Pearl River Central’s Blue Devils stayed perfect in district play when the team beat Hattiesburg 5-4 Tuesday evening.

The win put PRC at 3-0 in the district, and extended the team’s winning streak to 14 games.

Justin Robertson had 10 strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings before Gavin Brown came on for the final two outs.

“Justin didn’t have the best command of his slider and it kind of got away from him, but you’re not going to go out every day and have your best stuff. Those guys know that. What you have to do is figure out how to win when you don’t have your best stuff,” Head Coach Neil Walther said.

Despite leading for most of the game, Hattiesburg put PRC in a bit of a predicament when the seventh inning came around.

“We had the lead and it’s tough when you give up three runs in the seventh, but they still stuck with it mentally and scored two (in the bottom of the seventh inning) to win it. We get down to the last out and we win it. That was two teams who played hard for seven innings,” Walther said.

PRC has been finding ways to win all year. Part of that comes down to not only the team’s talent, but also their selflessness.

The Blue Devils understand the importance of advancing runners and driving them home by any means necessary, even if it means not padding stats.

“I think the more unselfish a player is, and the higher baseball IQ they have, it’s easier to do. They understand that’s a good at-bat. When someone has a good at-bat the guys on the team know. They get it and play for each other,” Walther said.

Winning a one run game can come down to a lot of factors, but playing good defense always helps.

PRC had no errors against Hattiesburg as the experienced Blue Devils get back into the rhythm of things.

“There’s always going to be some times where you let some stuff get away, but I thought our defense has played better and better. Even some of the errors we made recently have not necessarily been bad plays,” Walther said.

Offensively nothing came easy for PRC against Hattiesburg.

However, the team’s aggressive style of play yielded the necessary results to keep the streak alive for the Blue Devils.

“We put the ball on the ground I think nine times, and we reached on seven of them. That’s the kind of results that speak for themselves. Put it on the ground, make people make plays and put pressure on them,” Walther said.