A shaky first inning had the Booneville Lady Bearcats in a 3-0 hole against Lamar in the District 3A-4 tournament semifinals Thursday night in Lavaca.
The Lady Bearcats (17-8) would get within 3-2 in the third but when they missed a chance to tie or go ahead in the fifth Lamar used a two run home run to pull out to a 5-2 lead, the score by which the Lady Warriors would ultimately win.
A walk and a bobbled bunt to start the game gave the Lady Warriors momentum in the first. Roni Tillery tried to quell the rally by calling a mound meeting (shown), and was able to do so somewhat, though Lamar would open a 3-0 lead.
In the third Caroline Diffee singled with two out and Ellie Smith followed with an infield single, which was accompanied by a throwing error and Addison Elmer, running for Diffee, made it all the way home to make it 3-1.
After Presley Walker walked Tillery singled to score Smith to make it 3-2.
In the fifth walks to Farrah Stringer, Diffee, and Smith loaded the bases but an out on the basepaths helped Lamar get out of the inning with the lead.
A two-out triple and a home run gave Lamar a 5-2 edge in the bottom of the inning.
The Lady Bearcats had two aboard in the sixth as Cam Parish singled and Peighton Montalvo reached on an error, but another out on the basepaths would prove costly.
Again in the seventh there were two aboard as Stringer and Smith both singled but both would be stranded.
The Lady Bearcats will go into the Class 3A Region 1 tournament as the three seed and will play the second seeded team from District 3A-1 at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday in Lincoln.
Providence Academy and Lincoln are in the finals of the 3A-1 tournament. Mansfield, the four seed from the 3A-4 will play the winner and the Lady Bearcats will play the loser of that game.
