Last year, Bogue Chitto and St. Aloysius met in a tense, second-round softball series with the deciding third game going down to the last out in extra innings. The Lady Bobcats won 7-5 to advance to the state semifinals.

This year, the two schools are back in the same division like they were three years ago. The big difference is Sarah Franco is now pitching for Hinds Community College and not for St. Al.

The Lady Bobcats (7-4, 2-0 Division 7-1A) took advantage of 12 Lady Flash errors, 17 hits and five walks to crush St. Al 16-5 in six innings at Bazinsky Park. The loss drops St. Al to 6-8 overall and 1-1 in the division.

Bogue Chitto coach Scott Leggett said it was a lot different to face the Lady Flashes without Sarah Franco.

“This is the first time since I’ve been at Bogue Chitto where we didn’t have to face Sarah,” Leggett said. “We were able to put the ball in play. I was tickled that the bottom of my order hit the ball well. I thought St. Al hit the ball well. It came down to who could hit better.”

St. Al coach Gene Rogillio felt his team became unglued in the field.

“I think we counted 14 errors,” Rogillio said. “We played like this against Enterprise (Lincoln) down in Brookhaven on Saturday and it just carried over to tonight. The attitude needs to change. We need that want-to back. We had played really knockout defense up at Riverside, but not so tonight.”

The two teams were tied at 1 after two innings. Three hits by Bogue Chitto loaded the bases and then a dropped throw off a bunt attempt scored two runs and the error floodgates opened.

There were three more in the fourth that led to three runs and an 8-2 lead for Bogue Chitto.

While Bogue Chitto made hay with 12 unearned runs, four of St. Al’s five runs were earned. Down 8-2, Shelby Logue led off the bottom of the fourth with a double off the fence. She later scored on a single by Haley Heggins. K.K. DeRossette walked and then scored on a passed ball to make it 8-4. Bogue Chitto scored six runs off six hits and three errors to go up 14-4. St. Al got one back when Taylor Ann Hasty got her second double of the game and then scored on a grounder by Madison Heggins. Six Lady Bobcats had two or more hits. Adrienne Wallace went 4-for-5 with four runs scored to pace Bogue Chitto. Kerri McGehee had three hits while Darcy Miller, Josie Porter, Toy Smith and Rheagan Welch had two hits each. St. Al was led by Hasty with two doubles and two RBI. Logue had a double while DeRossette and Mallory McGuffee had a single and a run scored.

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com