Saint Stanislaus takes Game 1 from Amory in MHSAA 3A Baseball Championship series

PEARL — Everyone considered Saint Stanislaus a big underdog in the 3A State Championship series against Amory, but someone forgot to tell the Rock-a-chaws.

St. Stanislaus erased a 3-1 deficit with a five-run top of the fifth and held on to beat the Panthers 7-3 in the opening game of the best-of-three title series Tuesday afternoon at Trustmark Park.

The Rocks (22-12) can clinch the program’s third state championship and first since 2015 with a win in Game 2 Thursday afternoon in a game scheduled for 4 p.m.

The Rocks drew nine walks and put two more men aboard on hit-by-pitches. Amory (30-5) pitchers walked in four runs in the pivotal fifth inning after St. Stanislaus loaded the bases with nobody out.

“I think sometimes you just have to take what they give you and make them earn it,” St. Stanislaus coach Brad Corley said. “We just had to be patient and take advantage when we had scoring opportunities.”

Five different Rock-a-chaws were credited with RBIs, with Brady Wallis leading the way with two. Starter Hill Gainey pitched well, giving up two earned runs on five hits and three walks with six strikeouts to earn the win.

Ole Miss commit Seth Farni slammed the door, working around two hits and two walks with three strikeouts over the final 1.2 innings.

“(Gainey) has been doing that all through the playoffs for us,” Farni said. “He’s been phenomenal this year and today was just another example of that. Getting this win today was huge, because we’re big underdogs coming in here. We can play loose now knowing we’ve got the series lead.”

Braden Maranto, Jackson Howell and Bryce Glenn all tallied multiple hits for Amory, but the Panthers struck out nine times and stranded 12 base runners as a team.

Senior Tyler Sledge drew the start and pitched well until the fifth, when he plunked a batter, gave up a single and walked the third batter to start the inning.

Howell walked the only two batters he faced after coming on in relief, then Ty Hester came on and walked two more.

“We haven’t walked that many guys or stranded that many runners in a game all season,” Amory coach Chris Pace said. “Just disappointing to do that on this stage. But hey, it can’t get any worse. We just need to regroup, come out here Thursday and play the kind of baseball that got us here.”