CARRIERE — Three runs in the sixth inning helped Hattiesburg pull away and defeat Pearl River Central 9-5 Tuesday night.

In the top of the sixth, scoring runs by Hattiesburg’s Jairus Mcfarland, KaDarius Hicks and Joseph Gray gave the Tigers a 9-4 lead.

During the last inning of the game, an RBI by PRC’s Zach Roussell allowed teammate Caleb Tynes to make his way to home plate. Facing a four-run deficit and with runners on third and second base, the game came to an end when PRC’s Mason Treat was tagged out at first base by Hattiesburg’s Jerry Burkett.

“We made a couple of defensive mistakes and that led to us falling short of the win today. We have talked about it before where if we make a mistake against a good team like Hattiesburg, they will take advantage of those errors,” PRC Head Baseball Coach Neil Walther said. “We battled throughout the game and offensively, I thought we batted the ball well. Right now, our goal is to make the state playoffs and play consistently at the right time of the season.”

For the Blue Devils (15-4, 5-2 Region 7-5A), Shoemake batted 2-for-3 with a homerun and an RBI, Dean was 1-for-2 with a double and an RBI and Tynes went 1-for-3 with a triple and an RBI.

After the top of the second inning, runs by Hattiesburg’s Hicks, Dexter Jordan, Cam Lott and Gray helped the team hold a temporary 4-0 lead. During the bottom of the second, PRC’s Robert Shoemake scored the first run of the game for the team with a homerun to left field. With both teams going into the third inning scoreless, a hit deep to right field by PRC’s Austin Dean in the fourth inning permitted Treat to score from first base. The score by Treat cut Hattiesburg’s lead to a 4-2 score.

In the fifth inning, Hattiesburg extended its lead to a 6-2 after Gray and Mcfarland scored. During the bottom of the inning, PRC’s Hayden Dunhurst scored after Tynes hit the ball into center field. During the play, Tynes was able to reach third, but a series of errors by Hattiesburg led to the ball making its way to the Blue Devils dugout. After the ball was ruled unplayable, the umpire awarded Tynes an extra base, in this case home plate, and PRC cut the deficit to 6-4. Rigell Robinson played 6 1/3 innings on the mound, where he allowed eight hits, five earned runs and struck out eight batters. Josh Kennedy pitched for 2/3 innings and struck out two batters.

PRC will be back in action Friday night at home against North Pike. The game is set to begin at 7 p.m.