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The Huntland High School Lady Hornets lost to the Cornersville Lady Bulldogs 6-2 at Eagleville Monday in a first-round game for the District 9A tournament.

The Lady Hornets held an early advantage in the contest, but the Lady Bulldogs took control of the game in the later innings to give Huntland a loss to start the double-elimination bracket.

Huntland head softball coach Michael Tipps said that it was a very competitive contest which came down to a few key moments.

“(Cornersville) just made a few more plays than we did in the field, and that was basically the difference in the ballgame,” he said. “Kinah (Mason) kept us in the game. We had one little bad inning where we gave up a couple hits and a hit batter, and other than that, they made more plays than we did.”

The Lady Hornets were the first team on the board as Hazel Reed got hit by a pitch with two outs in the bottom of the second and came all the way around to score on an RBI single by Mason.

The Lady Bulldogs answered back quickly as an error in the top of the third allowed them to score a tying run to make it a 1-1 game.

The Lady Hornets retook the lead in the next half-inning as Hadley Gardner hit a home run to left field to put the score at 2-1.

After a scoreless fourth inning on both sides, the Lady Bulldogs pushed two runs across in the top of the fifth to flip the scoreboard in their favor.

The Lady Bulldogs added another three runs in the top of the sixth to put the Lady Hornets in a four-run hole late in the contest.

The Lady Hornets were able to load the bases in the bottom of the seventh on singles by Mason and Blair Finchum and a walk drawn by Bailey Morris with two outs, but a groundout ended the contest before any of the runners could score as they lost by four.

Mason pitched a complete game for the Lady Hornets with seven strikeouts, nine hits, five earned runs and one unearned run allowed.

With the loss, the Lady Hornets moved to 14-9 on the season.

They will next play Tuesday against Moore County High School at Eagleville in an elimination game for the District 9A tournament. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Tipps said that the goal for his team is clear and remains relatively unchanged as they seek a berth to the Region 5A tournament.

“Before today, you had to win two games to get to the next tournament. That’s the only thing,” he said. “We’ve still got to win two games. We’ve got to come back tomorrow. We’ve got to play everything like it’s the last day, compete and get another chance to play again on Wednesday.”