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Franklin County High School’s Justin May watches Friday’s MHSAA Class 3A South State semifinals game against West Marion in Bude. (Nicole Hester | The Natchez Democrat)

Hunt, 21, shares a fist bump with teammate Braden Whitehead at the end of a half inning during Friday’s game. (Nicole Hester | The Natchez Democrat)

Franklin County’s Dalivan Hunt cheers in the dugout Friday during his team’s MHSAA playoff game aginst West Marion in Bude. (Nicole Hester | The Natchez Democrat)

Justin May runs to third base during Friday’s action. (Nicole Hester | The Natchez Democrat)

(Nicole Hester | The Natchez Democrat)

Franklin County High School’s DeMartre Collins encourages his team during Friday’s MHSAA Class 3A third round playoff game in Bude. The Bulldogs will be back in action today for Game 2 of the series as they travel to West Marion. (Nicole Hester | The Natchez Democrat)

(Nicole Hester | The Natchez Democrat)

(Nicole Hester | The Natchez Democrat)

(Nicole Hester | The Natchez Democrat)

Franklin County High School played an uncharacteristic contest with West Marion Friday night, letting Game 1 of its third round MHSAA Class 3A playoff series slip through its hands, 4-3.

The Bulldogs committed four errors on the night and left 11 runners on base, both are things, which coach Joshua Thibodeaux said, are unlike his team to do.

“We are a team that doesn’t have too many errors, but in the third round of the playoffs things like that happen,” he said. “We just weren’t able to get it done tonight.”

Things started off shaky for Franklin County after it committed its first error in the first inning on a bad throw to third base, allowing West Marion’s Dawson Robbins to steal two bases and ultimately score.

The Bulldogs fell back again in the top of the fourth, starting with another error and giving up three more runs.

“The biggest thing for us is you can’t let one error snowball,” Thibodeaux said. “That’s kind of what got us early on. We let that happened and it just snowballed. We have to bounce back from it and not let it get us down.”

FCHS had a chance to rally back in the bottom of the fourth, but with the bases loaded were only able to score one run.

Despite coming up short, Franklin County came up with 11 hits on the night compared to the Trojans’ five.

“This year we have done a really good job of getting people in,” Thibodeaux said. “You are going to have times when you leave people on. The feel for the game was just to go ahead and let them swing, and hopefully we could have a big hit to make it happen because that’s what we’ve done all year.”

Franklin County was able to chip away at West Marion’s lead with an additional run in the fifth after Jacob Jordan scored Chase Freeman on an RBI single to right field.

The Bulldogs had their last chance for the comeback in the seventh, and things looked promising when Freeman hit a ground single on the first pitch. They fell short, however, with all three outs coming on strikeouts.

Jordan, Freeman, De’Martre Collins and Thomas Slagle all ended the game with two hits for FCHS.

“With our guys, there wasn’t any doubt that we would have a shot coming back on our field in the end,” Thibodeaux said. “You can’t get it back, and we have to eliminate those mental mistakes. It’s what cost us the game.”

The loss was not the end of the road for Franklin County, as the Bulldogs will travel to West Marion for Game 2 of the series at 6 p.m. today.

“We are going to see what our guys have left in the tanks,” Thibodeaux said. “This is why we play a three game series. Anybody can win one, but you have to win two.”

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