Sarah Daniels came through for the Vicksburg Missy Gators in an unexpected — and painful — way on Thursday.

Daniels was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth inning, and the Missy Gators went on to beat Ridgeland 10-8.

Vicksburg clinched the No. 2 seed from Division 4-5A for the Class 5A softball playoffs that begin April 20. It’ll take on either Lake Cormorant or Olive Branch in the first round.

Although they won on Thursday, the Missy Gators have a few things to clean up. They committed eight errors against Ridgeland that led to eight unearned runs. Coach Brian Ellis was less than satisfied with their defensive performance.

“We didn’t make routine plays,” Ellis said. “We have several people playing injured right now, so we were mixing and matching the lineup, trying to do some things right there. There were some young people in the lineup, hopefully they’ll grow with it, and learn from this experience and we can move on.”

Sha’Niya Lockridge was 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs for VHS, while Chelsea Myers added two hits and an RBI and Gracie Emerson had a double and one RBI. Jasmine Miller hit a sacrifice fly after Daniels’ RBI plunking in the sixth inning to put Vicksburg ahead 10-8.

Daniels walked twice and scored two runs.

Starting pitcher Abby Hasty allowed four hits, four walks and eight runs, all unearned, in four innings. Meanwhile, Jamie Ward battled through sickness to pitch three innings. She gave up four hits and one walk, but no runs.

Overall, Ellis was just glad to get the win and earn the No. 2 seed for the playoffs.

However, he did like how his team shook off its poor defensive start and locked in for the final three innings, then came through in the clutch on offense.

Vicksburg erased deficits of four and three runs to win.

“It was big, and it was really probably a positive experience to be in that position, because it kind of made us bear down a little bit and get going,” Ellis said. “We had to block everything from the outside away, and keep our minds on the game and make sure we were making the right plays. It was good to see us be able to do that in the later innings.”

Ellis said he would be making sure a few players who are battling injuries get rest before the playoffs, and felt good about where his team stood heading into the postseason.
Vicksburg will go on the road to Bogue Chitto and Greenville next week to finish the regular season.

“Obviously we have things we need to take care of, but the majority of it is we just have to react. If we’re reacting and not worrying about making mistakes, then we play pretty well,” Ellis said. “If we go play like we’re capable of playing, which everybody is going to say that, but again I mean I’ve seen us play some pretty good defense, and play defense well enough to keep us in ballgames and give us a chance to win. And we’re starting to hit the ball a little better.”