DECATUR — Down 3-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Newton County coach Justin Chaney stood in the third-base coaching box battling his thoughts.

    The Lady Cougars had runners at first and second with no outs, an ideal spot for a sacrifice bunt.

    But Chaney let Loren Ivey swing away and was rewarded with a two-run double that tied the game and opened up the flood gates as the Lady Cougars scored nine runs and took a 10-3 win over Poplarville on Tuesday night in the third round of the Class 4A playoffs.

    Newton County improves to 18-8 on the season and will travel to Poplarville today for Game 2 of the series. Game 3 would follow if needed.

    After scoring just one run in the first five innings, Chaney was all smiles after the big sixth inning.

    “I’m telling you, that went against everything that I believe in,” Chaney said. “You should bunt right there, but Loren had been swinging the bat well. I actually called her out of the box to think about it for a second. I just thought to myself to let it fly, and she came up with a big hit. That sort of opened up the floodgates.”

    Shelby Anderson, now 9-4 on the season, pitched a complete game, giving up seven hits and three runs, with only one earned while striking out four.

    “I didn’t think that Shelby had her best game, but she battled and kept us in the game,” Chaney said. “I thought we played tight those first five innings. I thought they were going to win playing small ball. But we loosened up after Lauren’s hit and strung some base hits together.”

    Ivey scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the second inning when she tripled down the left field line. She came home on an infield single by Karlye Tolbird.

    Poplarville responded with two runs in the top of the third to take a 2-1 lead and added another run in the top of the sixth for a 3-1 lead.

    The Lady Cougars opened up the sixth with back-to-back base hits by Brittany Thomas and Landree Amis. After Ivey’s two-run double tied the game at 3-3, Jessie Thaggard and Jada McDougle each walked to lead the bases. Cassidy Blount then drove in the game-winning run with a hard single to right. Trinere Walker followed with a two-run single to make the score 6-3 and Anderson knocked in two more with a single up the middle to make it 8-3. After Thomas reached on a fielder’s choice, Amis ripped a triple to left to score Thomas. Amis then came home on a passed ball to end the scoring.

    Newton County had 12 hits in the contest as Ivey was 3-for-4 on the day and scored two runs. Anderson and Amis were both 2-for-4 and drove in two runs while Amis was 2-for-4 and scored two runs each while Thomas was 2-for-4.