Through five innings, St. Aloysius looked to have Sebastopol under control.

The Lady Flashes held a 7-2 lead, but then came undone in the sixth inning as the Lady Bobcats put together an eight-run rally, all with two outs. Instead of a five-run lead, St. Al trailed 10-7 and lost in Game 1 of a Class 1A playoff series at Bazinsky Park.

The series will resume today in Sebastopol at noon. The Lady Bobcats (19-4) need one more win to seal the series and move on to the second round. St. Al (11-12) needs a win to force a Game 3, which would follow immediately after Game 2.

Lady Flashes coach Gene Rogillio knew his team let a playoff win get away, as all eight runs in the sixth were unearned.

“We played terrible. They started to get the range on her (pitcher Taylor Ann Hasty). Then it was error after error. Now we go up there starting at noon (today),” Rogillio said.

Hasty was quite effective for the first five innings. She got good defense behind her with just two errors, but neither led to a run. She also struck out four.

There was also good offensive support as the Lady Flashes had nine hits through five turns at bat, including a triple and two singles from Haley Heggins.

Then came the sixth inning.

An error at third got leadoff batter Whitney Phillips on. Phillips was sacrificed to second for one out and then Hasty induced a popup for the second out. Kelsey Dennis then started the nightmare when her hit fell in front of the St. Al center fielder and rolled to the fence for a two-base error.

An up-the-middle single by Cyndel Webb scored Dennis to make it 7-4. A ground ball to third resulted in a dropped catch at first to keep the Sebastopol rally going. J.C. Peeples followed with a two-run single to right to cut the lead to 7-6.

Sebastopol coach Wayne Wilson subbed in a pinch-hitter for his cleanup batter Marlena Bradford, who had struck out three times against Hasty.

“I put in her cousin, Brently Cummings, who’s a seventh grader, and she got a big hit,” Wilson said. Cummings’ hit tied the game. Billings came back for her second time and tripled to right to put the Lady Bobcats in front at 9-7. That was all for Hasty.

Grace Franco came in and gave up a single to Taylor Shuler that made it 10-7, but then got a ground ball on the next batter to finally end the inning. Franco struck out two in the seventh inning to keep the score 10-7.

The Lady Flashes’ bats, however, went silent against Shuler. She retired the last seven batters she faced and got a double-play ground ball to end the game.

Wilson felt his team got lucky.

“This was the worst we’ve played all year. St. Al hit the ball well against us. Their pitcher (Hasty) threw us off and was very consistent,” Wilson said.

Sebastopol finished with 12 hits, but were aided by seven St. Al errors. Webb had two hits and two runs scored while Dennis drove in two off two hits.

For St. Al, K.K. DeRossette had an RBI single in the second, Franco had one in the third and Madison Heggins hit a ball off the fence for a RBI double in the fifth to give St. Al its 7-2 lead.

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com