Columbia is on a four-game streak of home wins, while North Pike is on a four-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. A feisty cat fight will be fought as Columbia Wildcats face off against North Pike Jaguars at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Columbia will roll into the contest after a wild two-game stretch: they only put up one run on Tuesday, then bounced right back against Forrest County Agricultural on Friday. Columbia was the clear victor by a 12-5 margin over Forrest County Agricultural. The result was nothing new for the Wildcats, who have now won eight matches by seven runs or more so far this season.
MT Breland
| 03/21/25 vs Forrest County Agricultural | 6 |
| 03/14/25 vs Meridian | 1 |
| 03/05/25 vs Oak Grove | 0 |
| 02/25/25 vs Enterprise | 9 |
MT Breland made a big impact while hitting and pitching. On the mound, he struck out six batters over 4.1 innings while giving up just two earned runs off two hits. That's the most strikeouts he has posted since back in February. He was also big at the plate, scoring two runs and stealing two bases while going 1-for-3. He is becoming a predictor of Columbia's success: when he posts at least two runs the team is undefeated (and 2-4 when he doesn't).
In other batting news, the team relied heavily on Collin Haney, who scored three runs and stole a base while going 1-for-3.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask North Pike). They never let Natchez get on the board and left with a 16-0 victory on Friday. The Jaguars have beaten the Bulldogs the last five times they've met, but they better watch out: this was the closest the Bulldogs has come to flipping the script.
Like Columbia, North Pike also got a great game from a two-way player: Ty Jones. He tossed two innings while giving up no earned runs or hits. Jones was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring a run and stealing two bases while going 3-for-4. He has been hot recently, having posted at least one stolen base the last three times he's played.
In other batting news, North Pike got a massive performance out of Dawson Bigner, who scored two runs and stole two bases while going 2-for-2. Another player making a difference was Dominic Smith, who scored three runs and stole three bases while getting on base in all three of his plate appearances.
North Pike was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .467. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Natchez only posted a batting average of .100.
Columbia has been performing well recently as they've won five of their last six games. That's provided a nice bump to their 12-4 record this season. The wins came thanks in part to their pitching effort, having only surrendered 3.0 runs on average over those games. North Pike's victory bumped their record up to 12-4.
