Catching the ball made for a good day for the Vicksburg Missy Gators.

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Coach Michelle Fisackerly’s team made 15 fly ball putouts, including five by shortfielder Tira Erwin, to beat Clinton 11-7 Tuesday at Halls Ferry Park.

Fisackerly said the good defense will help the Missy Gators turn the corner. Getting a win over a fellow Class 6A program like Clinton is a good start.

“Our defense played great and once we get the bats to settle, we are going to be a completely different team than last year. We’re a much improved team,” Fisackerly said.

Clinton coach Allen Lunceford felt his Lady Arrows helped out the Missy Gators’ defense by putting too much loft on their hits.

“I counted through the first five ininngs, 12 of our 15 outs came on pop ups, including seven in the infield. If you hit the ball hard, good things will happen for you in slow-pitch softball,” Lunceford said.

While many of Clinton’s outs through the first five innings were pop ups, there were at least four balls where either Erwin, in short center, or shortstop Claire Ray had to make a difficult running catch.

“Oh yeah, our defense was pretty good,” Ray said. “Our attitude is different. We’re together as a team.”

The Missy Gators also got enough offense, building an 8-2 lead after scoring six runs in the third inning. They made use of four hits and four Clinton errors to scratch out the runs. The Lady Arrows’ errors led directly to four runs, while Savannah Pritchard and Sydney Bufkin drove in a run each.

In the fifth, Erwin singled and then scored on a hit by Pritchard, her second RBI hit of the game. Faith Thomas followed with her second hit and scored on a hit by Paige Bowser. Pritchard capped the three-run inning that made it 11-2 on an RBI grounder from Bufkin.

Clinton struck for four runs in the sixth but missed a chance for more when Irwin made a long, running grab to take an extra-base hit from Clinton clean-up batter Andrea Smith. Brittany Chilsolm’s two-run double did help Clinton cut the Vicksburg lead to 11-6.

Irwin capped her game by making another grab in the seventh to retire the first Lady Arrow. Ray then came back after an error plated Clinton’s last run by making a game-ending force play at second.

Clinton had 11 hits to Vicksburg’s eight but made five errors in the field to three for the Missy Gators. Thomas and Pritchard had two hits apiece to pace VHS. Ashley Kelley had two hits to lead Clinton.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com