Picayune claimed the Region 4-5A championship in prep slow pitch softball action Tuesday night.
The Lady Tide, the defending Class 5A South State champion, knocked off homestanding East Central 4-3 to wrap up their second straight league title.
The win moves Picayune to 13-6 overall and the Lady Tide wrapped up league play at a perfect 8-0.
“We managed to win a ball game, and we’re proud of the win,” veteran Picayune head coach Kristi Mitchell said. “That’s something at Picayune that we do, we win district championships. It’s always a goal we set out to accomplish at the start of the season.”
The Lady Tide trailed the Lady Hornets 3-1 entering the sixth inning, before rallying for three runs with two outs to pull out the win.
Clarissa Jones singled, and Sarah Dodd had a run scoring double. After Tee Meyers singled a little later, Jennifer Walker cracked an RBI-triple to tie the game up and then Nala Carter singled Dodd home with what would turn out to be the game winning run.
Dodd, the winning pitcher, and her defense then held East Central scoreless over the last two frames.
“We played really good defense. We had a good effort and hustle,” Mitchell added. “We have to do a little better job of making decisions at the plate. But we came up with the key hits when we needed them.”
Jones tripled in the first and Dodd singled her home to put Picayune up 1-0. But the Lady Hornets came back to plate three runs in the fourth frame to take the 3-1 lead.
Walker returned to the Lady Tide’s line-up and got the big hit after leaving Saturday’s loss to Poplarville with an injury.
Picayune is more than likely to face either Brookhaven or South Jones in the opening round of the Class 5A South State playoffs, which is slated to start one week from Saturday, on Oct. 8th.
Before that, however, the Lady Tide will celebrate Senior Night on Thursday to close the regular season when they host Vancleave. “We are happy with winning the district, but we are not satisfied, we know we have a lot left to play for,” Mitchell added.
East Central needs a win over West Harrison tonight to clinch second place.