By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PEARL — Vancleave experienced an historic outcome in game one of the Class 5A state championship against Lafayette Wednesday night.

But it’s not a memory the Bulldogs want to remember.

Lafayette’s Balin Bishop drove home the game-winning run in the top of the 12th inning here at Trustmark Park in an 8-7 win for the Commodores in game one of the Class 5A state championship series.

It marked the first ever loss in program history for the Bulldog baseball team in the state finals, and Vancleave now needs to win two straight games to bring home its second state title ever.

Lafayette can wrap up the state championship with another win in game two Friday night here at the home of the Class AA Mississippi Braves.

In Vancleave’s only other appearance in the state championship round, the Bulldogs swept New Hope in two straight games to win the Class 4A title in 2018.

With Vancleave armed with a 4-3 lead, the Commodores got to VHS starting pitcher Hunter Harper in the top of the sixth. Harper ended up being one of a trio of Bulldog hurlers in the frame, as Lafayette tallied four runs on three hits and three walks with Bishop’s two run single the big blow to take a seemingly commanding 7-4 lead.

But the Bulldogs bounced back to knot things up in the bottom of the seventh with a trio of runs, as Layton Eder’s single scored two runs after the Commodores mis-played it into an error to make it 7-6 and Robert Tinson’s run-scoring sacrifice fly kept Vancleave’s hopes alive and sent the game into the extra sessions.

The teams traded blows back and fourth throughout the first four frames, like two fighters in a heavyweight boxing championship match.

Vancleave took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second stanza, when Max Bates cracked a two-run single to break open a scoreless tie and make it 2-0.

Lafayette wasted no time in responding and tying things back up in the top of the third, as Conner Counts and Brett Breithaupt each drove in a run to make it 2-2.

The Bulldogs bounced back in their next at bat, as Layton Eder cracked an RBI-double to plate Tyler West to put Vancleave back in the lead at 3-2.

Fisher Crockett drove in a run for the Commodores in the top of the fourth to kit the game up at 3-3, before Bates was back at it for the Bulldogs once again in the bottom of the inning with an RBI-single to score Aidan Tapp that gave the advantage back to VHS at 4-3.