Bulldogs will travel to ICC for playoffs

Mississippi Gulf Coast closed out the conference portion of its 2021 baseball season with a high-scoring split at Mississippi Delta on Monday, and the Bulldogs' postseason path revealed itself by the end of the evening.

The Bulldogs blew a six-run lead in the eighth and lost the opener 16-15 then won the second game 16-1 in six innings. Combined with Hinds' sweep over East Mississippi, Gulf Coast will finish seventh in the MACCC and play at fourth-seeded Itawamba in a best-of-three NJCAA Region 23 qualifying series.

"Just coming off of playing them, you feel like you know who they are a little better," Gulf Coast coach Wes Thigpen said. "It was just a week ago we played them, so we'll get to work and get a good game plan for them. I feel like we'll see the same arms, and we'll try to have the best game plan we can."

The Bulldogs won the first game against Itawamba 8-6 on April 18, losing the second 8-4 after being two outs away from a sweep.

Gulf Coast (19-17, 16-12 MACCC) led the first game 15-9 before giving up six in the eighth and a walkoff single in the ninth. Luke Welborn (Fr., Locust Grove Ga./Locust Grove) had a home run among his three hits and drove in three runs.

Canaan Ray (Fr., Poplarville/Poplarville), Alex McWhorter (Fr., Mobile Ala./Faith Academy) and Dawson Walters (Fr., Flora/Tri-County Academy) had three hits and a double each.

Walters remained red-hot in the second game with four hits, including another double, driving in three runs. Tucker Thomas (So., Biloxi/Biloxi) and McWhorter hit home runs, and Ray had three RBI.

"We swung it well all day," Thigpen said. "We just didn't pitch it at the end of the day. They did a good job swinging the bats, and we've got to be able to put away hitters with two strikes. We haven't done that well over the course of the last couple of weeks."

Gulf Coast will have a chance to work on that with two more non-conference gamedays this week. The Bulldogs travel to Raymond to play Hinds in a single, nine-inning game Wednesday before hosting Meridian on Thursday for a doubleheader.

The Region 23 qualifier will be played May 7-9. Single nine-inning games are scheduled for each day in Fulton.

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