NATCHEZ &045; For maybe the first time in a while there may be some worry on the part of Adams Christian and its offense.

That’s because at this stage of the playoffs the pitching just keeps getting better.

Yet the Rebels’ ability to hit and continue hitting makes for a good storyline starting today as they open their best-of-three Class AA South State championship series against Silliman at 6:30 p.m.

The Wildcats will likely bring John Beauchamp to start tonight’s game that may be one of the more low-scoring games at the cozy Rebel Diamond.

&uot;It’s never the least of my worries when you know you’ll see a good pitcher,&uot; Adams Christian head coach Gill Morris said. &uot;We’ve seen some decent pitching this year. The Dickerson kid at Brookhaven threw well. This is probably the quickest pitcher we’ve seen since the Porter’s Chapel kid beat us at the Copiah tournament. He’ll come straight at us and try to get ahead in the count.&uot;

Yet the Wildcats may be thinking the same thing of an Adams lineup that finished the regular season putting up the offense and combined to score 31 runs in the three-game set with Brookhaven. It may not be more so the offense more than just putting in a complete seven-inning game for a team that had its ups and downs in the BA series.

At this point every inning, every hit ball and every pitch has just become much more magnified than in the regular season.

&uot;We talk about that every week, and we talked about that again today and after the Brookhaven series,&uot; Morris said. &uot;This time of year everybody has got good ball clubs. You’re going to have to play. You’ve got to play solid baseball for a full ball game. We’re a minimum of two games and a maximum of three for the state championship series and a minimum of two games from being through. Hopefully that’ll sink in.&uot;

Beauchamp may get the start for a Silliman team that went through District 4-AA undefeated with sweeps of Columbia Academy and Oak Forest, two solid teams in their own right. The Wildcats then went three games to take the series against Prairie View to get this far.

The Rebels will counter with right-hander Timmy Foster on the mound.

&uot;Coach (Randy) Sandifer does a good job down there, and he’s got some state championships under his belt,&uot; Morris said. &uot;It’ll be a challenge for us to step up. We’ll have to get ready to swing the bat when we step into the box. I told the whole team this time of year you’ve got to be ready to win some one-run ball games. There are no bad teams. Hopefully we’ll put the ball in play.&uot;

Glenbrook at Huntington

FERRIDAY, La. &045; Don’t go preparing for an easy series with the Apaches since they finished runners-up to a team the Hounds swept in two games last week.

Riverdale is good, but Glenbrook is on a roll right now. The Hounds will get their first crack at the No. 2 team out of District 8 at 7 p.m. today at Huntington.

&uot;I think anybody who gets this far &045; I don’t worry about 1s or 2s anymore,&uot; Huntington head coach Mitch Ashmore said. &uot;Right now they’re the best ball club we’re going to face as far as I’m concerned &045; which they are. It doesn’t make any difference. I feel fortunate to be able to play. We’ll play our game.&uot;

The Apaches, who disposed of WCCA in two games to open the playoffs, enter the series on a hot streak at the plate. The Hounds will counter with either of two starting pitchers today in Trey Brasher or Jacob Bonnette and use the help of a solid defense behind them to keep things close.

The Hounds have had almost a week off since their last game against Riverdale, and it allowed both pitchers to get some rest in before taking on a team that will put the ball in play.

&uot;From everything I’ve heard, they’ve been pushing across a bunch of runs lately,&uot; Ashmore said. &uot;It seems to me they are swinging the bats at the right time now. We took a couple of days off after we got through because we had been traveling so much. They were able to get some rest and were able to work on some corrections we wanted to make. I think that’s helped us.&uot;