Lady Chargers see late rally come up short

ACKERMAN – The scoreboard said Choctaw County lost the first game of its third-round playoff series against Choctaw Central on Monday night in Ackerman.

Lady Chargers head coach Mike Brown couldn’t help but think his team did claim some semblance of victory.

“I know we took a loss, but character-wise, I think we won,” Brown said.

Choctaw County nearly erased a six-run deficit, but ultimately fell to Choctaw Central 7-6. The Lady Chargers trailed 7-1 entering the bottom of the sixth inning before staging a five-run rally that ultimately came up one run short and allowed the Warriors to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

“We could have rolled over and quit in adversity,” Brown said. “Some people do. Ours didn’t. We kept fighting and battling.”

Starting pitcher Makenzie Toombs provided the big blow with her bat in Choctaw County’s late surge. After the Lady Chargers scored a pair of sixth inning runs to make the score 7-3, Toombs connected for a two-run triple, her second threebagger of the game, to make it 7-5.

Two batters later, Shakeria Smith had an RBI infield single that scored Toombs.

That was all Choctaw County could muster. The Lady Chargers were sat down in order in the seventh to end the game. Still, Brown was pleased with how his team never gave

up.

“The only thing we ever said was, no matter what the score was, we were going to keep battling,” Brown said. “We were going to keep working hard and playing hard. That’s what we expect. Sometimes things just go bad. It’s just like life. Sometimes things happen you can’t control, but I thought it showed great character how we fought back the way we did. A couple of pitches here or there and we might have tied the game at the end.”

Choctaw Central’s hot-hitting necessitated Choctaw County’s comeback attempt. After the Lady Warriors scored a first-inning run on back-to-back doubles, they got to Toombs for five runs in the third to make the score 6-0. Toombs got one run back herself when she tripled and scored in the bottom of the fourth, but Choctaw Central added what turned out to be the decisive run of the game in the fifth on a two-out triple followed by an RBI single. The Lady Warriors’ offensive prowess didn’t come as too big of a shock to Brown.

“The last couple of times we played (Choctaw Central) in the regular season, they could really hit,” Brown said. “They’ve kept hitting it well recently according to all the reports we’ve gotten.”

Unfortunately for the Lady Chargers, the Choctaw Central offense proved to be just enough. As a result, Choctaw County’s back is to the wall today. The Lady Chargers and Lady Warriors meet at Choctaw Central at 5 p.m. today for game two. If Choctaw County wins, a decisive third game of the series would follow.

Even though the pressure is on, Brown thinks his team has momentum going into today after Monday’s late rally.

“I would think we now have a lot of confidence,” Brown said. “All nine people that played (Monday) did something good. I think there are a lot of positives to take (into today).”