WACO, Texas — Twenty-four hours after winning behind a dominant pitching performance, the Vicksburg 12U All-Stars were on the wrong side of one.

Karlee Mathis struck out 12 batters and only allowed one hit in five innings as Columbus, Texas beat Vicksburg 7-0 Thursday in a winners’ bracket game at the Little League Softball Southwest Regional.
Vicksburg, the Mississippi state champion, had routed Colorado 10-0 in its opener behind a two-hit shutout by Abby Morgan. It will now play an elimination game Friday at 10 a.m. against Bayard, New Mexico. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN Plus.

The Mississippi-New Mexico winner will play the survivor of a losers’ bracket contest between Colorado and Louisiana in another elimination game Saturday at 2 p.m.

Kamryn Morson had Vicksburg’s only hit Thursday against Texas East, a single leading off the fifth inning. Mathis also walked two batters before giving way to reliever Madyson Carter, who closed out the game with a scoreless sixth.

Texas East took advantage of five errors by Vicksburg to do most of its damage. Only one of its seven runs were earned.

Morgan retired seven of the first eight batters she faced, then ran into trouble in the top of the third inning. A one-out error and a single set the stage for Carter, who roped a triple to center field to give Texas East a 2-0 lead.

Carter then scored on a double by Tabatha Alford, who in turn scored on a base hit by Kerigan Faldyn. An error and another single by Hallie Bonewald brought in Faldyn to make it 5-0.
Another error and a wild pitch keyed a two-run fifth inning for Texas to push the lead to 7-0. Ally Tribe had an RBI single.

Columbus finished with 11 hits, but only Alford had more than one. She was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Carter had two RBIs, and four players had one each. Faldyn scored two runs.

Columbus advanced to the Regional’s semifinals on Saturday. It will face Texas West champion Greater Helotes Little League of San Antonio at 10 a.m. The winner of that game will advance to Sunday’s championship, while the loser plays an elimination game later that night.

The championship game is Sunday at noon, and is single elimination. It will be televised on the Longhorn Network.