By CURTIS ROCKWELL

Item Sports Editor

Picayune’s defense, solid for most of the season, picked the wrong time to fall apart Saturday.

The Lady Tide beat Vancleave 7-0 in the first game of the Class 5A best-of-three South State semifinal series. The win was the ninth shutout in 16 wins for the Lady Tide to that point.

However, the visiting Lady Bulldogs took advantage of some defensive miscues both fielding and throwing in the next two games, as Vancleave stormed back to win the final two contests and pull out the series.

Vancleave advances with a 4-3 win in game two and a 7-4 win in game three.

“Any loss is tough to take,” Picayune head coach Kristi Mitchell, whose team split a pair of regular season games with VHS, said. “We made some errors that we don’t typically make, and that hurt us.”

The losses bring the season to and end for Picayune with a 16-6 record. Vancleave will advance to the South State finals on Tuesday facing either Wayne County or Brookhaven.

The Lady Tide took the opener thanks to a 3-run home run by Sarah Dodd in the third inning that put Picayune up 5-0 at that point.

Vancleave, though, used several Lady Tide errors in the first three innings of game two to take a quick 4-0 lead and hold on, despite a three run triple by Picayune’s Brooke Ladner in the fourth frame.

In the deciding third contest, Picayune jumped ahead 1-0 in the third when Dodd drove in a run.

The lead was short-lived, however, as Vancleave took advantage of four Picayune errors in the fourth to post six runs and take a lead the Lady Bulldogs would never relinquish.

The Lady Tide fought back some, with an RBI-single from Ladner as well as a two run double from Dodd, but it wasn’t enough.

“I’m very proud of this team and what we accomplished,” Mitchell concluded. “We played hard today, but we could have played better.”

Taylor Seals had a good day at the plate for Picayune collecting four doubles in the three games. Seals, Brandi Rabion and Tiffany Devore all drove in runs in the first game as well.