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Southern Miss signee T.J. Dunsford pitches East Central past Saltillo in 6A Championship opener

The Hornets took a 1-0 series lead with a 4-1 win over Saltillo Wednesday

PEARL — East Central senior T.J. Dunsford has had some big games in his career, but none as meaningful as Wednesday’s Class 5A State Championship Series opener.

The Southern Miss signee and reigning Mr. Baseball turned in a gem, fanning eight batters and holding Saltillo to a run on two hits to lead the Hornets to a 4-1 win.

East Central (28-8) can clinch the state title with a win in Friday’s Game 2, which is set for 7 p.m.

Wednesday’s series opener was a pitching duel between Dunsford and Saltillo right hander Drake Douglas.

Both were filthy. Douglas went six innings and gave up three earned runs on six hits, three walks and struck out 10.

East Central scratched for a run in the second when Andrew Marble singled and came around to score on a wild pitch.

Douglas righted the ship and cruised until the fifth, when he beaned Nathan Trochessett to start the inning and threw two wild pitches before Marble singled to left to run the Hornets’ lead to 2-0.

East Central scored two more runs three batters later when Brandt Dickerson got the barrel on a breaking ball and send a looping drive down the left field line for two more RBIs.

The one run Dunsford gave up came in the seventh, when a walk and an error brought the tying run to the plate.

He got Gavin McGee to fly out to left and Smythe McCoy to pop out to second, but Jacob Brown singled on a hard ground ball to get put the Tigers on the board.

Jackson Adams represented the tying run with two outs, but Dunsford got him to ground out to third to end the game.

“The biggest game changer was that all three pitches were working for me,” Dunsford said. “Usually in my down games, it’s because I don’t have my changeup or my curveball isn’t there. But they were all there tonight, and I told coach (Stephen Garrard) this is one of the biggest games — probably the biggest game of my life, and my last one on the mound. So I just tried to go out there with some intensity.”

Brown was the only Tiger who notched a hit against Dunsford, and he got him twice.

“(Dunsford) pitched well and they put the ball in play with runners in scoring position,” Saltillo coach Eric Reynolds said. “We were a little out of sync. Had some uncharacteristic at bats. They mixed it up well and kept us off-balance and we couldn’t get anything going offensively.”