PEARL — On a day when their most untouchable pitcher seemed mortal, the Vicksburg Gators still were opportunistic enough to scratch out a win.

The Gators stole nine bases and took advantage of four errors to score seven unearned runs in a 10-7 victory over Pearl on Saturday.

Clyde Kendrick went 3-for-5 with a double and three RBIs, Lamar Anthony had two hits and scored two runs, and Cameron Cooksey was 2-for-2 with three stolen bases, an RBI and a run scored for Vicksburg (12-10), which has scored at least nine runs in each of its last four games.

“The first two, three, four weeks we had three or four different guys that were carrying us. Now we’re getting some others to come around. When you get five or six hitting the ball, you’re going to score more runs,” Vicksburg coach Jamie Creel said.

The Gators needed as many runs as they could get. Sophomore pitcher Cody Waddell, who had given up just one earned run in 241⁄3 innings entering the game, allowed four on Saturday. He gave up 12 hits in seven innings, although most were soft bloopers and grounders that found holes in the defense.

Waddell only had one strikeout. It was a low total, but hardly his fault since most of Pearl’s hitters didn’t see three pitches. The Pirates (7-15) put 13 first-pitch swings in play, eight of which resulted in outs, and fouled off several others. Waddell needed 49 pitches to get out of jams in the fifth and seventh innings, and only 46 total in the other five innings.

“We sometimes fail to make a guy prove he’s going to be able to throw a breaking ball for a strike,” Pearl coach Mark Monaghan said. “We made an adjustment later and did a better job with that. But we’re an aggressive team.”

Vicksburg jumped on top with three runs in the first inning, then added four in the third. Pearl seemed ready to escape the second rally with minimal damage, but a dropped fly ball with two outs allowed a run to score and Kendrick followed with a two-run double to make it 7-2.

Pearl didn’t go away, though. Taylor Harris drove in a run with a one-out double in the fifth inning and scored on a single by Danny Alford, who later scored on another RBI single by Jake Thurman to cut Vicksburg’s lead to 7-5.

Once again, however, the Gators’ scrappiness allowed them to maintain a comfortable lead. Singles by Waddell and Cooksey, three stolen bases and back-to-back errors on easy groundballs — all with two outs — led to three runs in the top of the sixth.

Pearl answered with two runs in the seventh and had the tying run at the plate with no outs before self-destructing. With runners on first and second, Anthony caught a short fly ball in center and fired to second to double up Alford. Another fly ball to center ended it.

“We did a lot of little things and played solid defense,” Creel said. “I hope we can keep it up this week.”

Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com