The Sumrall Bobcats made their second-round series win look a lot easier than the first round, as they swept Northeast Jones to set up a third-round date with St. Stanislaus.
Like Sumrall (28-4), a No. 1 seed that needed three games to beat a fourth-seeded team in the first round, the Rock-a-Chaws (24-7) needed a Game 3 to put away No. 4 Purvis in the first round. Also like Sumrall, St. Stanislaus swept its second-round opponent Northeast Lauderdale.
“I felt like it was much better than the first (round),” Sumrall coach Larry Knight said. “We knew we were playing a better team. I think we responded well.”
Since both teams are region winners, St. Stanislaus (Region 8) has home field advantage over Sumrall (Region 7) because of the higher region number. That tiebreaker rotates every year.
Game 1 will be in Bay St. Louis at 6 p.m. Thursday, and Game 2 will be back in Sumrall at 7 p.m. Friday. If necessary, Game 3 is at St. Stanislaus Saturday at 2 p.m.
“They’ve been a strong program over the years,” Knight said. “They’ve certainly had some very good teams, and this year they won their division. They’ve got some good arms. Looking at their games, they’ve done a good job of keeping teams from scoring much.”
Senior Peyton Sandrock and junior Dawson Strong will most likely be the Game 1 and 2 starters for the Rock-a-Chaws, but they have plenty of quality arms ready to go for relief or a possible Game 3.
As if the Bobcats didn’t need any more help, they got sophomore pitcher Kros Sivley back in the starting rotation. The left-hander started Game 2 against Northwest Jones, but before that, Sivley hadn’t seen any action since March 30. Sivley has a 1.57 earned run average in 35.2 innings pitched this season, and he has 38 strikeouts to 17 walks.
Sivley was on a pitch count, but he did pitch into the third inning in the 6-3 win.
“We were trying to decide when we were going to get him out there,” Knight said. “At first, we were going to put in him in relief, but we’d risk not being in a situation to bring him in. If it’s a tight game, we’re going to go with (John Cody Stogner), normally. No. 1 thing we wanted to see was if he felt good and if his stuff was good, so it was a positive.”
The Bobcats didn’t have to pitch too many pitchers in its sweep either, so they’re well rested. Senior Halen Sanford pitched all five innings in Game 1, then Sivley pitched two while Stogner threw five in Game 2. Seniors Hunter Barrett and Billy Garrity were the only two regularly-used pitchers who didn’t see action.
Barrett, however, did pitch in the Game 3 win over Pass High the Monday before Round 2 against NEJ started.
“(Barrett) was a guy if we needed to use on Saturday we would have, but we didn’t have to and I think that was good,” Knight said. “It would have been nice to get Billy in there, if we had an opportunity, to throw some innings. That’s the only thing. I wish we would have had the opportunity (to throw Garrity). I think overall it’s nice to give some guys some rest, and it gives us some options going into this series.”
