This is an all-too-familiar position for the Petal Panthers. For the third straight season, Petal will be the No. 3 seed in the 6A playoffs, but that hasn’t meant an early playoff exit.
As No. 3 seeds, the Panthers rode hot pitching to the 6A South State series in 2016, then fell to the eventual 6A South State champions, Gulfport, in the second round last season, so hitting the road for Game 1 of a first-round contest isn’t anything new.
“The division we play in is really strong,” Petal coach Larry Watkins said. “We’re seeing a lot of really good competition throughout the year, and I think all of that prepares you for the playoffs.”
The Panthers will travel to Harrison Central (14-8) Thursday for Game 1 at 7 p.m., then they’ll host the Red Rebels Friday at the same time for Game 2. Harrison Central nearly won its region, but an extra-inning loss to Biloxi last week sent it to the second seed.
Petal and Harrison Central haven’t played this season, but the Rebels did play in the Petal Tournament earlier this season. The last time the two squared off was in the second round of the 2016 6A playoffs, which the Panthers won in a sweep.
“They have some good looking kids,” Watkins said. “They’re a big, physical team. They’ve really played really well this year and coach Neil Frederic had done a good job with them.”
Watkins told PineBeltSPORTS on Monday that his ace, senior Hunter Dykes, is not available to pitch in the series after suffering a shoulder injury while running the basepaths in March. He is, however, available to hit for Petal as the DH. Since returning to the lineup last week against Oak Grove, Dykes is 4-for-8 with two RBI and two runs scored.
“He won’t be available to pitch, but he is getting to hit,” Watkins said. “We were happy to get him back in the lineup hitting.”
Another injury to the pitching staff, freshman Garrett Barger, puts Petal in a difficult situation on the bump. Seniors Tyler Dobson and Nate Oswalt have tallied the most innings among available pitchers with 22.2 and 16.1 innings, respectively.
Watkins said following his team’s win over Oak Grove last week that Petal was forced to use a pitcher-by-committee mentality, and that’ll continue heading into the postseason unless that game’s starter gets hot and can go further into the game than expected.
“We’re kind of banged up pitching, and it’s going to take an effort like we had at Oak Grove,” Watkins said. “The guys that we use, we just need to have them at their best for us to have a shot. It may take three or four pitchers a game sometimes. We just have to piece it together.”
Harrison Central has two players with batting averages better than .400, and four more with .300 or better. As a team, it hits .314 with 52 doubles. Senior D’Artagnan Hawthorne leads the offense with a .463 average and a .545 on-base percentage.
On the mound, the Rebels’ pitching staff has a collective 3.24 earn run average. Senior Brendan Hardy and Brett Hughes, as well as junior PJ Harrison, have more than 32 innings under their belts. Hardy leads the staff with a 1.20 ERA and a 5-0 record, while Harrison is 4-3 with a 2.12 ERA and Hughes has a 3-1 record and 2.33 ERA.
