By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PEARL — Vanlcleave and Lafayette battled for almost three and a half hours Wednesday night in game one of the Class 5A state championship finals.

And the Bulldogs would have gladly stayed on the field longer for a different result.

Lafayette’s Balin Bishop delivered a run-scoring single to right field and the Commodores outlasted Vancleave 8-7 in 12 innings in game one of the Class 5A State Championship series here at Trustmark Park.

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. Vancleave, which led 4-3 entering the sixth inning and then had to rally for three runs in the bottom of the seventh to stay alive, must now win game two on Friday night and game three on Saturday to win its second state title in six years.

“Very tough one,” sixth-year Bulldog head coach Justin Edwards said, after the game. “A disappointing loss, but I’m certainly not disappointed in our effort. We simply just didn’t get the big hit when we needed it.”

With Vancleave in possession of that aforementioned 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 setting up Bishop’s late game heroics.

“Hats off to Lafayette, an excellent baseball team that just had one more punch than we did,” Edwards added.

The loss overshadowed an outstanding performance from the fourth Bulldogs pitcher of the night, as versatile senior standout Hunter Parker came on once the game reached extra innings and tossed five solid frames allowing just two hits before finally suffering the tough-luck loss.

“Really good high school baseball game between two evenly matched teams that played a tough game tonight and we were able to get big hits,” Lafayette head coach John Walker said. “Walks hurt us in key spots tonight and in the seventh it did. We got to be ready for Friday and the guys will respond.”

Bates collected game-highs in hits and RBIs with three each to pace Vancleave offensively, while Parker, Eder and Tinson each chipped in two hits apiece to the Bulldog attack as they actually out-hit the Commodores 12-10 in the loss.

When asked if he thought his squad might suffer from a bit of a hangover effect after the heart-breaking loss that went so deep into the night, Edwards expressed confidence in his Class 5A South State champs.

“I don’t, I’ve never coached a team that I’ve been more confident in bouncing back after a tough loss than this team here,” Edwards concluded. “We will be ready to go on Friday, that’s a guarantee.”