NATCHEZ &045; The Adams Christian bats never really did get going against Brookhaven Academy, AC head coach Rick Fife said.

But if the Lady Rebels’ bats weren’t at their best, they were still much better than Brookhaven’s. The Lady Cougars had three hits in the game, two fewer than the five strikeouts they had.

Adams Christian (5-5) had 11 hits in the game to get a 6-0 win over the Lady Cougars (5-2) Friday.

&uot;This is the worst day we’ve had hitting all year,&uot; Brookhaven head coach Ricky Allen said. &uot;When you have three hits in slow-pitch softball, that’s not good.&uot;

The Lady Rebels fared better at the plate, starting with a leadoff single in the second by Brittney Smith. Though she was later tagged out at third, Smith started a run of hits for ACCS.

April Dillon followed with a single and scored on Hannah Southerland’s single to left field. Arianna DeLaSalle knocked Southerland in with a looping hit over the second baseman.

In the fifth, the Lady Rebels got another run of hits to get some insurance runs. Alex Foster started things with a single. DeLaSalle got on with a walk, and Jessica Porter knocked Foster home with a single.

Tara Gillespie came up with two batters on and hit a line drive to right field that squirted through the legs of Brookhaven’s Jordan Beeson and rolled lazily towards the wall. Fife sent everyone home, resulting in three runs and an inside-the-park home run for Gillespie.

&uot;We definitely had a slow start,&uot; Fife said. &uot;I guess it was Tara’s hit that got us going. I’m not sure we ever really got it going, but that was the turning point in the game. We definitely hit the ball better the past couple games than we did today. We’re just lucky they had an off day too.&uot;

Allen said the game came down to AC’s ability to get hits at crucial points, like Gillespie’s home run. Brookhaven left seven runners on base in the game.

&uot;Give them credit. They hit it when they needed to and we didn’t,&uot; Allen said. &uot;We’ve had six good games of hitting the ball coming into today,&uot; Allen said. &uot;I’m not sure what happened.&uot;

AC’s real achievement in the game was limiting Brookhaven’s scoring chances by playing solid defense and getting some good pitching from Madelyn Lewis, who didn’t throw easy pitches to the Lady Cougars, Fife said.

&uot;With Madelyn (Lewis) on the mound today &045; she was really hitting her spots,&uot; Fife said. &uot;She was keeping her pitches inside on batters, forcing some pop-ups, strikeouts on some foul-outs and getting ground balls. We made some plays on defense to help her out.&uot;

Allen said his team’s poor performance at the plate was as much its own fault as anything Lewis did.

&uot;We hit a lot of bad pitches,&uot; Allen said. &uot;We went for balls coming in high that we couldn’t hit. A lot of them are just hacking.&uot;

The Lady Cougars’ best scoring chance came in the first when Jessica Hart led off with a single and Maddie Allen walked. But that was followed by a fly out that moved the runners to second and third, a third-strike foul ball and a fly out to center to end the threat.