The Pillow Academy Mustangs weren't sharp, but they did enough to sweep a doubleheader from Heritage Academy.
The Mustangs overcame 12 errors in 14 innings of baseball to win game one 4-0 and 6-5 in game two. Pillow, which has won eight straight, improves to 20-5 overall, 12-3 in the North AAA Conference standings.
The Mustangs have locked up the No. 2 seed in Division I and will play the No. 1 seed from the South in the first round of the state playoffs in the second week of May.
Pillow closes out the regular season next week with a home game Monday against Hillcrest Christian, a game Tuesday at Washington and then a doubleheader at home Thursday against Washington.
First-year Pillow head coach Bart Jenkins wasn't happy with what he perceived to be his team's lack of focus against a not-so-tough Heritage team.
"We had played five or six really good games before this, but something wasn't clicking. The kids battled, but they just didn't make the routine plays," he said. "We had way too many errors, but the most important thing is that we won."
In the first game, sophomore Daniel Allen pitched a complete-game, three-hitter while fanning 11.
Pillow scored all four of its runs in the fourth inning. An RBI single from backup catcher Taylor Young put the home team up 2-0, and Pillow added two more runs when Jacob Land and Jay Mitchell were hit by pitches with the bases loaded on back-to-back at-bats.
In the 6-5 win in the nightcap, the Mustangs had eight errors and eight hits.
Heritage scored two runs in the top of the fifth to chase starting pitcher Bo Craig from the mound and tie the game at 5-5.
Mitchell came on in the fifth with no outs and worked the final three innings to get the win. He is 8-2 on the year after allowing two hits and striking out four to finish the game.
Pillow scored the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth, when Pate Shackelford singled and scored on a double by Mitchell.
For the game, Mitchell had a triple to go with that double, and Shackelford finished with two hits. Senior catcher Caleb Whites, a Mississippi Delta Community College signee, had a double.
