Poplarville’s Rachel Hickman had been locked up with her Picayune counterpart Jessie Frierson for almost eight innings in a pitchers duel Monday night.

Then, Hickman decided to take matters into her own hands.

Hickman drove in Hannah Hearndon with the winning run in the bottom of the eighth frame to give the Lady Hornets an exciting 2-1 win over the visiting Lady Tide in extra iniings.

The win pushed Poplarville to 2-1 on the young season, and left Picayune still searching for its first win of the year as the Lady Tide stands at 0-2-1.

“It was typical Poplarville-Picayune game,” Lady Hornets head coach Jonathan Ray said. “We have a lot of new faces, and we are still working on getting settled at the plate. They deserved to win the game as  much as we did, I think it just came down to the last at bat.”

Hickman and Frierson battled toe-to-toe the entire game, and for the most part each produced dominating performances.

Picayune took an early lead in the first inning when Millie Gill scored, and the Lady Hornets tied the game up in the bottom of the second on a throwing error off a ball that Chelsea Barrett put into to play.

Things then stayed that way until the extra inning.

“I thought both pitchers did a very god job,” veteran Picayune head coach Kristi Mitchell said. “They both deserved to win.”

Poplarville was coming off a split of two games to open the season in the Stone County Tournament over the weekend. The Lady Hornets beat Stone 2-1, as Hickman had two hits and drove in both runs and Rachel Breland also had two hits. Hickman also picked up the pitching win.

The Lady Hornets also lost to East Central 4-1, as Ashton Rodgers took the loss and Nicole Smith had a  double.

Poplarville hosts Pearl River Central on Thursday, while Picayune hosts West Harrison on the same night.