St. Aloysius was a catch away from gaining a whole lot of late-season momentum. The Lady Flashes had Puckett down to its last strike, but could not close it out and lost 11-9 in eight innings.

Had St. Al (6-11) hung on, it would have been its third straight win. St. Al blasted St. Andrew’s 15-5 in Saturday’s first game and had Puckett on the ropes.

Instead, Morgan Brown’s slow roller to shortstop resulted in a dropped ball at first base after Michelle Howington made the throw, allowing the tying run to score in the seventh inning.

Puckett scored twice in the top of the eighth, thanks in part to the tiebreaker rule.

Lauren Dotson, the last out for Puckett in the seventh, was put on second and immediately came home off Kattie Neely’s pinch-hit double. Neely made it 11-9 after scoring on Cady Jones’ RBI groundout.

St. Al went down in order in the bottom of the eighth. The loss was a tough one for St. Al coach Gene Rogillio.

“We were one catch away. If we catch that ball at first, we hold the runner to third base and we win the game because the next batter pops up,” Rogillio said. “Overall, though, we played some good ball. We didn’t make that many errors and played much better than we had been doing.”

The loss spoiled a great overall day for St. Al second baseman Julie Mabry. She handled all eight chances in the field without an error and had two hits and two RBIs on offense to follow up a three-hit, three-RBI game in Saturday’s first game.

“I feel a lot better after pulling a hamstring back in March,” Mabry said. “I feel like we’re getting better as a team.”

St. Al was down 8-4 going to the bottom of the fifth, but Mabry started the comeback with a single and scored off a hit by Grace Franco.

Puckett helped out St. Al’s four-run rally in the sixth that gave the Lady Flashes a 9-8 lead by making four errors. Franco tied the game on a two-run double and scored the go-ahead run after the last of Puckett’s eight errors.

Howington led St. Al with a single, double and three runs scored.

St. Al 15, St. Andrew’s 5

Mabry had three hits and drove in three runs as St. Al run-ruled St. Andrew’s.

The Lady Flashes erased a 3-0 deficit with 10 runs in the bottom of the first. They added four in the second as Mabry drove in two runs. Mary McCaa had two hits while Mallory McGuffee had an RBI hit and Perry Gillis had an RBI walk.

Avery Parman went four innings to grab her first win of the season.