RAYVILLE, La. — Givonni Dent and Daniel Dunaway combined on a four-hitter while Kent King had three hits as Trinity Episcopal defeated Riverfield Academy 11-5 Thursday afternoon.

The win in Game 2 of the best-of-three MAIS Class A South State semifinal series gave the Saints a sweep of the Raiders as they now look forward to playing Heidelberg Academy for the South State championship.

“We’re happy to move on. We’re playing for the South State championship. We’re one of the last four teams remaining (in Class A), so we’re happy to be here,” Trinity Episcopal head coach Mitch Ashmore said.

Not only that, but Trinity (20-3) won the coin toss for next week’s best-of-three series. The Saints will be at Heidelberg Academy for Game 1 and will host Game 2 and, if necessary, Game 3. Heidelberg Academy defeated Porter’s Chapel 8-5 and 7-3 to win its best-of-three series two games to one.

Dent allowed one unearned run in the first four innings before he ran out of gas in the bottom of the fifth. That’s when Riverfield took advantage with a Trinity error, a walk and a single to load the bases. Chase Cater then hit a grand slam to make it an 11-5 ball game.

Ashmore brought Dunaway in to relieve Dent and Dunaway did the rest in picking up the save. Dent was the winning pitcher as he allowed three earned runs on three hits and three walks to go with five strikeouts in five-plus innings. Dunaway gave up just one hit, struck out one and walked none in his two innings. The other five outs were groundouts.

“Givonni pitched really well. He got tired toward the end. Daniel did what he did. He threw a lot of ground balls,” Ashmore said.

Trinity broke a scoreless ball game by scoring five times in the top of the third inning. The Saints added another run in the top of the sixth before putting the game out of reach with five more runs in the top of the sixth. And they contributions from several players at the plate.

King went 3-for-4 with a double, Trevor Faust was 2-for-3, and both Dent and Dunaway went 2-for-5. Trinity also took advantage of seven Riverfield errors and several passed balls thrown by Cater.

“We spread it around. We weren’t as intense as we were the first game of the series,” Ashmore said.

Brookhaven Academy 10, Centreville 6 (Game 2)

Centreville 9, Brookhaven Academy 3 (Game 3)

BROOKHAVEN — After Brookhaven Academy won Game 2 of its best-of-three Class AA South State semifinal series with Centreville Academy Thursday afternoon, the Tigers battled back from a 2-0 deficit to win Game 3 Thursday night and the series two games to one.

In the first game of the day, the Cougars jumped out to a 7-1 lead after three innings of play and then had to hold off a furious comeback by the Tigers to take a 10-6 victory.

Brookhaven Academy won that game despite having just four hits to 11 for Centreville. But two of those hits were key home runs by Hunter Franklin and winning pitcher Gage Posey.

“One was a three-run shot and the other was either a two- or three-run shot. We walked and hit 12 batters. That’s how they got a lot of their runs,” Centreville head coach Jason Horne said. “We couldn’t get a timely hit and we left the bases juiced three times.”

Franklin went 2-for-4 for the Cougars. Gage Chandler and Randy Bell each went 2-for-4 for the Tigers.

In the deciding game of the series, it looked like Brookhaven Academy was going to keep the momentum going after scoring twice off Bell, the starting pitcher for the Tigers.

But Bell settled down and kept the Cougars off the scoreboard during the next four innings. And that was important as Centreville tied the ball game in the top of the third inning and took the lead for good by scoring three times in the top of the fourth.

“We got some timely hits and we also had some big hits,” Horne said. “I’m proud of our kids for the way they battled after they got down 2-0 in the first inning and lost the first game. We battled and competed and won in the end.”

The Tigers added two more runs in the top of the sixth before Hunter McCullough homered off Bell. Hunter Devall relieved Bell and didn’t allow another run. Centreville capped off the win by scoring two runs in the top of the seventh.

“We got a great pitching effort by Randy Bell. He did a good job mixing up his pitches and keeping them off balance. He gave up the home run and we put Devall in in the sixth and seventh,” Horne said. “We had some great defensive plays. It was a team effort.”

Centreville (25-7) will take on Central Private next week in the Class AA South State Championship series. Game 1 will be at Centreville next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.