POPLARVILLE – No. 5 Pearl River used a decisive fifth inning to pull away from No. 6 Jones College, handing the Bobcats a 5-2 loss Monday afternoon at Wildcat Stadium and pushing Jones into a win-or-go-home situation later tonight.
PRCC (42-6) advances to Tuesday's regional final against the winner of tonight's elimination game and will have to be beaten twice.
Jones (46-9) will play the winner of Northeast/Itawamba at 7 o'clock.
Trailing 1-0 in the second,
Addy Shorter hit a two-run blast to straight-away center, flipping an early deficit into a 2-1 lead.
Teegan DeWitt's RBI-double tied the game at 2-2 for PRCC in the bottom half, with
Laney Little's diving attempt in center just out of reach.
With the game still tied in the fifth, a two-out RBI-single put PRCC back in front before Anastasia Acree delivered the dagger – a two-run homer off the top of the scoreboard that blew the game open at 5-2.
Jones was held to a season-low three hits, with the top of the Bobcat lineup going 1-for-14.
Breelyn Cain (11-6) went the distance, scattering five runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and four walks.
Ana-Grace Garcia (18-1) scattered just three hits across seven innings, striking out eight and allowing only one earned run. After the Shorter homer in the second, she retired 15 of the final 17 hitters she faced.
