dust begins to settle

Jones County Junior College’s path to a state championship might have cleared a bit over the weekend. The top-ranked Bobcats rolled past Holmes to reach the MACJC Tournament, and they won’t have to face North Division champion East Mississippi in that four-team affair. The Lions, ranked eighth in NJCAA Division II, were upset in their best-of-3 series by South 4-seed East Central, which makes the final four with a 22-25 record. Hinds and Northeast also advanced. Northeast, as the highest surviving North seed, will host the tournament in Booneville starting on Thursday. Northeast won a three-game slugfest with Pearl River, taking Game 3 12-11 on Saturday. The Tigers blew a 7-0 lead, went up 12-9 on Easton Hall’s three-run homer in the eighth, then held on for dear life in the ninth. “It wasn’t pretty, but we’re on the dance floor,” Northeast coach Kent Farris said. ECCC’s upset of East Mississippi was fueled by two six-run innings in Saturday’s rubber game, a 12-3 Warriors win. John Morgan Berry had a big homer for the defending state champs. The bigger deal for the jucos is next week’s Region 23 Tournament. P.S. Delta State is 3-0 in the Gulf South Conference Tournament and has clinched a berth in the championship round, according to a school release. … Belhaven University will find out later this week what teams are coming to Smith-Wills Stadium for next week’s NAIA opening round tournament. … Mississippi College’s season is over. The Choctaws finished 21-19, apparently not good enough for an NCCAA regional berth. MC joins Millsaps, William Carey, Blue Mountain, Tougaloo and Rust on the sidelines.