West Lincoln came into Friday’s Division 7-1A contest needing eight runs to deny St. Aloysius a playoff berth.

But in order to do it, the Lady Bears needed 35 runs. They got 23 and lost, 27-23.

St. Aloysius (9-9, 2-2) used a 10-run fifth inning to rally from a 19-17 deficit and go up 26-17. Pitcher Grace Franco then retired six of the last eight Lady Bears she faced to nail down the victory and send St. Al to the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.

St. Al will face Edinburg or Sebastopol in the first round.

St. Al coach Gene Rogillio gave a pretty good assessment of the festivities, which saw 50 combined runs, 33 hits, 26 walks and 14 errors.

“This was a pretty good football score,” Rogillio said, shaking his head. “Sometimes nothing works. We kind of had that night on defense, but Grace did settle down in her last two innings.”

St. Al took advantage of 16 walks, five in the fifth inning. Mallory McGuffee’s two-run single was the key hit off West Lincoln’s Micah Redd.

Leading the scoring for the Lady Flashes was Julie Mabry with five runs. Haley Heggins, Sara Howington and McGuffee scored four times each while Franco and K.K. DeRossette came around three times. Howington and McGuffee each drove in four runs with a pair of hits. DeRossette had three singles while Franco and Madison Heggins had two hits apiece.

West Lincoln was paced by Marisa Pruski, who had three doubles, a single, scored five runs and knocked in five more.

St. Aloysius scored 13 runs in the first inning. The Lady Flashes batted around twice. There were eight walks, four hits and four Lady Bear errors.

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com