond.

The Maroon Tide has also gone unbeaten off the field as well the past two weeks.

For the second straight week, Picayune won a coin toss to decide homefield advantage in the Class 4A South State baseball playoffs. After Monday’s result, the Maroon Tide will host East Central in game one of the South State championship on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Game two of the best of three series will take place on Friday at the same time in Hurley, with game three if needed to take place on Saturday afternoon back in Pearl River County at 2 p.m.

The format will be the same as the first three rounds of the playoffs. Picayune has swept three straight series winning two games in each and has won eight straight games overall.

After winning last week’s coin toss, the Maroon Tide went on to sweep Lawrence County.

Picayune, ranked 10th in the state, stands 22-3 overall while East Central, the defending Class 4A state champions, stands 26-5 and is coming off a sweep of West Jones in what was a rematch of last year’s South State finals.

“Being able to play the first game at home again means a lot to us and our fans,” Picayune head coach Cayne Stockstill said. “Our fans have been very supportive. We are just tickled to death to have the opportunity to play the defending state champions in the south state finals for a chance to get to the state championship.”

The winner of the South State championship series will face off against the North State championship survivor. Both North State semifinals series were set to resume on Monday, after inclement weather delayed both series.

New Hope has a one game to none lead over Saltillo and West Lauderdale has the same advantage over Itawamba.

The best of three state finals series will take place at Trustmark Park in Pearl May 14-20.

Stockstill also said he encourages the Picayune fans to continue to wear maroon to the games for a “maroon out” effect.