By JAY TIDWELL/Sports Writer

Pontotoc has wrapped up another state championship in American Legion baseball, but don't expect it to relax anytime soon.

Head coach Nickey Browning said he doesn't intend to let any of his players take it easy as they represent Mississippi in the Mid-South Regional in Grand Prairie, Texas, which begins Thursday.

“I don't let them get comfortable,” Browning said after his squad knocked off Corinth (14-3) last Tuesday to capture the 2010 state title.

“I keep pushing them and trying to make them understand how, when you play nine-inning games, you can't sit back and wait, and skip an inning or two. You've got to play every inning.

“They've responded to that,” Browning said. “You can tell that by the scores they've put up.”

Browning hopes his team can continue its high-powered offense as it advances to the regional round, where it will face the Arkansas state champion Texarkana Razorbacks at noon on Thursday.

All games in the regional tournament will be played at AirHogs QuikTrip Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, which is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

Browning said the Red Sox (30-7) will make the road trip on Wednesday, and attend a banquet that evening for players and their parents.

Pontotoc's game follows the Gonzales (Louisiana)- Midwest City (Oklahoma) matchup which gets underway at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday.

The tournament finals are set for Monday, August 9.

The winner of the double-elimination regional advances to the World Series on August 13-17 in Spokane, Washington.

The only Mississippi team to win a national championship to date is West Point (2002).

Hitting helps pitching

The Red Sox, hosts of last week's state tournament, outscored their opponents 72-11 over the course of its four-game sweep.

And each game, designed for nine innings, was won in seven under the ten-run rule.

The high-scoring offense helped conserve pitching.

Only Nathan White (Pontotoc/NEMCC), Jim Tom Copeland (North Delta), and left-handers Dylan Earnest (Hamilton/ICC) and Blake O'Callaghan (Pontotoc/ICC), the winning pitcher in the championship game, logged multiple innings of work on the mound.

“It really helped our pitching, toward the end of the tournament, scoring a lot of runs like that and having quick ball games,” said first baseman Jake Smithey (Pontotoc/Miss. State).

“It's a lot of fun with everybody getting to bat and hit and getting a lot of runs.”

Smithey was one of the batters who helped notch the lopsided wins, with eight hits over four games, including a key home run in the first inning of the championship game.

Over the course of the tournament, lead-off batter Phillip Tice (New Hope/Dyersburg State) had seven hits with a home run and a triple; Jeremy Ferguson (North Pontotoc/ICC) had nine hits with a pair of doubles, Zach Chavers (Pontotoc/-ICC) had 10 hits with a home run and two doubles, Lee Wilson (Wheeler/Lipscomb) slugged out 11 hits with a pair of home runs and three doubles, David Bowen (South Pontotoc/-ICC) had six hits, including a grand slam in the tournament opener against Itawamba, and Jon Michael Hannon (Pontotoc/NEMCC), who batted in the No. 9 slot, had nine hits and a pair of doubles.

“We'll need to keep hitting the ball well, one through nine,” Smithey said.

“And our pitchers need to keep throwing strikes. They've been doing a real good job doing that.”

Other squads which have secured slots in the regional are League City (Texas), Papillion (Nebraska), and the Texarkana Tigers, who appear as the representative of the host site.

Kentucky will also send a representative, with its state tournament scheduled to conclude earlier this week.

“There's a lot ahead of us, but it's a great time,” Browning said.

“This is an experience these kids will never forget.”