VIDALIA — Despite giving up just three earned runs, two Trinity Episcopal Day School pitchers watched their defense fail them time and time again.

The end result was a 16-8 loss to Brookhaven Academy, in which the Lady Saints tallied 12 errors, something head coach Miranda Doughty said can’t happen.

“It’s all mental,” she said. “I have 11 good ball players that know how to play ball and defense. They just let the mental part get to them. I could look at them and tell they were saying, ‘Please don’t hit it to me.’ You have to say, ‘I want the ball.’”

Starter Kailey Hutchins took the loss for Trinity, going two innings and surrendering two earned runs on five hits. She also had three strikeouts and didn’t walk anyone.

Marty Lewis threw five innings in relief of Hutchins, and that’s when the errors began to pile up. Of Lewis’ 14 runs surrendered, only one of them was earned.

“Errors killed us,” Doughty said. “Our outfield played great Monday, but they let a few balls get past them to give them an extra base. We have to shut down the big innings.”

Brookhaven Academy’s biggest inning came in the third, in which its scored nine runs to lead 11-1 at the end of three. Trinity finally put together a few good innings, scoring three apiece in the fourth and fifth innings and one in the seventh. But Doughty said it was too little, too late.

“I told the girls, you have the ability to hit, but you can’t wait until the (later) innings to start swinging the ball and hitting the ball,” Doughty said.

Despite the lopsided loss, Doughty said there were a few positives to take away from the game.

“Our pitchers threw wonderful — they threw strikes and they pitched ahead,” Doughty said. “They just didn’t have any defense to back them up. We could have been run-ruled, but I was proud of them for staying in the ball game and not letting that happen.”

Lewis finished 3-for-5 at the plate, and Hutchins was 2-for-4. Gabby Knight scored three runs, and Kyler Parks went 2-for-4 with a triple.

Trinity (1-1) will play at 5 p.m. today at Central Private School.