The top-ranked Yellow Jackets took advantage of 9 free passes to knock off No. 7 Mars Hill Bible 6-2 on Wednesday to earn a spot in the Class 2A state baseball finals set for next week in Oxford and Jacksonville. Vincent improved to 32-7 on the season and avenged last season’s loss to the Panthers in the state quarterfinals.

Mars Hill (23-15) won the opener in the three-game series 3-1 on Tuesday before falling 14-6 to Vincent in the nightcap to set up Wednesday’s winner-take-all contest.

Vincent broke on top with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning – with a leadoff single by Casen Fields and four straight walks following a ground out issued by Panthers’ starter Cam Isbell. The Freed-Hardeman commitment was saddled with the loss after allowing 4 earned runs on 4 hits with 5 strikeouts and 8 walks. Oakley Bevis worked 2 innings, giving up 2 runs – 1 earned – on a hit with 3 strikeouts and a walk.

The Panthers cut Vincent’s lead in half with a run in the top of the third when Noah Hanback singled in William Mann, who had led off with a single. Vincent answered in the bottom of the inning when Landon Archer’s 2-out single brought in Aiden Poe.

After a Mars Hill run in the top of the fourth when Mann bunted Luke Fowler across, Vincent scored a pair of runs – Poe walked, went to second on another walk and scored on a wild pitch – in the bottom of the inning. The Yellow Jackets tacked on another run in the sixth when Fields singled, took second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored on Aiden Gasaway’s ground out.

Grayson Gulde earned the complete-game win, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits with 8 strikeouts and 3 walks.

Fields was 3-for-4 with 2 runs scored for Vincent. Air Force Academy commitment and Bryant-Jordan state Scholar of the Year Poe was 1-for-3 with 2 runs and Archer went 1-for-2 with 2 RBIs.

Mann was 2-for-3 with Hanback, Brooks Campbell and Fowler also contributing base hits.

Vincent will meet the winner of the Pike Liberal Arts-Reeltown series for the state championship.

This post will be updated.