NATCHEZ &045; Just as Hillcrest Christian’s chips were rising, Adams Christian’s riverboat gambler unveiled the trump card.

Rebel head coach Gill Morris made intelligent moves throughout Tuesday with pitch choices, baseruning instructions from his third-base box and knowing when to pull starter/senior Douglas Davis for reliever/sophomore Timmy Foster.

But the ace up his sleeve came in the top of the seventh with the Cougars threatening with runners at the corners and no outs in a one-run ball game.

&uot;(Hillcrest is) so aggressive on the basepaths that before (Foster) made the pitch, we had given the sign to fake to third and throw to first,&uot; said Morris, motioning with his right thumb and pinky finger. &uot;They are the best baserunning team in MPSA. We faked, they broke and that’s just having your head in the game and their being too aggressive.&uot;

Foster’s sell to third had Judd England on the move from first. Foster wheeled and fired to Dustin Case covering at second, who ran England three-fourths of the way back to first before applying the tag.

Case, seeing Josh Ramsey napping off third, slung a frozen rope across the diamond to Rebel third baseman David New, who completed the bizarre 1-4-5 double play.

Then, Foster induced leadoff hitter Ryan Cobb to ground out to Case, who tossed over to Davis at first to close the door on the Cougars, 6-5, in Game 1 of the Mississippi Private School Association Class AAA semifinal best-of-three series.

The two teams resume play in Jackson at 4 p.m. Thursday. A Rebel win and they advance; a loss and a third game will immediately follow.

&uot;Nobody has beat us in a doubleheader this year,&uot; Morris said. &uot;I told the boys no matter what happened, we’d have two games left. We’ve played well on the road all year long.&uot;

ACCS (23-8) got out to one-run leads in the first and second thanks to solo blasts beyond the right-field fence from Foster and senior Glenn Williams, battering Cougar ace Joey Tackett early on before the 6-2 senior settled down.

However, Tackett, who stymied the Rebels in a 10-5 victory at Hillcrest during the regular season, was unable to dodge a third-inning onslaught that saw the AC send 10 hitters to the plate, plating four runs off five hits beginning with Williams’ moon shot that tied the contest at 3s.

&uot;(AC has) a good hitting team, they’re a real scrappy bunch and they never give up,&uot; said Cougar head coach Shane Kelly, who admired the way Tackett battled back. &uot;(Tackett has) been in this position before.&uot;

Foster followed up Williams’ solo job with a double to left, later scoring on catcher Joseph Dunlap’s RBI single with the bases chocked full to push the Rebel lead to 4-3.

Davis followed with a run-scoring single to left and David New extended the AC cushion to 6-3 off his second sacrifice fly to right in as many innings.

&uot;We knew we could hit (Tackett) because in the last inning we faced him (in late March) we started to knock him around,&uot; said Foster, who finished 2 for 3 at the dish. &uot;We knew if we could hit we’d have a chance to win.&uot;

Good thing too, because Tackett, who threw 110 pitches &045; unofficially &045; retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced. A harmless two-out walk to Case in the bottom of the fourth was the Rebels’ last baserunner.

&uot;We got lackadaisical and you can’t do that against good pitching,&uot; Morris said. &uot;(Tackett) started to go to his deuce (curveball). He’s a heckuva pitcher. He showed me something there in the fourth, fifth and sixth.&uot;

Even though the outcome made Morris look like a genius, the Rebel skipper reluctantly pulled Davis with one-out in the fifth after he walked Cobb to load the bases.

Foster came in and slammed the door on the Cougars’ mug, getting Sandon Bell swinging and Ole Miss signee Logan Power looking on a combined eight pitches to leave the ducks squandered across the pond.

&uot;I was ready to throw; my arm was ready for it,&uot; said Foster, who unofficially threw 40 pitches to go with Davis’ 80.