Northeast Jones’ historic season ends with a loss in Game 2 of the Class 4A South State series.

The Tigers fell to Sumrall 6-2 in Game 2 on Saturday night, following a 3-2 loss in Game 1 on Friday night.

Despite the sweep, Northeast Jones advanced further than any previous team in program history.

Head coach Jeremy Parker talked about his team’s playoff run following the loss.

"It's been a tale of two seasons," said Northeast Jones head coach Jeremy Parker. "I had high expectations when the season started, knowing we had seven starters from last year's 26-5 team returning."

"In our first five games, we were 1-4," added Parker, but not in a disappointing way. "We beat an excellent 6A Pascagoula team, then lost to West Jones, South Jones, Brandon, and Oak Grove. I think that stretch deflated our guys a bit. We went on a season-long slump at the plate offensively.

“But our guys flipped a switch when the playoffs rolled around.”

Northeast Jones shelled out 16 hits in two wins against Purvis in the third round to advance further than any team in program history.

"Our practice got better, our execution got better, and we started swinging our bats better," said Parker. "[On top of that], our pitchers threw a full game in our last six against playoff opponents."

Like on Friday night, Northeast Jones jumped out to an early 2-0 lead.

Charlee Strickland reached base on an error, and Kaden Padgett followed with a single through the infield with no outs in the top frame of the second. Strickland and Padgett later scored on a two-out infield single by Carson Ellis and a passed ball by Sumrall's starting pitcher Andrew Knight.

Sumrall answered in the bottom of the inning with two runs on a two-out error in the field.

A controversial no-call prolonged the inning before the play that scored the two Sumrall runs. With runners on the corners for Sumrall and one out, Ellis delivered a strike to the plate for the second out, attempting to throw out the Sumrall runner stealing second. Catcher Bryce Sullins was unable to do so for the Sumrall batter stepping in front of him at the plate on his way to the dugout. The home plate umpire seemingly made the call of interference, then backed off the call after a meeting with field umpires near the mound.

“We were rolling along pretty well until the umpire crew butchered the call at the plate with the interference call,” said Parker. “That was a game-changer for us. We might not have ever scored again, but we could have gotten out of that inning still on top 2-0. Probably not the difference in the ball game, but it didn’t help.”

With the momentum, Sumrall added four runs in the fourth to lead, 6-2, where the score stood for the remainder of the contest.

Carson Ellis started the game on the mound for the Tigers, lasting 3.2 innings before topping 100 pitches.

"[Carson] Ellis didn't do a bad job at all for us tonight," said Parker. "But once we [got into the fourth inning], he had already thrown over a 100 pitches, so we had to pull him. But he battled his butt off."

Parker praised both of his starting pitchers in the series.

“Like I told our two guys [Charlee Strickland and Carson Ellis] after the game,” said Parker, “I’ll take those two guys any day of the week. They left it all on the mound. I’ve very proud of them. They did everything they could do.”

“Overall, I feel like we played well in these last two games,” added Parker. “We made a few mistakes here and there, but our guys hit the ball hard. It just happened to go right at [Sumrall’s players].”