NATCHEZ &045; Thursday was initially set to be a day of rest for Christy Corley.

The hard-throwing right-hander for the Vidalia Lady Vikings got two innings in before yielding to reliever Chelsea Smith for her first taste of varsity action. But when the Lady Vikings couldn’t put away Natchez early and Corley got hit in the elbow while batting in the sixth inning, the Lady Vikings couldn’t take a truckload of positives out of their 15-7 win over Natchez High.

At least the shot Corley &045; the Lady Vikings’ bread and butter on the mound &045; took was on her non-throwing elbow.

&uot;I wanted to give Christy some rest today,&uot; Vidalia head coach Gary Paul Parnham said. &uot;She’s pitched 18 complete games, and this was her 19th to start. I wanted to give her some rest, but then she got hit. We’re hoping it’s just a bruise. It was a little bit below the funny bone. She said it went numb and couldn’t straighten it out, but she’s straightening out right now.&uot;

Parnham had every right to be worried about the status of his starting pitcher, particularly since a dominant pitcher in fast-pitch softball can take you a ways. But Smith threw well enough the final five innings to keep the Lady Bulldogs a good distance away on the scoreboard, although NHS scrapped for some runs to prevent the 10-run rule taking effect.

The Lady Vikings had a 14-1 lead heading into the bottom of the third.

&uot;My hat goes off to Coach Parnham,&uot; Natchez High head coach Leigh Anne Mason said. &uot;He wanted to play a seven-inning game, and he made it to where all his girls could play. They’re a class-act team. And coming off a state championship, that’s what you expect.

&uot;We moved some people around defensively. Sarah Weaver is so quick, and we put her at third to block some of those shots down the third-base line. That worked. If you take away the walks, then it was a pretty close game.&uot;

The Lady Vikings took advantage of 12 walks in the first three innings to jump out to that 14-run lead. The Lady Bulldogs also had three errors in there, and Vidalia took a 4-1 lead after one before scoring two in the second and eight in the third.

In the first Ashley Prince singled in Emily Raley, and Kelly Ogwin singled in Kelsey Leake and Prince for a 4-0 lead off Natchez starter Honda Griffin, who came out in the third before returning to the mound an inning later.

&uot;The game turned sloppy &045; ain’t a whole lot I can say about it,&uot; Parnham said. &uot;Their pitcher was struggling. When she pitched over there (Tuesday), she was pretty close and around the strike zone. Tonight it seemed like she struggled a little bit.&uot;

Griffin had her struggles in the third inning after a three errors behind her. The Lady Vikings had two in the second when Leake singled in Lauren Clayton and Jamiee Jordan walked with the bases loaded to score Corley.

But in the third the Lady Vikings loaded the bases on three walks, got a run in on a fielder’s choice, got a run in on an error, got another run in on a double steal and had another walk before Mason brought in Krystal Arnold in relief of Griffin &045; who, like Clayton, has thrown nearly all of the Lady Bulldogs’ pitches this spring.

Arnold then walked the first three batters she faced, got Bridget Waller to ground into a fielder’s choice when Mable Green went to Cayce Champlin at home for the force, walked Clayton to score a run before exiting for Weaver.

&uot;It was frustration,&uot; Mason said. &uot;When you start throwing strikes and the defense makes errors, it’s frustrating. The frustration turns to balls. It’s hard. When someone gets up 10 runs, the whole team gets frustrated. Then we try to have a good time, and that loosens them up a little bit. Then we started hitting the ball.&uot;

The Lady Bulldogs got some runs in the late innings, including two in the third and four in the fifth. Green scored on a double steal in the third, and in the fifth she scored on a Weaver single after reaching base on a bunt single and stealing second and third.

Christie Franklin scored when Griffin walked with the bases loaded, Champlin scored on a wild pitch and Tracy Davis scored on an error.