The first inning looked like Bogue Chitto would have a short night on the baseball diamond Mon-day in the 2A Bobcats matchup against the visiting 4A Lawrence County Cougars.

The Bobcats jumped out to a 10-0 lead after the first frame, but Lawrence County didn’t go away and got two runs in the top half of the seventh to tie the game 11-11 and send it to an extra eighth inning.

With two outs and a runner on second, Bogue Chitto sophomore Paxton Waldrop hit the ball to short, which was misplayed for an error by the Cougars.

That allowed courtesy runner Landon Cole to score and give the Bobcats a memorable 12-11 walk-off win.

First year BC coach Seth Avants was previously the head coach at Lawrence County. He told his Bobcats that they could expect a Cougar comeback after the early lead for Bogue Chitto.

“They’re a good hitting ball club and we tried to tell our guys that if you give them a reason to hang around, they’re going to come back,” said Avants. “A lot of guys played their part tonight and brought the energy we needed to get the win.”

Bogue Chitto used five pitchers total in the victory and none threw a bigger inning than the top of the eighth, when sophomore left hander Immanuel Conerly went 3-up-3-down to give his team a chance to win the game.

The combination of BC pitchers Conerly, starter Alex Michael Roberts, Tucker Kyzar, Noah Magee, and Gatlin Guynes struck out six, walked 11and gave up just six hits over the eight innings. Nine of the 11 runs for Lawrence County were scored as earned.

First year Lawrence County head coach Gage Daley and his team used three pitchers. That combination of starter Jakobe Haynes, freshman Jake Turner and senior Justin Walker struck out eight batters, issued nine walks, hit two batters, and gave up nine hits and 11 earned runs.

The Bogue Chitto bats worked quickly in the bottom of the first as Magee, batting leadoff, drew a walk and then moved to second on a single by freshman Landon Wright.

A hard-hit single by junior Tripp McCaffrey scored Magee and put BC up 1-0. McCaffrey and Magee were both starters for the Bogue Chitto basketball team that reached the 2A quarterfinals.

McCaffrey and Kyzar, also a junior, are two highly coveted local baseball recruits that are drawing interests from community college programs around the state.

Kyzar got aboard after the McCaffrey single by being hit by a pitch.

BC went up 2-0 on a single by senior catcher Warren Wallace and then 3-0 when Hayden Avants singled.

The lead grew to 4-0 after Isaiah Collins drew a bases loaded walk. Waldrop got his first hit of the game, a two-RBI single that put the Bobcats up 6-0 and necessitated the first LC pitching change of the night.

With the bases juiced and no one out, Magee hit a grand slam to right field that put BC up 10-0 in what looked like a rout at the time. It was the second career home run for Magee, whose other round tripper was also of the grand slam variety.

Lawrence County halved the lead to 10-5 with a big effort in the top of the third. The Cougars from Monticello then pulled to within 10-7 after three complete innings. LC scored two more runs in the top of the sixth, but Bogue Chitto responded with its first run since the first inning to send things to the top of the seventh with the Bobcats leading 11-9.

A top of the seventh, game-tying rally for Lawrence County began with a one-out single by senior Grey Boyd.

Senior slugger Hunter Turner then hit a 2-run home run to tie the game at 11-11. Turner has signed to next play at Mississippi Delta CC and his teammate Caden Case is a Southwest Mississippi CC baseball signee.

Senior first baseman Joshua Sandifer led the Cougars at the plate with three RBIs and junior designated hitter Weston Dunaway also had a three RBI night for the Cougars.

Bogue Chitto moves to 3-5 with the win.

“We’ve kept improving since we got our basketball guys back and the hope is we keep coming together and start playing our best when it matters the most,” said Avants.

Lawrence County beat the Bobcats 13-1 when the teams met earlier this month, taking the four-inning victory on March 1 in a tournament game at West Lincoln.

BC will travel to face St. Andrew’s on Friday and they’ll host their neighbors from Enterprise on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Next week, the Bobcats will begin Region 7-2A play with a three-game series against their rivals from Loyd Star. The first game of the series is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 25 at Loyd Star. BC then will host games two and three at home on Friday, March 28. First pitch of the opener is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.

Lawrence County hosts two region games this week, taking on Raymond on Tuesday and Rich-land on Friday at Jimmie Davis Park.