Picayune blew away the Lady Hurricanes Tuesday night.

The homestanding Lady Tide smacked West Harrison 17-3 to capture the Region 7-5A championship. The win makes Picayune 17-5 overall and the Lady Tide finishes up a perfect 6-0 in league play.

Head coach Kristi Mitchell’s squad will wrap up the regular season with a trip to Petal Thursday night and then will open the Class 5A South State playoffs Tuesday at home against, in all likelihood, Moss Point.

“That’s always one of our goals to start the season, winning the district,” Mitchell said. “It’s a big disappointment when you don’t around here, that’s just kind of a tradition that we have and we always try and live up to that.”

The Lady Tide batted around in each of the first two innings, quickly taking the wind out of the Lady Hurricanes and getting out to a big lead early.

Hillary Dicken’s two run double in the first frame gave the Lady Tide a lead they would never relinquish. Also in the first, Tiffany Devore added a run scoring triple, Clarissa Jones an RBI-single and Bethany Crawford also drove in a run.

It was more of the same in the second, as Sarah Dodd had a two run double, and Dickens, Jones and Brooke Ladner each added RBI-singles to make it 10-1 Picayune.

Jennifer Walker, who had three hits in the game, delivered a two run home run in the third, followed by Ladner driving in a pair of runs as well and Dodd drove in a run to make it 15-3.

Picayune completed the scoring in the fourth, as Dickens and Devore drove in runs with RBI-singles.

“We started out kind of slow this year, but we didn’t let it get to us,” Dickens, one of just two senior starters for the Lady Tide, said. “We all just kept working hard and a few weeks ago we just started hitting the ball better. Then it seems that our confidence just started growing with each game.”

Dodd picked up the pitching win as the Lady Tide defended their league title.