The Vicksburg Braves spent the first three innings Friday night deftly sidestepping bad situations. When Bazinsky Field itself seemed to turn against them, their luck quickly ran out.

A bad-hop error, two balks and a couple of bloop singles led to a five-run inning for the Dodgers, and they went on to beat the Braves 5-1 in the opening game of the 13-year-olds’ Governor’s Cup.

One of the balks came when Vicksburg pitcher Christian Oakes appeared to stub his toe in the landing area of the pitcher’s mound. It brought in the third run of the inning.

“We started off pitching good. We made one error, or we get out of the inning without a run scored. In the end, we beat ourselves,” Braves coach Gerald Mims said.

The Dodgers are based in Madison, but have two Vicksburg players on the roster. Tyler Breithaupt walked and was hit by a pitch in two at-bats, and Peyton McCurley walked, stole a base and scored a run.

Vicksburg’s run came in the first inning, when Vantrel Reed drew a one-out walk, stole second, and later scored on a passed ball.

Braves starting pitcher Clayton Thurman walked five batters, but didn’t allow any runs or hits, in three innings and left with a 1-0 lead. He worked out of jams each inning, including when he walked the first two batters in the third.

Wesley Ricks came on in the fourth inning and got into trouble, though. Before leaving with an apparent sore shoulder, he loaded the bases with two outs.

Oakes relieved him and inherited a 3-0 count to the Dodgers’ Andrew McCaa. After pumping two strikes across the plate, Oakes got McCaa to hit a grounder to short. It took a sharp hop off the infield dirt just before it got to the shortstop Reed.

The ball skipped off of Reed’s glove, allowing the tying run to score, and things unraveled from there for the Braves.

Oakes hung onto the ball as he committed the mound-induced balk. A couple of pitches later he committed another as he wheeled to make a pickoff throw, and another run scored.

In between, Jeb Hatfield and Zac Watkins both blooped RBI singles the opposite way into right field. When the smoke cleared, the Dodgers had scored five runs to go up 5-1.

“I think it was just a string of bad luck. We had to bring in a pitcher with a 3-0 count. That’s a tough spot for a 12- or 13-year-old guy,” Mims said.

Although they lost, the news wasn’t all bad for the Braves. Only three teams are in the 13-year-olds’ age group, so the Braves will still have a chance to play their way to a championship.

Vicksburg has one more pool play game today, then will likely have to win a semifinal and the championship game on Sunday.

The top seed after pool play gets a bye into the championship game, but the Braves aren’t likely to get it because of run-based tiebreakers.

“We’ve got to win out, of course, but that’s just how it is,” Mims said.