PEARL — Down a game and its Ole Miss-bound player running on fumes, Myrtle was in survival mode in Game 2 Wednesday afternoon against St. Aloysius.

The burly Jimel Judon got out of a bases-loaded situation with one out in the top of the seventh and then his teammates got two hits, including the game-winner from Sean Wigington, to send the Class 1A state championship series to a deciding third game on Friday morning at Trustmark Park.

Judon felt afterwards that the series momentum is now in the Hawks’ favor against the defending state champion Flashes.

“I think the momentum has switched to our side. We’re looking to come out of here with the gold,” Judon said after his gutty 138-pitch performance. He survived a 46-pitch third inning when the Flashes (21-8) rallied with three runs to erase an early 3-0 Myrtle lead. Judon provided two of the Hawks’ runs on a two-run blast off St. Al starter Ryno Martin-Nez.

Judon left one up himself and Pierson Waring shot it out of Trustmark to left field to start the Flashes’ rally in the third inning. Judon then walked Regan Nosser on a 3-2 pitch to force in a run and then hit Judson Gatling on the very next pitch to score courtesy runner Luke Burnett in to tie the game at 3.

“I got frustrated after he (Waring) hit the home run. I didn’t want this to be my last game,” Judon said.

St. Al took the lead in the fourth, when they manufactured a run off Judon. He issued his fifth walk of the game to Brendan Beesley. A missed pickoff throw advanced Matthew Foley to second. The Flashes then brought him home on two ground balls, the latter coming from Blake Haygood for a 4-3 advantage.

By the seventh, Judon was over 120 pitches and bases were loaded after one-out hits by Martin-Nez and Reed Evans and Judon’s sixth walk of the game to Stephen Evans.

“I was just trying to gut it out. I got the next guy out on a 3-2 curveball and then a popup,” Judon said.

In the bottom of the seventh, Syd Beasley got an infield single and then scored the winning run on Wigington’s one out hit to right.

St. Al centerfielder Blake Haygood knows what the Flashes must do Friday in Game 3.

“We have got to hit the ball,” said Haygood, who is St. Al’s leading hitter, but went 0-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI.

“We just need to be more consistent and get the job done,” Haygood said.

Myrtle’s Game 1 starter was Northeast Mississippi signee Beau Cummings. He gave up six runs off six hits, but had just one strikeout in a 6-0 loss.