Neshoba Central’s Brayden Dunn makes contact with the ball Tuesday night against West Lauderdale.

COLLINSVILLE — It was a special night for West Lauderdale’s Jerry Boatner, as the school honored its baseball coach of 45 years and 14 state titles in Tuesday’s game against Neshoba Central.

The pitching did its part to help give its coach a 3-1 win against the Rockets on senior night, and prior to the game, the school recognized not just the seniors, but Boatner and his wife, Linda, for their contributions to the team. Boatner was presented with a commemorative plaque by the school, as well as a bottle of infield dirt by the Knights’ coaching staff, and Linda Boatner was given a plaque of her own and had the baseball team’s concession stands officially named in her honor.

After this season, Boatner plans to retire.

“I’m just blessed to have been here so long and to have coached so many wonderful players,” Boatner said after the game. “I’m just a blessed man to be able to be here for 45 years and to have had the success we’ve had. It all goes to Jesus Christ — he allowed it to happen, and I’m excited to have been here all of these years.”

Meanwhile, Knights senior Hunter Eldridge and freshman Mason Willis combined to hold the Rockets to just one run on one hit as West Lauderdale used a three-run bottom of the fifth to edge out Neshoba Central in a tune-up game before both teams turn their attention to the postseason. Eldridge, who has been battling injuries for the past two seasons, started the game and surrendered one unearned run on no hits and one walk in 3 2/3 innings of work. He also struck out six Neshoba Central batters, and Boatner said he liked what he saw from his likely No. 3 starter going into the playoffs.

“He’s going to be really important,” Boatner said. “If we get Hunter Eldridge back like he’s normally capable of pitching, we’ll be in good shape. He had 46 pitches, and we’ll try to get him up to 60 pitches next time; the maximum is 120. I thought he pitched great.”

Neshoba Central starter Hayden Knight, meanwhile, had a strong showing as well, as he held West Lauderdale to two runs on one hit in four innings of work. He ran into trouble in the bottom of the fifth and was replaced by Beck Williams, who surrendered one run on one hit with one strikeout and three walks in two innings of work. Knight had good success with his breaking ball, and Rockets head coach Turk Stovall said he was pleased to see Knight have a strong showing against a playoff-bound team.

“He’s just a sophomore,” Stovall said. “We think the (velocity) is going to come, but he generally sits 77 to 79 (miles per hour), but he really lives off the curveball, and when it’s on, it’s a good one. He gave us a chance to win.”

The game remained scoreless until the top of the fourth when Williams had an RBI groundout to score Jake William, who earlier reached one a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and then advanced to third when the ball got lost in the dirt. West Lauderdale was held hitless until the bottom of the fifth, when Chase Tilghman singled to lead off the inning.

West Lauderdale’s Turbo McKee followed up the single with a walk, and Williams was brought in to relieve Knight for Neshoba Central. After Chance Denson, who courtesy ran for Tilghman, and McKee stole third and second, Kam Partridge grounded out to send home Denson and tie the game 1-1. Ben Ethridge then hit a sacrifice fly to shallow right to score McKee from third, and several batters later, Brett Mason hit an RBI single to score Willis from second and give West Lauderdale a 3-1 lead.

Willis, meanwhile, held Neshoba Central to one hit in 3 1/3 innings of work to get the win for the Knights, impressing his head coach in the process.

“I can’t say enough about the true freshman Mason Willis coming in,” Boatner said. “Man, he was one fire. That’s the best he’s pitched all year. I feel really good about our pitching. I was really disappointed in our hitting, but our pitching has been there all year.”

Mason and Tilghman had West Lauderdale’s only two hits, while Kendrick Bester had Neshoba Central’s lone hit.

BYE FOR NESHOBA 

While West Lauderdale’s postseason push begins this weekend, Neshoba Central will have to wait another week, as the Rockets went 6-0 in Region 3-5A to win their division and earn a first-round bye in the Class 5A playoffs.

Despite having another game later this week, Stovall said his team will have almost a week before playing again, which is why he scheduled West Lauderdale for the final week of the regular season.

“It gets us ready,” Stovall explained. “For the last couple of years, West and I have scheduled this game. We’ve seen some good pitchers, but we look at this game as a playoff game. They’re a great team every year, and they’re going to have good arms, and we need to see those arms to get us ready.”

While it’s always good to win the division, Stovall said it almost hurts them for the playoffs because there’s such a long layoff in between games. He does plan to host an intersquad game next week to help fight off the rust.

“Winning the division, you kind of get punished,” Stovall said. “Yeah, we’ve scheduled a game Thursday, but we still have a full week layoff. The game of baseball, you kind of want to get in a rhythm. Once you get to playing, you want to play every other day or every two or three days at least to stay fine-tuned and keep things going. But our No. 1 goal going into the season was to win the division, and we’ve done that, but we just have to take what we get.”

UP NEXT 

West Lauderdale (21-2) will host Pass Christian in Game 1 of the first round of the Class 4A playoffs Friday. Game 2 will take place Saturday at Pass Christian, and Game 3, if necessary, will be played Monday at West Lauderdale. Neshoba Central (13-8) will travel to Madison Central Thursday for its regular-season finale.