by Hunter Dawkins, Owner/Publisher – editor@thegazebogazette.com or hdawkins@supertalk.fm
LONG BEACH (GG) — Despite a few obstacles throughout the season, the Long Beach Bearcats (8-20, 5-10) pitched a 5-0 shutout victory over the Picayune Maroon Tide Thursday, April 16 and secured a 4th seed in region play, which delivered an MHSAA 6A playoff berth. Even with a 4-2 loss Friday, the Bearcats record put them in fourth place and set them up for a first round matchup at George County.
The Bearcats owed their pitching crew a big pat on the back after their performance on Thursday as it was a revenge game for Long Beach: when they faced off against the Maroon Tide on Tuesday, they had to take a 2-1 defeat.
Not much got past sophomore Abel Wilson, who gave up just three hits to keep Picayune off the board. Wilson also tossed no earned runs, which is notable because Long Beach is 2-1 when he allows at most one earned run, but 6-18 otherwise.
Offensively, outfielder Drew Dixon went 2-for-3 with two stolen bases, two RBI, and one run.
Long Beach is on a roll lately: they’ve won four of their last six contests. That’s provided a nice bump to their 8-20 record this season. Those wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 2.4 runs on average over those games.
Long Beach will venture away from home to take on the George County Rebels at 7:00 p.m in Lucedale. The two teams are out to turn their luck around after having lost tight contests in their previous games. Long Beach couldn’t quite finish off George County in their previous meeting back in March of 2025 and fell 6-4.
Can the Bearcats avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself?
(Inside Photo by Hunter Dawkins/The Gazebo Gazette via Associated Press)
