POPLARVILLE, Miss. — With the book closed on a successful 2019 regular season, No. 5 Pearl River now turns its attention to the Region XXIII play-in series.
The Wildcats (34-11 overall, 19-9 MACJC) open the best-of-three series Wednesday against East Central (22-21, 15-13) at Dub Herring Park. Game 1 is set for a 6 p.m. start. Game 2 will be at 2 p.m. Thursday. Game 3, if necessary, will follow Game 2.
The winner of the series advances to next week's Region XXIII Tournament, which is hosted by Itawamba. Each game will be nine innings.
PRCC enters the postseason fresh off of a convincing sweep of No. 8 Northwest. Coach Michael Avalon hopes their strong play against the Rangers carries over to the Warriors series.
"I think Northwest was two big games for us from a preparation standpoint for the playoffs. We played a quality team and you had to play well to win. That's the same formula we're going to have to have as we move forward in the playoffs," he said. "As you get into the playoffs you want to have everything working together and clicking. Hopefully we started that process against Northwest and that will give us confidence moving forward."
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
Pearl River ranks third nationally and tops in the MACJC with 73 home runs as a team. Second baseman Dexter Jordan (Hattiesburg) leads the team in homers with 15, while shortstop Wiley Cleland (Columbia; Columbia Academy) and Kasey Donaldson (Gulfport; West Harrison) aren't too far behind with 10 apiece.
Collectively, the Wildcats boast a .315 team batting average and have reached base at a .428 clip.
Pearl River has been equally impressive on the mound. Led by sophomores Miles Smith (Laurel; Northeast Jones), Shemar Page (Raleigh) and Colin Danley (Lucedale; East Central), the Wildcats have a 3.86 staff ERA. Page leads the staff with a 7-1 record; the Louisiana Tech signee also has a 3.60 ERA. Smith, who's signed with South Alabama, has a 6-3 record and 3.14 ERA. Danley is 7-3 on the year with a 3.53 ERA. Reid Reynolds (Heidelberg; Northeast Jones) pitched his way into a starting role this season as a freshman and boasts a 5-1 record with a 2.62 ERA. Smith and Page lead the Wildcat arms with 77 and 67 strikeouts respectively.
SCOUTING ECCC
ECCC and PRCC split their two-game series at The Dub earlier in the season. Since the split, ECCC is 5-8; the Warriors swept Coahoma on Sunday.
As a team, ECCC is hitting .285 with 22 home runs. The Warriors' staff has a 5.76 ERA.
"East Central year in and year out is a quality team," Avalon said. "They're always in the playoffs so they'll be experienced. We'll need to play better than we did against them in the regular season to win the series."
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