VIDALIA, La. &045; Aside from the obvious memory of that 2003 trip, Lauren Clayton can still vividly recall everything about her first trip to the LHSAA state tournament and all the hoopla surrounding the event.

Just don’t ask her to put it in words &045; something she’ll get better at this week as she and the Lady Vikings are making a trip back following their 12-2 win in five innings over Northeast Friday.

&uot;It’s hard to explain,&uot; Clayton said. &uot;It’s so out of this world. Everybody is all pumped. Especially last time with us going in as the underdog, we wanted to prove everybody wrong. And that’s how I feel about it this year.&uot;

Clayton and the four remaining seniors on the roster will make their second trip back along with others remaining from that 2003 state championship team that no one really picked to be the last one standing in Class 2A. Now the Lady Vikings are kind of in a similar situation after hammering Northeast Friday to get to the final eight in Class 2A with another goal of being the last one standing.

If their first two playoff wins are any indication, don’t bet against them.

&uot;There are some good teams that are still alive,&uot; Vidalia head coach Gary Paul Parnham said. &uot;You just never know. We’re going to go down there and do our best. This team has shown me some character. We’ve got some fighters now. We’re going to fight our little hearts out. We might lose our first game, or we might win it all. We’ll go down fighting, I can tell you that.&uot;

The Lady Vikings (20-11) did that right off the bat against Northeast, the champs out of the Baton Rouge-based District 8. Vidalia took advantage of eight walks and five errors while coming up with key hits in clutch situations off Northeast starter Brittany Perry.

Vidalia got four in the first and another in the second to break the game open. That came after the team &045; who had its ups and downs at the plate as recent as two weeks ago &045; put up eight runs in a win over Farmerville Tuesday.

&uot;Throughout the season we’ve had problems,&uot; Clayton said. &uot;Now we’re all on the same page, and we’re all starting to mesh. I think we’ve all become more serious about it. Now is the serious time of the season. We’ve decided to do it, and we’re not going to let anyone slow us down. We all want it &045; everybody on our team wants it.&uot;

Vidalia set the tone early off Perry and finished the job in the third and fourth innings by tacking on three in the third and four in the fourth to end the game early. Clayton had a big two-out hit in the fourth that drove in Chelsie McElwee and Chelsey Knapp, and Christy Corley came through with another two-run single that scored Bridget Waller and Clayton for the 11th and 12th runs of the game.

Corley then retired the side in order in the fifth to end the game.

&uot;This is really our first time doing this in the playoffs since 1987,&uot; Northeast assistant Vincent Perry said. &uot;Our girls got a little jitters. We didn’t field the ball well, and our pitcher kind of got out of sync a little bit. We think Vidalia is a very talented team. I knew we were up for a challenge, but we didn’t know how much of a challenge it was. A lot of accolades go to them.&uot;

Things snowballed on the Northeast Lady Vikings (15-7) in that third inning as Vidalia put up four runs on just one hit. Rachel Roberts had the lone hit and scored from third when a pickoff throw to the bag went wild, and McElwee scored when Waller reached on a error.

Knapp scored on wild pitch for an 8-2 lead.

&uot;Our last five ball games we’ve hit the ball a lot better,&uot; Parnham said. &uot;We’re seeing the ball pretty good. I gave them a challenge (after three) to 10-run rule them, and they stepped up. I think we got a little help from her walks. She started pitching a little wild there, and we put the ball in play and put pressure on them.&uot;

Northeast couldn’t answer against Corley on the mound except for its two runs in the fourth after Vidalia took an 8-0 lead. Chasity Sanford and Ashley Morris came up with consecutive singles, and JaQuincia Williams lined one up the middle to score both of them with two outs.

But Corley got the next batter to strike out.

Northeast’s seven-, eight- and nine-hole batters struck out in each of their six trips to the plate against Corley.

&uot;We thought we could hit her,&uot; Vincent Perry said. &uot;We’re a pretty decent-hitting team. I think just the errors and the way the game went kind of took the momentum out of us. I was thinking we were going to come back. It’s nothing for us to score eight or nine runs, but their pitcher threw well.&uot;