South Pittsburg wins 6-A crown

There was a smattering of applause from the fans and the players exchanged a couple of high-fives, but for a program that hadn't won a district baseball championship in 11 years, the mood was noticeably subdued. Considering South Pittsburg rallied from its first postseason deficit and set a school record for wins in whipping rival Marion County 10-3 to claim the District 6-A title, the celebration was especially laid back.

"This was the first goal we set, but I just think this group has much bigger plans for the season, so weren't going to make a big deal out of this," Pirates coach Wesley Stone said.

South Pittsburg (32-2) will host the second place team from District 5 in Monday's Region 3 semifinals.

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Caden Shadrick led off the game with a single and Marion County took advantage Pirates' ace Jacob Toney's control problems to take a 1-0 lead. However Toney was able to force a double play to end the first and South Pittsburg wasted no time taking control. The Pirates scored five runs in the bottom of the first, including two on bases-loaded walks and despite leaving the bases loaded, they had changed the complexion of the game.

Stone then turned to right hander Jacob Howard to take over in the second, and the senior - who hadn't pitched in two weeks - responded by allowing just one hit over the final six innings, striking out six to improve to 5-0.

"Toney was struggling with his control in pregame warmups and again once the game started," Stone said. "He hasn't thrown much since coming back from his injury so we just decided after we got the lead to hand the ball to Howard because I knew he would throw strikes. That's the luxury of being so deep in pitching, and we've got all the confidence in the world in him."

In five of the innings he pitched, Howard sat the Warriors down in order. He also went 3-for-3 with an RBI and a stolen base.

"I was about to get my glove and run back out on the field for the second when coach told me I was going to pitch," Howard said. "I was pumped up because I had the ball in my hands in the district championship game.

"That double play was huge to get us out of early trouble and then to come in and not only score five in the first, but to get two more in the second, that pretty much took them out of it."

All but one batter had at least one hit for the Pirates, who outscored their four district tournament foes 53-7 and Jake Stone, Hunter Giles, Matt Allen, Michael Allen, Cody Branham and Josh Thomas all had an RBI.

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