Bulldogs taking a bite out of post season

Tennis- Dynamic duos win titles

Nieve Cleary will travel to Texas for nationals with her doubles partner Sarah Garman (not pictured) after winning the State/Region 23 title.

The Gulf Coast men’s and women’s tennis teams doubled its fun by winning two doubles titles in April with the dynamic duos of Felipe Novello and Tan Nguyen and women’s partners Nieve Cleary and Sarah Garman.

Cleary and Garman are heading to nationals after winning the State/Region 23 doubles title against Co-Lin 6-4, 7-5 on April 17. The duo returns the college’s women tennis program to the national tournament for the first time in six years. The double-elimination tournament is being held in College Station, Texas, the first week in May.

Novello and Nguyen took the No. 1 men's doubles championship in the Region 23 tournament April 25 at the Jefferson Davis campus. They defeated John Hill and Luiz Miranda of Hinds 4-6, 6-3 and 7-5 in the championship match. They'll play in the NJCAA national tournament in Dallas, Texas, in mid-May. Novello also won in No. 1 singles, stopping Hill 6-3, 6-2. Overall the men’s tennis team finished third in the tournament.

Golf- Two players tee up post-season honors

Gulf Coast golfers Cian Daly and Brandon Payne both left the state and regional golf tournament in Hattiesburg (April 19-21) with post-season awards. Payne qualified for the national tournament in Phoenix by shooting 76-76=152. Daly earned the Hubert Tucker Award which recognizes the player who shots the lowest scores throughout the regular season in both the state and Region 23 competition. He averaged 72.0 strokes a round but didn’t qualify for nationals because of a wrist injury.

Sal Aleman (Pascagoula) scores in the first inning against the Wildcats during the final home game of the baseball season on April 24.

Baseball- Ready for regional

The Bulldog baseball team (32-11) locked up a spot in the Region 23 tournament with two weeks left in the regular season. The team will face off against Northeast Mississippi Community College, for the first time this season, on Thursday, May 6. Win or lose, the Bulldogs will play their second game on May 7. The double-elimination tournament is being held at Meridian Community College. The team just missed the state baseball playoffs by splitting a doubleheader with the Pearl River Wildcats during the final series of the season.

Softball- Final game to decide season

A razor-thin margin of wins and losses decided the softball team’s playoff changes at the end of April. Going into the final series of the season against Co-Lin on April 29, the Lady Bulldogs could have either won the South Division title or been eliminated from the playoffs altogether. Gulf Coast dropped both games to Co-Lin, but in twist stayed in the playoff hunt when Pearl River loss both of its games the same afternoon. The Lady Bulldogs will now face off against the Wildcats in one last 7-inning game to decided who advances to the state/regional tournament the first week in May.