RIDGELAND — St. Andrew’s forced a decisive Game 3.

Behind a three-run fifth inning the Saints got past Clarkdale 6-4 in Game 2 of their MHSAA Class 2A Baseball Playoff series at Barkett-Cummings Field on Friday to even the series at 1-1.

Game 3 will take place on Monday at Clarkdale at 7 p.m.

“The defending champs aren’t dead yet. We were able to get some big hits with two outs with runners on base. Proud to get this win,” said St. Andrew’s coach Mark Fanning. “We were able to stay around after a complete disaster of an inning for us. Another key was we were able to get to their relief pitching a little bit, so we were able to get some hits together.”

St. Andrew’s scored first in the bottom of the first on as John William Walker hit a RBI single to center.

The Saints against extended their lead to 3-0 in the bottom of the second on back-to-back RBI singles by Luke Peterson and Drew McDonald.

Clarkdale responded with four runs in the top of third to take a 4-3 lead. The Bulldogs got a run off a throwing error, a RBI single from Luke Williams, a RBI sacrifice bunt from Jax Joyner, and Williams later scored on a wild pitch for the go-ahead run.

St. Andrew’s scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth on as Marco Leflore scored on a groundout to tie the game up at 4-4 and Pierce Ingram delivered a two-run single to give the Saints the 6-4 lead.

Leflore, Walker, Ingram and Drew McDonald all had two hits each to lead St. Andrew’s. Stone Myrick got the win on mound in relief for the Saints (22-10), the defending Class 2A state champions.

“Our plan this series was put to our two best pitchers on the mound and split the game and it worked tonight. It was a fun night with a big crowd,” Fanning said. “Their execution has been great this entire series with bunts. Looking forward to game 3 and we know it’s going to be a battle.”

Jake Lee took the loss on the mound for Clarkdale (20-9).

“We didn’t play well enough to win the game. That’s a great team, and they’re going to take advantage when you make mistakes,” said Clarkdale coach Josh Palmer. “They got the key hit when they needed, and their pitchers pitched well and lived at the bottom of the strike zone and made it tough on our hitters. Home field advantage for us, so it’s big to go back home for Game 3 and we got three top arms available, so it’ll be a great matchup.”