VIDALIA, La. &045; Welcome to the world of Louisiana high school playoffs, where one bad inning or a pitcher having a bad day could be cause for turning in jerseys the next morning.

Both Christian Life and Vidalia battled for seven innings with two good pitching performances, enough for everyone to wonder what would happen if these two teams paired up for a best-of-three series. Instead, the Crusaders had the upper hand with some timely two-out hitting to take a 7-3 win over the Vikings and end their season at 22-6.

Christian Life will go on to play the winner of Springhill and Lakeside in a third-round game &045; a step away from the state tournament.

&uot;Wouldn’t you love to see these two teams play two out of three?&uot; Vidalia head coach Johnny Lee Hoffpauir said. &uot;Our kids played hard. They’ve done it all year. This has been a fun bunch to coach. This has been a special year for me.

&uot;There’s only one team that’s going to be happy when this is all over, and that’s the state champion. This team has made great strides. Defensively, at the beginning of the year we were really worried. Halfway through the year our team batting average .187. But we found ways to win games and beat some big schools.&uot;

The Vikings had to find a way to get hits off CLA starter R.J. McJimsey, who may have been one of the tougher pitchers they’ve faced this season and eight of his first nine outs on strikeouts.

For a Vidalia team that’s made its mark lately at the plate, the Vikings couldn’t put together more than one hit in an inning, struck out 10 times and left two runners stranded in scoring position in the sixth inning that could have turned things around.

Instead, the Crusaders tacked on a run in the seventh that deflated any momentum the Vikings may have had.

&uot;R.J. has been like that &045; he gets stronger as the game goes on,&uot; Christian Life head coach Jeff Dragg said. &uot;I’m proud of them. Coming away with a win here, it’s an accomplishment. Coach Hoffpauir does a good job with that group. Early on their pitcher was probably pitching a little better than (R.J.) was, but we were finally able to bat on it and finally knock him out of the game.&uot;

McJimsey &045; alternating between a wicked curve and good fastball &045; allowed only five hits in the contest and even took a tumble in the fifth when he appeared to have come down hard on his left hand when he tried to tag out Chris Walden on a play at the plate.

If it shook up McJimsey at all, it was only brief. The big right-hander came back in the sixth after yielding two runs to get two big strikeouts to end the inning.

&uot;He was good, and he was on tonight,&uot; Hoffpauir said. &uot;We missed a couple of opportunities to score some runs, and they were hard to come by with this kid. The first time through against him was tough, and we knew we had a battle on our hands.&uot;

The Vikings scored two in the fifth with Waldon and later Graham Roberts scoring on a Brett Hinson sacrifice fly and had something going in the sixth when Reid Simpson singled to lead off, Tyler Bruce walked and both moved up a bag on Trey Keith’s sacrifice bunt for the first out of the inning.

McJimsey ran the count full on the next batter before getting a strikeout and came with another strikeout to end the inning.

&uot;He’s a football player,&uot; Dragg said. &uot;He played tight end and outside linebacker. He just battles. He’s used to getting knocked around a little bit. He was trying hard, and he was able to shake (the play at the plate) off. That (sixth) was the inning I went out and talked to him. I tried to make him relax.&uot;

That’s when the Crusaders came with another key hit in the seventh when Scotty Ogden hit a little blooper down the right-field line that scored McJimsey from second for the seventh run. By that time Brett Hinson was on in relief of starter Tony Godbold, and that run was the only one charged to Hinson in 2 1/3 innings of work.

But it was enough to close the deal. The Vikings &045; who scored a run in the first on a Hinson double &045; had a single from Hinson in the seventh with two outs before McJimsey got Will Thomas to fly out to left to end it.

&uot;The one thing that hurt us was all seven of their scored were scored with outs,&uot; Hoffpauir said. &uot;We left those two runners stranded, and then to top it off they hit the blooper down the line to score a run. That was a hard hill to climb.&uot;