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TALLULAH, La. — Wesley Sanchez singled in the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh inning and Brayden Ready settled down after a rough first inning as the Wilkinson County Christian Academy Rams rallied to defeat the Tallulah Academy Trojans 6-4 last Friday afternoon to win the 2024 MAIS Class 2A South State Championship.

With the win in Game 3, WCCA won the best-of-three series between the District 3-2A No. 2 seed Rams and the District 3-2A No. 1 seed Trojans two games to one. WCCA will take on Class 2A North State Champion Kemper Academy for the Class 2A State Championship this week.

Singles by Hayes Hopkins and Brayson Morson as well as a groundout by Tripp Gayle each brought in runs for Tallulah Academy in the bottom of the first inning, giving the host Trojans an early 3-0 lead. An error by the Rams in the bottom of the third inning extended Tallulah Academy’s lead to 4-0.

But for the most part, after the first inning, the Trojans struggled against Ready after the first inning. However, the Rams couldn’t their best going until the top of the fifth inning. With two on, Gavin Davis homered to left field and that cut the Trojans’ lead to 4-3.

Easton Buteaux was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the top of the sixth to bring in a run and tie the game at 4-4. Sanchez’s run-scoring single gave WCCA its first lead of the game at 5-4 in the top of the seventh. Charles Grezaffi, who went 3-for-4 at the plate, added an RBI single of his own to make it a 6-4 game.

Ready went the distance and gave up four runs, all of them earned, on five hits with five strikeouts and four walks. The Rams finished with nine base hits and took advantage of three errors committed by the Trojans.

Efforts to reach WCCA head coach Kyle White for comments on the game and playing for the state championship were unsuccessful.

WCCA (15-7) traveled to Scooba to take on Kemper Academy (15-6) in Game 1 of the Class 2A State Championship Series on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Then the WCCA Rams play host to the Kemper Academy Rams at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Game 3, If necessary, will be hosted by Kemper Academy at either Kemper Academy in DeKalb or at EMCC in Scooba on Saturday at a time to be determined.