Tupelo coach Gary Enis and Vicksburg skipper Jamie Creel have had teams tangle before, about nine years ago in fact.

Go back to 1998 and you had Enis, a former Delta State University catcher, making his coaching debut at Bayou Academy in Cleveland. Creel was at league-rival Greenville Christian.

Tonight, the two square off again when Enis’ Golden Wave (29-1) hosts the Gators (18-11) in the first game of a Class 5A playoff series. Game two is scheduled for Friday night at 6 at Bazinsky Field. If the teams split, a third game will be back in Tupelo Saturday at 3 p.m.

Enis says he’s looking forward to matching wits with Creel again.

&#8220Back when I was at Bayou, I think we played Jamie’s team twice that year. We only played 16 games the whole season because the school wanted to run track on Saturdays,” Enis said.

Enis left the Delta after that season and went back to his alma mater at Tupelo. He’s been with the Golden Wave program for the past nine years, the last four as head coach.

Enis said this year’s team has established a school record for regular season wins at 29.

&#8220It’s the best regular season in the history of the program,” Enis said. &#8220We were 21-12 last year but just everybody came back this year, including our top three pitchers. All three of them are juniors.”

Kyle Thornton, the ace of the staff, is 9-0 and will draw the start tonight in Game 1

Joseph Koon, the younger brother of Mississippi State pitcher Jared Koon, is the Wave’s No. 2 starter and will likely get the nod Friday.

Creel is impressed with the Tupelo pitching staff.

&#8220We saw three good pitchers Monday with Brandon, but Tupelo is good, too,” Creel said. &#8220They have three juniors who all throw in the mid 80s. They are all about the same.

&#8220On offense, they are going to put the ball in play,” he said.

Tupelo’s top hitters are senior Wesley McCullough and junior Gardner Richey. Richey hit 14 home runs last season.

Vicksburg will try and counter with a young club that won a postseason playoff tournament last year in Southaven, winning three of the four games. The Gators have played a tough schedule which features 5A powers Madison Central, Brandon, Clinton and Northwest Rankin.

&#8220We’ve played our share of tough people and we look forward to the opportunity to play a team like Tupelo,” Creel said. &#8220I think a key for us will be our approach at the plate. We did pretty good against Pearl but not so good against Brandon.”

Vicksburg is led by Ole Miss signee Tyler Wells, who has six home runs and 38 RBIs this season. Wells will play either left field or third base.

Andrew Brown (5-3) will be the likely starter tonight. He’s pitched the Gators to wins over Pearl and Clinton in the past two weeks. He had a competitive outing against Madison Central in a 3-2 road loss.

Stanton Price (6-3) is expected to start Game 2 in Vicksburg. Price is the Gators’ most consistent hitter and had three home runs in a sweep of Pearl last Saturday at Bazinsky.

Class 5A playoffs

Today – best-of-three series

Vicksburg at Tupelo, 6 p.m.

Friday

Tupelo at Vicksburg, 6 p.m.

Saturday

Vicksburg at Tupelo, 3 p.m., if necessary

Admission: $5