When their backs were against the wall in the second round of the MHSAA 1A softball playoffs, the Enterprise Yellow Jackets came out fighting.

On Thursday, the Sacred Heart Crusaders beat the Jackets 6-3 in game one of their series in Hattiesburg. The game was tied 3-3 until the bottom of the sixth, when the Crusaders scored three runs to get the win via a couple EAC errors.

Sacred Heart moved its record to 18-2 overall with that win but let the final record show that the Saders wouldn’t win another game in 2025, as EAC extended the series with a 3-1 home win on Friday.

On Monday, Enterprise left no doubt of who the better team was with a 13-1 drilling of Sacred Heart that moves coach Alicia Smith and her team on to the third round of the 1A postseason.

Seventh-grade pitcher Rainee Falvey started all three games of the series in the circle. Falvey was the hard luck loser of game one, as she only gave up two hits, but she was hurt by eight walks and two hit batters.

In game two, Falvey struck out eight, walked none and gave up one unearned run on six hits.

With the game tied 1-1 after three innings, EAC went up 2-1 when junior Caitlin Case scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the fourth. The Jackets then added an insurance run when Piper Martin started the fifth off with a single and then later scored on a Falvey single.

That set up a return trip to Hattiesburg for the Jackets and their fans.

 Enterprise jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Monday and never looked back, using 12 hits to score 13 runs against an error-prone Sacred Heart defense. Martin drove in two runs, Case drove in three runs as did outfielder Isabella Jordan. Molly Williamson added two more RBIs for the EAC offense as she hit a double along with Falvey, who struck out four and walked one on six hits in the circle.

With a roster that has starting junior high age players, like Falvey and Williamson (8th grader), along with some experienced hands like senior infielders Natalie Williams and Miranda Anderson, Smith said her team had to reset quickly after the game one loss.

“We had no time to dwell on that loss,” said Smith. “We set goals at the beginning of the season and the girls were not going to let a loss in game one define our year. We focused on staying positive, working on the mistakes that were made and doing the little things right. They knew they had two opportunities to bounce back so their mindset was to stay locked in and play our game and they did what it took to get the job done.”

Next up is a third-round matchup with Nanih Waiya for EAC. Game one is scheduled for Thursday at 5 p.m. and will be hosted by Enterprise. Game two is scheduled for Friday at Nanih Waiya in Winston County. First pitch of that game will be at 6 pm. and if a third game is needed, it’ll be hosted by EAC on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Nanih Waiya swept Taylorsville (19-0, 17-0) in the first round and East Marion (12-2, 13-3) in the second round. The other 1A quarterfinal series will be played between Stringer (20-3) and Ethel (19-12), Potts Camp (17-2) and Myrtle (21-5), and Wheeler (20-7) and West Union (15-9).