MONTICELLO – The Lawrence County Lady Cougars survived a tough defensive battle to clip the Petal Lady Panthers 8-7 Thursday night in a non-divisional softball contest.

“I am extremely proud of the way our girls hit the ball after not playing a game in nine days,” said Lawrence County assistant coach Marc Howard. “We got down but continued to make contact and it paid off. Defensively we made a few errors but I give some of that to the power of the Petal hitters. I hope this game will prepare us for the rest of the season as we look to be contenders in May. Anytime you can beat Petal, you know you have played well and are getting better as a team.”

The Lady Cougars (13-2, 3-1) will be in action today as they prepare to host the McComb Lady Tigers in a big district make up game. Junior varsity action starts at 5 p.m., followed by the varsity game at 6 p.m.

Lawrence Co. 8, Petal 7 

The Lady Panthers of Petal came out strong and claimed an early 4-0 lead in the top of the third inning before Lawrence County answered with a four-run jolt to tie the game in the bottom of the third inning.

The Lady Cougars managed to claim their lead in the contest in the bottom of the fifth inning as they pushed across three runs to take a 7-4 lead.

Petal bounced back in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game again at 7-all.

After a hard fought defensive battle, Lawrence County fought hard to come out on top as they managed to push across the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning to secure the win.

Elizabeth Smith tossed the victory for the Lady Cougars with two strikeouts and three walks.

Reid Cooley suffered the loss for Petal with no strikeouts and one walk.

Jamie Martin was the top slugger for Lawrence County with three singles. Jazmin Thomas, Tierra Collins and Callie Fortenberry contributed a pair of singles each. Hitting safely were Alyssa Pendergrass, Alexsundria Thomas, Madison Hyde and Cheyenne Long.

Caleigh Gillespie paced Petal’s offense with a double and two singles. Caitlyn Aldons provided a triple and a single. Kayleigh Powell had two singles. Camille Boyles hit a double. Rachel Davis, Taylor Graves and Jamie Powell hit safely.