POPLARVILLE — Riding the 5-hit pitching of Cole Zumbro, theCo-Lin Wolves knocked off Itawamba 5-0 Saturday in the rain-delayedMACJC State Tournament at Wildcat Stadium. Zumbro, a right-handedsophomore from Meadville, walked 1 batter and struck out 5 as theWolves remained alive in the double-elimination tournament.

Co-Lin (29-14) plays Mississippi Delta Sunday at 3 p.m. Deltabeat Hinds 10-6 Saturday on a grand slam homer in the bottom of the10th inning.

Pearl River (39-8) is scheduled to play Itawamba at noon. In the6 p.m. game, unbeaten Meridian (38-8) plays the winner of PearlRiver-Itawamba. Meridian beat Pearl River 3-2 in extra inningsSaturday.

The NJCAA start of the regional tournament has been pushed backfrom Tuesday to Thursday at Raymond. Co-Lin will play Hinds onThursday in the opening round.

“Cole did a great job for us,” said Co-Lin head coach KeithCase. “He didn’t throw a lot of bullets but he kept the ball overthe plate. Itawamba has a good team.”

Itawamba (31-13) had beaten Hinds 4-0 Saturday morning in theIndians’ first tournament test which was moved to North ForrestHigh School’s field due to the rain-soaked conditions. TheCo-Lin/Meridian game was one of two completed games in Thursday’srain-soaked opening round as Meridian prevailed 5-4 in nineinnings.

All games were washed out Friday and tournament officialselected to reduce each game to 7 innings.

“We have played extremely well in the last two games,” saidCase. “We came out and hit the ball.”

Co-Lin accounted for 11 hits. Outfielder Casey Ginn, thirdbaseman Justin Sykes, and right-fielder Jeffrey Waycaster had 2hits apiece. Doubles came from Guy Alleman, Ginn and Diego Nucete.Patrick Williams and Zumbro singled.

Pearl River got a double from Clay Dozier.

Losing pitcher Drew Jaudon (7-5) gave up 11 hits, struck out 1batter and walked 2.

The Wolves broke a scoreless duel in the fifth inning and plated3 runs. Jeffrey Waycaster singled, Aaron Guillot laid down asacrifice bunt. Waycaster moved to third on a wild pitch and scoredon a throwing error by the catcher.

Ginn reached on an error and scored on Nucete’s single. Williamswalked and went to second on a wild pitch. Itawamba catcher DrewTuminello tried to throw out Nucete at third but overthrew thethird baseman.

In the top of the seventh, Waycaster led off with a single.Guillot provided a sacrifice bunt and Ginn followed with an RBIdouble to right field. Ginn scored on Nucete’s double off the leftfield wall. Williams followed with an RBI single to left.