The faintest of grins slowly crept across the face of Brookhaven Academy senior pitcher Ann Elise Duncan as her teammates sprinted towards her following the final out Wednesday night to close game one of the MAIS 5A softball championship series.

Duncan had just struck out Parklane Academy slugger Isabella Coker to end the game and give the Cougars a 3-2 win in a ballgame that lived up to its lofty expectations of being a rematch of the 2023 championship series.

Duncan is an experienced hand, having struck out over 600 batters in her varsity career. She knows that a pitcher must control their emotions, especially if they have to play again tomorrow, which Brookhaven Academy (29-5) and Parklane Academy (24-8) will do on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in McComb. If a third game of the series is needed, it will be played in Brookhaven on Saturday.

“I’m going to go home, get something to eat, get iced up, and try to get some rest,” said Duncan when asked what her post game routine would look like.

A Pearl River CC commit, Duncan threw 132 pitches for the Cougars, while striking out 12, walking three, and giving up four hits in seven innings.

The first run surrendered by Brookhaven Academy was of the unearned variety, as Finley Crawford of Parklane blasted a ball towards short that senior infielder Annaston Poole couldn’t get her glove on. Zoe Alford scored for the Pioneers to make it 1-0.

That strikeout of Coker to end the game was especially sweet after her solo home run in the top of the third staked the Pioneers to a 2-0 lead.

A catcher, Coker is committed to next play at the University of Southern Mississippi and with her future head coach Natalie Poole among the crowd watching, the future Golden Eagle hit a ball halfway to Hattiesburg.  Parklane Academy also has two more USM verbal commits in junior infielders Halle Bennett and Anna Sawyer.

A 2-0 lead in a game between evenly matched rivals can feel more like 10-0 as BA had previously beaten Parklane 1-0 when the schools played on Monday in bracket play of the MAIS 5A State Tournament.

The crowd ringed the Brookhaven Academy softball field as fans stood four deep in spaces with a good view of the diamond and the Pike County contingent was making their presence known as Coker trotted out her home run.

“A pitcher can’t win or lose a game by themselves,” said Duncan when asked where she was mentally after that home run. “I just knew we were going to start hitting the ball and score some runs.”

Parklane pitcher Ashleigh Reed Sharp mostly cruised through the first three innings. A Belhaven University commit, Sharp gets things done with her control and placement of balls up and down, inside and outside of the strike zone.

When Duncan was telling herself mentally that her team was going to score some runs, she probably didn’t realize that she’d be the fuse that would light the Brookhaven Academy offense in the bottom of the fourth inning.

With a full count and one out, Duncan cranked a solo home run to pull BA within 2-1. The run instantly lifted the mood of everyone wearing blue as the home dugout went from solemn to excited as soon as the ball landed.

The party continued when the next batter for the Cougars, junior outfielder Alayna Daigle, smacked a ball to the outfield that was misplayed by a PA outfielder.

One of the fastest players on the team, Daigle headed straight for third as assistant coach Scott Poole was telling her to take three before she ever reached first.

Daigle arrived just as the throw was coming in from the outfield and as the ball careened away from the third baseman and into foul territory, Daigle jumped up after her slide and ran home to score the tying run.

The party in the BA dugout only intensified from there.

The bottom of the fifth was when the Cougars got the go-ahead run. The frame started off with senior infielder Bailey Parks getting aboard with a leadoff single for the Cougars.

Parks finished with two hits in the win, but one of her biggest at bats of the game ended with an out.

To start the third inning, Parks battled with Sharp in a marathon at-bat. At one point, Parks fouled off six straight pitches, all of them traveling backwards over the protective netting on the home side of the bleachers, as fans had to dodge a couple that bounced around on the concrete.

The at-bat ended with Parks hitting a line drive to the shortstop, but not before she had forced Sharp to throw 14 pitches, with nine of them being fouled off.

“That was a big at-bat for us,” said third year Brookhaven Academy head coach Lisa Covington. “Sharp can really work fast, and Bailey slowed her down and made her battle really hard to get that out.”

In the bottom of the fifth, Parks moved over after senior Annaston Poole singled as the second hitter of the inning. Both Parks and Poole are committed to next play at Copiah-Lincoln CC.

The duo then each moved up a base following a wild pitch.

With first base open and no outs, senior Kensy Covington laid down a bunt and reached first to load the bases when the Parklane catcher Nelson held the ball to keep Parks from coming home.

Junior Morgan Chemin lifted a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Parks from third and proved to be the game winning run. Duncan would then walk to load the bases again, but Sharp got a strikeout and a groundout to limit the damage to just one run.

Sharp’s night ended after the fifth inning as she gave up eight hits, struck out five, and walked two. Phiffer Crawford threw one inning in relief. First year Parklane head coach Daniel Simmons saw his team thrice drop foul balls that looked like sure outs.

Freshman catcher Swayze Poole led BA with three hits at the plate. 

The game was the sixth meeting of the season between the schools and their records now stand at 3-3 heading into the second game of the championship series on Thursday.