NATCHEZ &045; Finally Adams Christian head coach Rick Fife can breathe easy.

And it couldn’t come at a better time.

With the state tournament staring an inconsistent Lady Rebels team in the face this weekend, Fife’s squad pounded out a 14-4 win over Jackson Academy in five innings in its second-to-last game of the season.

The Lady Rebels will end the season today at home against Amite School Center before hosting the Class AAA-AA state tournament Saturday at the Natchez-Adams Girls’ Softball Complex.

&uot;It’s been a rough year,&uot; said shortstop April Boyd, who drove in four runs with a home run, triple and single. &uot;We’re very young this year. We lost six seniors from last year, and we’ve had to fill a lot of spots this year. We’re on our third third baseman this year because our first two got hurt.

&uot;We’ve got a good team &045; we just don’t hit the ball when we need to. But we’ll have three good practices this week, and I think we’ll do well in the tournament. We’ll be the underdog.&uot;

The bracket got altered on Monday when only four Class AAA teams and three Class AA teams entered the state slow-pitch tournament. The Lady Rebels won the Class AAA crown last year in a five-team field.

But this year with only three seniors and plenty of underclassmen, the Lady Rebels may well be the underdog on Saturday.

&uot;Overall, the whole lineup, I thought, hit the ball really well today,&uot; Fife said. &uot;It’s hard to center on one person. I think we were hitting bad pitches and getting impatient. I think we waited back on the good pitch today. We were hitting the pitcher’s pitch and not sitting back and hitting our pitch.&uot;

That was plenty evident on Monday as the Lady Rebels scored in every inning to end it in five innings. Jackson Academy had just one error but couldn’t catch up with the line drives the Lady Rebels put in the gaps in the outfield to the wall.

Boyd and Katie Givens each hit home runs. Givens, the Lady Rebels’ 10-hole hitter, had a three-run homer in the second inning.

&uot;They hit it in the gaps,&uot; JA head coach Suzanne Brown said. &uot;They’ve got a good team, and they hit it hard. We’ve got to work on being aggressive at the plate. We’re not

hitting like we can, and part of that is inexperience.&uot;

The Lady Rebels broke out of a 2-2 tie in the second inning when Givens’ shot to the wall was enough to score herself drive in Lauren McGaughey and Brittany Gamberi for a 5-2 lead. Then they tagged on four in the third as Boyd opened with a home run, Katie Ann Swinny drove in Kelsie Ward and April Dillon on a triple and McGaughey singled in Swinny for a 9-2 lead.

&uot;We hit the ball in the later innings,&uot; Fife said. &uot;I thought we had a few line drives, which was good to see. We haven’t had as many hard hits as we had today. (Boyd) has been kind of the big stick, but a couple other girls had big hits along with April.&uot;

The Lady Raiders got two runs in the fourth when Sarah Smith singled in Stephanie Ratcliff and Jessica Arnold, but they ended the game with the bases loaded in the fifth and two on in the fourth.

They loaded the bases in the fifth off AC pitcher Kelsie Ward, but Ratcliff fouled off a two-strike pitch for the second out and Arnold grounded out back to the mound to end the inning.

&uot;We’re really young,&uot; Brown said. &uot;I have only three upperclassmen on my varsity team. I’ve got a bunch of ninth-graders and seventh-graders. I’ve got two seniors, and one of my seniors has never played. The pitcher was not my normal pitcher. We’re young, young, young.&uot;

But they struck first in their first at-bat with two runs on no hits and three Adams errors. Emily Knight and J.K. Waters each reached base on errors and scored on errors to take a quick 2-0 lead.

The Lady Rebels committed six errors after the second inning.

&uot;We had some easy defensive plays we should have made,&uot; Fife said. &uot;We have to make the easy plays if we’re going to be successful at the state tournament.&uot;

That’s been the strong point this season, Fife said, but after those first two innings the Lady Rebels had just one error. They’re hoping it may be coming together at the right time with the tournament up ahead.

&uot;We’ve got three seniors, and in your senior year, that’s the year you want it most,&uot; Boyd said. &uot;One game we’ll do great, and the next game we’ll look like a totally different team. We work on it every day in practice &045; hitting, hitting, hitting. They can do it.&uot;