NATCHEZ — River Oaks School had Adams County Christian School on the ropes after four and a half innings and appeared ready to deliver the knockout blow.

But something happened along the way — the Lady Rebels refused to stay down for the count. Instead, they kept chipping away at the lead in their final at-bat of the five-inning game and ended up stunning the Lady Mustangs 8-7 Monday afternoon.

The biggest of the two hits by ACCS in the bottom of the fifth inning came courtesy of Blair Vanderslice. With two outs and Braxtyn Elveston at second base and Jessica Reynolds at third base, Vanderslice hit what head coach Forrest Foster said could have been a double. Instead, it wound up being a single that brought in Reynolds with the game-tying run and Elveston with the game-winning run.

“We stayed behind the entire ball game. I kept telling my girls not to give up. Time was up. This is a character builder,” Foster said. “I said to them, ‘You just make up your minds that you’re beat or you just go out there and win the ball game.’ They went out there and won the game.”

Nikki Worthy led off with a walk and scored when Ashton Mason’s hard shot could not be fielded cleanly by River Oaks’ third baseman. A sacrifice bunt by Kaitlan Pace allowed Mason to advance to second base with one out. Abby Givens followed with a walk and Tory Laird’s groundout put Mason at third base and Givens at second base.

Jessica Reynolds then walked to load the bases. Elveston’s ground ball got past the second baseman for a single that brought in Mason and Givens. Reynolds went to third base on the single and Elveston advanced to second base on the throw to home plate.

“I told them you can’t just play. You have to compete. What makes you winners is to compete — from the first pitch to the last out,” Foster said.

Brooke Runnels was the winning pitcher. She allowed seven runs on seven hits, struck out one and walked three. Rogers was the losing pitcher despite striking out six in five innings.

“Their pitcher did a good job. One thing that really hurt us was two times we ended the inning with the bases loaded,” Foster said. “We left nine runners on base and they didn’t leave but five. I was disappointed with the bases loaded and one out.”

Givens and Vanderslice each had a double to lead the Lady Rebels at the plate. Thurmon went 3-for-3 for the Lady Mustangs.

ACCS (7-11) hosts Brookhaven Academy today in MAIS District 5-AA action. The junior varsity game starts at 6 p.m. and will be followed by the varsity game at 7:15 p.m.

Bogue Chitto 2,

Franklin County 1

MEADVILLE — Just two days after scoring 57 runs in its three wins at the West Lincoln Tournament, Franklin County’s bats went ice cold against Bogue Chitto.

And its defense picked the wrong time to fall apart as well. Two costly errors in the top of the sixth inning allowed the Lady Bobcats to rally for a hard-fought win over the Lady Bulldogs Monday afternoon.

Franklin County was held to just six hits by winning pitcher Kerri McGehee and committed three errors. Bogue Chitto, on the other hand, had 10 hits and just two errors.

“Our bats couldn’t get but one run today. We didn’t make any adjustments. We didn’t hit the ball to our potential tonight,” Lady Bulldogs head coach Dana Smith said.

Franklin County (7-3) took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning when Mildred Starks walked and scored on a double by Lay Lay Griffin.

However, the Lady Bulldogs could not hold that lead in the top of the sixth inning. And the defense let Starks down.

But an error on a dropped fly ball by Griffin allowed Mattie Avants to reach first base. Avants went second base on Adrianne Wallace’s single. And error by the second baseman on a ground ball by Marshonique Blackwell would have loaded the bases, but the throw to first was dropped and that allowed Avants and Wallace to score what ended up being the game-tying and game-winning runs.

“Bogue Chitto out-hit us, but those two errors are what cost us the game. Offensively, we didn’t do enough to make the difference,” Smith said. “Bottom line is, if we’re going to make errors, we’re going to have to make up the difference at the plate and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Kiarra Sykes went 2-for-2 and S. Middleton was 2-for-3 to lead the Lady Bulldogs.

Franklin County (7-3) hosts West Lincoln today with the JV game at 5:30 p.m. and the varsity game at 7 p.m.

Oak Forest 3, Centreville 2

AMITE, La. — With two outs and trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Oak Forest got a key two-run single that allowed the Lady Yellow Jackets to the defeat the Centreville Lady Tigers in MAIS District 6-AA action Monday night.

And that is what Centreville head coach Mark Mann said was the difference in the ball game.

“We couldn’t get the two-out hit or the key hit. We struggled all night moving runners,” Mann said. “We had chances to put runners in scoring positions and couldn’t do so. And when we did have runners in scoring position, we couldn’t get the key hits.”

Shelby Lynn got Oak Forest on the scoreboard first with a solo home run off Ariana Bigner. Bigner settled down and pitched back-to-back shutout innings and it looked like she had a chance to be the winning pitcher after Centreville scored twice in the top of the fourth inning for a 2-1 lead.

But the Lady Yellow Jackets would not be denied as they rallied to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth and Bailey preserved by shutting out the Lady Tigers in the top of the fifth.

Bigner allowed five hits, struck out two and walked one in four innings. Bailey ended up being the winning pitcher as she gave up seven hits, struck out six and walked one in five innings of work.

“This is the second, maybe third year we’ve faced her. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before,” Mann said. “It’s just a well-played game by both sides.”

Centreville (17-11, 3-2) hosts Silliman in district play today. The JV game starts at 6 p.m. and the varsity game gets under way at 7:15 p.m.