Poplarville’s Lady Hornets softball team took on the Lafayette Lady Commodores March 9 and won 14-13 in a game that went eight innings.

It was a back and forth game between two evenly matched teams, but Poplarville was able to pull out the victory and move to 4-5 on the season.

“We have scrappy kids who don’t give up. They’re going to give what they have and that showed last night,” Ray said.

Senior Gracie Raby got the start for the Lady Hornets and ended up pitching a complete game for Poplarville.

“I was proud of her, she stood in there. Lafayette is a really good hitting team and they capitalized on some mistakes, but she kept throwing strikes,” Head Coach Jonathan Ray said.

Lafayette kicked off the scoring, but every time the Lady Commodores built a lead Poplarville would find a way to battle back.

Lafayette had a solo homer in the top of the first inning, but the Lady Hornets responded with a three run barrage thanks to RBI singles from Hannah Blanchard and Lauren Tynes.

Another run in the top of the second inning saw Lafayette cut the deficit to one.

Both teams had runs cross home plate in the third inning and the score was 4-3 heading into the fourth.

The Lady Commodores brought home four runners in the top of the fourth, in part thanks to a Lady Hornet error, to take the lead 7-4.

In the bottom of the fifth Denasia Fulton stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and crushed a ball to the outfield for a bases clearing triple.

Fulton was then brought home by Katilynn Schonewitz to give the Lady Hornets an 8-7 lead after five innings.

Lafayette tied the game in the top of the sixth and neither team could break the stalemate in the seventh, so the game moved into extra innings.

In extra innings there’s one runner on second automatically to begin the inning. Lafayette took advantage of this and scored five runs in the top of the eighth inning en route to a commanding 13-8 lead.

However, the Lady Hornets kept battling and the game ended in dramatic fashion with Fulton once again having a bases clearing triple for the walk off win.

“She gets the big hits for us. She stays even keeled the whole game and competes. When she’s in that position I know she gets it done more often than not,” Ray said.

Now the Lady Hornets will begin preparing for their first district game of the season.

Poplarville will take on the Purvis Lady Tornadoes March 12 with the game set to begin at 6:30 p.m.

“I want to see them feed off the energy we created last night and go compete. Purvis is a good team and has probably the best pitcher in the region,” Ray said.