No. 22 Bulldogs' playoffs will start Monday

PERKINSTON — No. 22 Mississippi Gulf Coast won't do anything differently now that the regular season has yielded to the postseason.

The Bulldogs open the NJCAA Region 23 Baseball Tournament on Monday in Poplarville when they face Northeast Mississippi at 6 p.m. Gulf Coast's start has been pushed up a day to beat expected bad weather on Tuesday.

"It's just another day, another game," Gulf Coast coach Zach Allen said. "We're just gonna keep trying to play team baseball. We played that way all season long, and we don't want to let the moment get too big for us. The main thing is to keep having fun."

Now, the only game scheduled for Tuesday features No. 2 Pearl River against the winner of Monday's play-in battle between Northwest Mississippi and Meridian. The double-elimination tournament concludes Thursday or Friday, weather permitting.

Gulf Coast and then 23^rd-ranked Northeast played at Perk on March 28 and split a doubleheader. The Tigers won 14-4 in eight innings before the Bulldogs got a 3-1 victory in the second.

Gulf Coast stranded 14 batters in the loss, and got a great performance by right-hander James Vines (Fr, Clinton, La./Silliman Institute) in the win.

"They came down here and kicked our tail game one," Allen said. "They can swing a little bit, so our pitchers have got to get ahead of them. They're very good on the mound, too. They're gonna compete really hard. We have to keep playing our game, and hopefully, we're on the right side of it."

Gulf Coast won 12 of its last 16 games in the regular season, while the Tigers went 3-6 down the stretch.

The Bulldogs are hoping to continue on that hot streak.

"These guys have earned this opportunity and earned the chance to be in this postseason with some really good teams," Allen said. "We're just gonna enjoy it and have some fun and try to win some ballgames."

NJCAA Region 23 Baseball Tournament

May 5-9

Poplarville

Play-in Game

Monday

No. 8 Northwest Mississippi vs. No. 9 Meridian, 2 p.m.

Game 1: No. 4 Gulf Coast vs. No. 5 Northeast Mississippi, 6 p.m.

Tuesday

Game 2: No. 1 Pearl River vs. No. 8 Northwest-No. 9 Meridian winner, TBA

Wednesday

Game 3: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 2 p.m.

Game 4: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 6 p.m.

Thursday

Game 5: Game 4 loser vs. Game 3 winner, 2 p.m.

Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 6 p.m.

Friday

Game 7: Game 8 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 4 p.m. (if necessary)

For more information on MGCCC's 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.