CENTREVILLE – Pitcher Hunter Devall had his “A Game” going Monday night, directing the Centreville Academy Tigers to a 9-0 trouncing of Brookhaven Academy’s error-prone Cougars in Game 1 of the MAIS Class AA South State Championship series. The hard-throwing LSU signee tossed a 3-hitter, striking out 12 and walking 1.

     It’s a rematch of last year’s South State championship series that Centreville won en route to the state title. In the North AA playoffs, Magnolia Heights is at Hillcrest Christian today for Game 1.

     The Cougars (19-12) will host Centreville (24-4) Thursday for Game 2, starting at 4:30 in Harold Williams Ballpark.  Game 3, if necessary, will follow 30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 2.

     “Our guys really just feed off each other,” said BA coach Casey Edwards. “We had some ground balls that were misplayed and we made some throwing errors. We even had some passed balls. It’s contagious.”

     Senior pitcher Austin Travis (1K, 2BB) started for the Cougars and lasted one inning. He gave up 5  hits and 7 runs, including 5 earned runs.

     Gunner Ard replaced Travis in the second inning with no outs and 2 runners on base. In 1.2 innings, Ard (2K, 4BB) allowed 1 hit and 2 unearned runs.

     Jacob Philipp (1K, 0BB) entered the game in the  third inning with 2  outs and 2 runners  on base. In 3.1 innings, he held the Tigers hitless.

     “Jacob Philipp was a big positive for us,” said Edwards. “Again, we fell good about Thursday. We have been in this circumstance before.”

     Devall went the distance for Centreville.

     The Cougars got a double from Hunter Franklin. They got singles from Will Lucas and Matthew Evans.

     Third baseman Randy Bell singled twice for the Tigers. Collecting singles for Centreville were Devall, Hunter Travis, Tyler Towles, and Greg Chandler.

     Centreville had 6 chopper singles between shortstop and third base. The Tigers scored twice in the first inning and plated 5 more runs in the second.

     The Cougars came out on fire. They got 2 runners on base in the top of the first but failed to score. Will Lucas led off with a single and Bubba Keene was hit by a pitch. Devall picked Keene off first base.