[4/15/03]Leave it to a junior to start a rally that lifted Vicksburg High to a senior-night win.

Sean McGowan hit a one-out double in the bottom of the seventh to start the Gators’ rally that led to a 4-3 win over South Panola in the final regular season game.

“I was down in the count and realized we needed to go ahead and get something started,” said McGowan, who also had a single and an RBI in the win. “I didn’t want to go into extra innings. I’m real good friends will all these seniors and I wanted to win this game.”

After McGowan’s hit, South Panola walked Matt Middleton intentionally to set up a double play. An error on a fly ball allowed Josh McBride to reach first and loaded the bases for Justin Henry, an Ole Miss signee and the Gators’ best hitter.

South Panola coach Patrick Roby brought in ace pitcher Tyler Brewer, who had thrown 109 pitches in a game on Saturday, to face Henry.

“We wanted to win it or lose it with him,” said Roby, whose team finished 13-14 after combining for four wins over the last two seasons. “He told us he could give us an inning tonight, but when you come up against a great hitter like Henry, it’s tough. He just got the bat on it.”

Henry drove Brewer’s first pitch to deep left field allowing pinch-runner Ben Shelton to score from third and end the game.

“He’s an all-star pitcher, but Justin’s been all over the country and he’s seen left-handers throwing 96 or 97 this past summer,” Vicksburg coach Jamie Creel said. “One thing we always talk about with a guy on third base with less than two outs, is the first pitch that comes in there, you hit.

“You don’t want to get behind in the count and try to fend off curveballs.”

Henry had another RBI in the first inning and catcher Rob Quimby had an RBI double in the second inning. For most of the night, though, Tigers’ pitchers had Vicksburg snake bitten.

Ryan Willis and Walt Love held the Gators to three hits over the first six innings.

“They do as good a job mixing up pitches as anyone we’ve seen this year,” Creel said.

The Tigers jumped on Vicksburg pitcher Adam Logue early, scoring two runs on four hits in the top of the first inning.

The Gators sliced the lead in half in the bottom of the first when Middleton scored on a Henry sacrifice fly.

Vicksburg (17-7) took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the second on back-to-back RBI hits from Quimby and McGowan, but South Panola answered when Brewer scored on an RBI single from Bradley Striplin to tie the game at 3-3.

Brewer led the Tigers’ 10-hit attack with a double and two singles.

Logue settled down, though, and pitched through the sixth inning. With coaches mulling whether to leave him in the game or replace him with fireballer James Jackson, Logue got Nick Walton to ground into the second double play of the night and end the sixth inning with the game still tied.

Jackson retired South Panola in order in the seventh to set up Henry’s game-winner in the seventh.

“We certainly didn’t play like a championship-caliber team tonight,” Creel said. “But I think you will see a much different showing on Thursday in Starkville.”Vicksburg will open the Class 5A state playoffs on Thursday at Starkville.