CROWVILLE, La. &045; The Vidalia Lady Vikings let out a big sigh of relief after taking a 4-3 win over Crowville to open District 3-2A play.

And not just because it was a tight one.

The Lady Vikings escaped with the tight win and the leg up on the three-team district race. And when you take a tight win at Crowville, that can

always put you a leg on in anything.

&uot;We were happy to get out of there with a win,&uot; Vidalia head coach Gary Paul Parnham said. &uot;Crowville is a tough place to play. They’ve got good fans who can be loud. I’m proud of my kids. To come out of there with a win, that was big for us. It takes a lot of pressure off knowing they have to come to us. That doesn’t guarantee a win, but we don’t have to go there.&uot;

The Lady Vikings (1-0, 12-5-1) got a solid outing from Miranda Doughty on the mound, overcame four errors and kept the the Lady Hornets from tying the game late.

Crowville’s leadoff batter in the seventh reached on an error, but Doughty fanned the next two batters before surrendering a single to put runners on the corners.

Doughty then struck out the next batter to end the game.

&uot;We gave them most of their runs,&uot; Parnham said. &uot;There were strong points in the game defensively, and then we had some mental breakdowns that shouldn’t have happened. Miranda pitched a great game.&uot;

The Lady Vikings took a 2-0 lead off Crowville starter Lauren Monroe in the third when Doughty singled in Heather Miller and Jenny Watson, but Crowville scored an unearned run in the bottom half to cut it to 2-1.

Crowville tied it with a run in the fourth, but the Lady Vikings got two in the fifth to take the lead. They loaded the bases with no outs, and Jaci DeWeese struck out swinging before the ball got away from the catcher and went to the backstop.

Miller scored on the passed ball, and the catcher threw wild to pitcher covering home to allow Watson to score.

&uot;Sometimes you just have to be lucky,&uot; Parnham said. &uot;We hit the ball well. To get nine hits off a pitcher like that, you’re doing something.&uot;

Block 15, Monterey 0

MONTEREY, La. &045; The Monterey Lady Wolves were hoping to carry some momentum with them into this Saturday’s Vidalia High School Softball Tournament with a win over Block.

Instead, Block pitcher Glynda Butts allowed just three hits and struck out eight and the Lady Bears pounded out 12 hits and took advantage of nine Monterey errors to take a 15-0 win over the Lady Wolves Tuesday afternoon.

The game ended after four innings of play due to the 10-run rule.

Monterey head softball coach Cary Shivley would not comment on the game.

Whitney Roarke was the losing pitcher for the 7-9 Lady Wolves, giving up five hits and one walk in two-plus innings.

Block jumped out to a 4-0 lead after one inning of play and never looked back from there, scoring one run in the second and five each in the third and fourth innings.

Six different Block players had two hits each, including a triple by W. Phares (no first name given), and doubles by Shonda Butts and Catessa Branch.

Monterey will play in the Vidalia tournament Saturday and will face Jena at 9:30 a.m. and

against Rayville at 2:30 p.m. in pool play.