After falling behind early against Center Hill, the Vicksburg Missy Gators got down.

They never got out, though, and now they have the upper hand in the best-of-three Class 5A playoff series.

Chelsea Myers went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored, and the Missy Gators rallied from a three-run deficit to beat Center Hill 7-4 in Game 1 on Thursday.

Game 2 and, if necessary, Game 3 will be played today at Vicksburg’s Softball Swamp field.

“It does feel good. We pretty much shut them down after that one big inning,” Vicksburg coach Brian Ellis said. “If we get the right people hot at the right times, we’ll be all right. We had some people with hot bats tonight that typically weren’t, so that’s huge.”

The hitting heroes for the Missy Gators were Myers, Mya Wright and Brianna Knox.

Myers tied the game with an RBI single in the fourth inning. Knox was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, and drew a bases-loaded walk that brought in the go-ahead run.

Wright was 2-for-4 with a triple and two runs scored.

Despite getting some timely hits, the Missy Gators also missed some opportunities. They left the bases loaded in each of the first four innings, and stranded 16 runners total.

“When we hit them, we still chased a lot of pitches. We struck out six times,” Ellis said.