Vicksburg High’s turnaround from fast-pitch also-ran to competitor has resulted in 10 wins this season.

Yet second year coach Amanda Yocum was not happy with how her Missy Gators played in a 6-0 loss on Senior Night against visiting Brandon at Bazinsky Park.

“We played well through the first five innings. They then got a few more hits than we did and we made some errors in the last two innings,” Yocum said.

Still, with Brandon (12-11-1) being a Class 5A team, the loss doesn’t hurt the Missy Gators’ playoff hopes. They will try and make up a divisional game today at Yazoo County, weather permitting. Then Tuesday becomes the key day of the season. Vicksburg (10-9, 3-2) heads to Florence for a doubleheader. The Missy Gators need to win both and then have Pearl (4-1 in the division) beat Ridgeland (3-2 division) in order to clinch a playoff berth.

“We still have to win our games with Yazoo County and Florence and then just see what happens between Pearl and Ridgeland,” Yocum said.

Vicksburg had its best break a scoreless game in the bottom of the fourth inning when Rebecca Connerly singled and then went to second on an error in left field. A passed ball moved her to third but Brandon starter Cassandra Brown got Olivia King, who had a hit in the third inning, to ground out to third to end the threat.

Brandon got to Vicksburg ace Kristi Shelby in the sixth. Mary Clark Joyner reached on an error and then scored on Amber Adcock’s single to right. Brooke Barrett followed with a triple to make it 2-0. Barrett then scored on a dropped fly ball.

The Lady Bulldogs tacked on three more runs in the seventh. Joyner singled in a run while Kala Purry drove in Joyner with a triple. Adcock capped a three-hit night with a single to score Purry.

Stringer 5, St. Al 2

The Lady Flashes made eight errors and with it could not close out the Division 6-1A race Thursday at Bazinsky Park.

St. Al (11-5, 7-1) will now need help from Puckett in order to win its second straight division title. Stringer (4-1 in the division) won by more than two runs to earn a possible tie-breaker provided the Lady Red Devils can win out, and that includes two games with Puckett next week. Stringer needs a sweep while St. Al needs at least a split. The Lady Flashes, however, are in the 1A playoffs.

St. Al had three straight hits to begin the home half of the first inning with Sarah Franco scoring on an errant throw. But Stringer pitcher Aaron Herrington struck out two of the next three to leave two runners stranded in scoring position.

The St. Al defense then collapsed behind Franco. Two errors in the third chased home two runs to put Stringer ahead 3-1. They added two more in the fifth with the help of three errors and a two-run single from Robyn Bradley to make it 5-1.