The Cougars are one game away from winning the school’s first state championship since 2010, but the game originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon was postponed due to weather in the Flora area and reschedule for Friday at 5 p.m.

Brookhaven Academy found out on Thursday morning that the Tigers’ field was too wet to play baseball on after rains hit the Flora area on Wednesday night, and a makeup date had to be found for the two teams.

Brookhaven Academy dominated the first game of the series after falling behind early in the contest. Tanner Watts threw 5.2 innings, giving up four runs, but none after the first two innings.

The Cougars were led at the plate on Tuesday by O’Neil Burgos and Nick Ogden, both of whom blasted homeruns in the contest.

On the mound

With the series being moved to Friday, Tri-Coutny Academy will have all of their pitchers available while Brookhaven Academy’s will be out Saturday because of pitch-count rules.

The Cougars’ Nick Ogden pitched at the end of game one on Tuesday night, but he didn’t throw near enough pitches to be required to sit out of the final two games of the series.

Brookhaven Academy likely has a distinct advantage on the mound, as Caston Thompson and Dawson Flowers have both thrown gems in the postseason.

At the plate

The Rebels were able to bunch at-bats together in the first two innings on Tuesday night to take a 4-0 lead on the Cougars, but eventually Watts shut them down and gave his team ample opportunity to get back into the game.

Tri-County Academy did show on Tuesday, however, that they don’t struggle with velocity and that you won’t be able to just blow fastballs by them on a consistent basis.

Watts dominated with his curve ball late in the game and really spotted it up to keep them off-balance for the final 3.2 innings.

It took the Cougars a few innings to get going from an offensive standpoint, but they got going the second time through the order hitting three homeruns over the final three innings.

Prediction

You don’t make a state championship series by accident, and there’s a reason Tri-County Academy is in the series.

They won their final two games against Manchester Academy to advance to the state championship series after falling in game one.

The Cougars will have to play well in one, and possibly two, contests to come home with the school’s first state championship since 2010.

Cougars win series 2-0.