Macy Lott (24) gets a hit for Union against Our Lady Academy in Saturday's playoff action.

The Union Yellowjackets came into the second game of the best-of-three post season series with Our Lady Academy, out of Bay St. Louis, leading by a game after taking Friday night’s initial game, 5-2, and holding the series momentum. 

Fast forward seven innings, two hurt players and a locked in, Dallas Blaker, the Lady Crescent pitcher, and you have 14-4 OLA victory, a series tied at one and all the momentum siding with the Lady Crescents.  

Lady Jackets’ skipper Jacob Casey had to endure watching centerfielder, Parker Breland and right fielder, Bailey Mitchell, fall to injuries, which forced Casey to make personnel changes and break the team continuity his squad had going. 

“I thought OLA played well; they hit the ball well and their pitcher is good. They just outplayed us,” Casey said. “It didn’t help us losing two outfielders, that definitely shook us up a bit and affected our play. I’m not taking anything away from OLA though because they are a very good team.”

Casey also stated that both Breland and Mitchell were OK, and that he hopes to have them back soon. 

Anna Rigdon manned the circle for Union and held the Lady Crescents at bay, allowing only one run in the first three innings. But the Lady Jackets had trouble defensively behind Rigdon, and the dam burst in the fourth frame. 

Trailing 1-0 in the top of the first inning, Rigdon allowed a leadoff triple to Alex Necaise, but the defense came unglued faster than a kindergarten art project and committed an error allowing Carson Cuevas to reach base. Rigdon retired the next two OLA batters, but Union committed three straight errors causing four eventual Lady Crescents to score, making it 5-0 after three and a half innings. 

Union got on the board in the bottom half of the fourth inning. 

Macy Lott led off with a single, and Brittany Cleveland added another base knock two batters later. Both ladies touched home off of an Ashlyn Jenkins two-run triple to run the score to 5-2 with four in the books. 

Blaker held Union scoreless in the fifth while her team gave her five runs in the top of the sixth to extend the Crescents lead to 10-2 with Union having two at bats left. 

Freshman outfielder Dallas Brown ripped a leadoff double to start Union in the sixth, but Brown was the only runner to score in the frame for the Lady Yellowjackets. Ashlyn Jenkins brought Brown around for her third RBI of the game with a single, but Blaker was able to stop the scoring at one run for a 10-3 tally after six. 

OLA scored four insurance runs in the seventh but Union could only get to Blaker for a single score when Brown brought Rigdon in on a groundout and set the final score at 14-4 in favor of the Lady Crescents. 

Brown reached on a hit by pitch, laced a double, scored a run and knocked in a run for Union, and Jenkins added a triple and a single and three RBIs.

Game 2

The Lady Yellowjackets and Casey were reeling not only from losing the day’s previous game to the Our Lady Academy Lady Crescents to even their best of three series at one, but the Ladyjackets lost veteran outfielder and leadoff hitter Breland and Mitchell, the bottom of the order bat that Casey was depending on to produce runs, to injury. 

The Lady Jackets stranded three runners in the first inning but started to flow defensively and held OLA scoreless for the first two innings. OLA pitcher Dallas Blaker mowed the Union hitters down in the bottom half of the second inning for a scoreless game after two. 

OLA struck for two runs in the top of the third, and Casey was about to see what his young ladies were about. 

“We seemed to regain our composure, started hitting the ball better and the momentum was starting to shift,” Casey said. 

Lott led off the Union half of the fourth inning, and after a Jacket strikeout, AnnaGrace Blount drew a walk and Georgia reached on a fielders choice which failed, loading the bases with Lady Yellowjackets. 

Brown, filling the centerfield and leadoff roles in Breland’s absence, laid down an RBI bunt and Jenkins burned the OLA left fielder for a three run triple and scored on a Lady Crescent throwing error, running the score to 5-2 in favor of the Lady Yellowjackets. 

It was at this point, two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, that the sky opened and torrential rain began to fall, causing the contest to be suspended until Monday evening, picking up with Union leading 5-2 with no runners on base and two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

Casey wasn’t elated with the suspended game, but was hopeful. 

“I hated that we got the delay because we were gaining momentum when the rains came, but hopefully we can finish the game strong on Monday,” Casey said. 

Jenkins had a single and a triple, three RBIs and a run scored. Lott had a single and a run scored. Rigdon  also added a single. Lilly Burton had a single and a double, and Brown had a RBI and a run scored.