The scorebook will read F-9 on Reagan Kirkland’s flyball in the top of the seventh inning, but it was close to being so much more than that.

Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh, the senior first baseman smoked a ball to right field that should have been a leadoff triple, but St. Patrick’s right fielder leaped and took away an extra-base hit that, if it lands, puts the tying run at third base, with nobody out.

The Irish would record two groundball outs after Kirkland’s smash to hold onto a 3-2 victory and move to 1-0 in the second-round playoff matchup.

“We’ve been here before,” Bogue Chitto softball coach Scott Leggett said. “We’ve fallen behind in series and bounced back before. We’ve been ten-run-ruled in the first game and come back and won the series This is nothing new for us.”

The Bobcats weren’t able to get on the scoreboard for the first five innings, as St. Patrick pitcher Anna D’Aquilla threw five shutout innings to start the contest, aided by the Bobcats having some undisciplined at-bats.

“We preached that we have to be discipline at the plate, and we were too eager the first times through,” Leggett said. “We had better at-bats in the later part of the game.”

The game was scoreless through the first three innings, but St. Patrick got on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth inning with two unearned runs to take a 2-0 lead.

The Bobcats would put two runners on in the bottom half of the inning, but D’Aquilla would get out of the inning by coaxing two consecutive groundballs to first base.

St. Patrick would add a run in the top  of the sixth inning to push the lead out to 3-0, but the Bobcats would respond in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Karly Leake would start the inning with a single, and would move to second base on a groundball to the pitcher. With two outs freshman Julianna Frazier would record her second hit of the contest to bring in Leake to cut the score to 3-1. Frazier would score the next at-bat on an error, but the Irish got out of the inning with a strikeout.

Codi Leggett would throw up a zero to keep the lead at one going to the bottom of the seventh inning, but after Kirkland’s fly ball fell into the glove of the St. Patrick’s right fielder, the Bobcats couldn’t muster a rally to tie the game.

The series will head to St. Patrick on Thursday night, where Bogue Chitto will have to win two games to advance to the third round of the playoffs.

“I’ve said all year that we’re a road team, and I think we are,” Leggett said. “That’s not to say that it’ll be easy to go win two games down there. They’re a good team, but for some reason we’ve played better on the road this season. We seem more relaxed. We’ve been here before.”