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ORANGEFIELD – In a game that had so many peaks and valleys for both teams in front of a vocal, standing-room only crowd, it was the Orangefield Lady Bobcats that answered the bell late with a huge rally as they ended up nipping the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Lady Bears 11-10 in nine innings at Lady Bobcat Field Tuesday night as Orangefield wraps up the first half of District 22-4A play alone in first-place.

Both teams certainly played their guts out all the way to the wire.

The Lady Bears (17-6-1, 5-1), who had three home runs on the night, all laced by freshman, went up 10-6 in the top of the eighth only to watch the Lady Bobcats (17-4-2, 6-0) claw back with four runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to tie it up again.

The Lady Bobcats scored the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.

Senior shortstop Ryden Stanfield helped set things up with a one-out double down the third base line off LC-M reliever Bailey Frenzel. Emma Humplik drew an intentional walk and Lady Bobcat pitcher Codie Sorge drew a two-out walk to load the bases.

With Harleigh Rawls at the plate, Frenzel had a wild pitch and Stanfield, with superb speed, raced in to score the game-winning run.

The Lady Bears looked to be in control with a four-run top of the eight.

Jace Cook drew a leadoff walk and Ansley Moore singled to right. Lady Bear starting pitcher Karson Friar hit into a fielder’s choice as Cook was able to score to make it 7-6. After that, freshman Rhylan Wilson strummed a three-run home run over the leftfield wall to give LC-M a 10-6 edge.

However, the Lady Bobcats said “not so fast” in the bottom of the eighth.

Madison Hughes led off with a single up the middle off of Friar. Humplik had an infield single and Hughes raced in on the play off a Lady Bear error to trim it to 10-7. Humplik then scored on a wild pitch.

Olivia Grant drew a walk and Sorge followed with a double to left. Rawls trimmed it to 10-9 with a RBI single up the middle and with two outs Joli Ponfick came up huge with a RBI single up the middle.

The Lady Bears jumped up 4-0 in the top of the first, thanks to three extra base hits.

After Frenzel drew a leadoff walk, Madeline Stephenson doubled to left center. Freshman Ava Wright belted a two-run double to left. With two outs freshman Cook made it 4-0 when she cranked a two-run bomb over the centerfield wall.

The Lady Bobcats trimmed it to 4-1 in the bottom of the second. Heather Mineer had a one-out single past first and went to second on an error and eventually scored on a third-strike passed ball.

Orangefield cut it to 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth. Humplik drilled a solo home run over the left centerfield fence. Grant followed with a single to right and Sorge reached on an error and Grant eventually scored off a sacrifice fly by Rawls.

The Lady Bobcats tallied three runs in the bottom of the sixth as it look like they would take command. The light poles over the Lady Bobcat dugout went out and it delayed the game for a little more than 20 minutes.

Hughes drew a one-out walk and Stanfield reached on a bunt single. Grant had a two-out walk to load the bases and Sorge made LC-M pay with a three-run double to left to give Orangefield a 6-4 edge.

The Lady Bears, however, would not go away into the night in the top of the seventh as they scored two runs with two outs. Stephenson got on with a infield single and Wright countered with a two-run homerun to deep left.

Sorge earned the win as she worked all nine innings. She allowed 10 hits while striking out seven and walking four.

The Lady Bobcats picked up 14 hits against Friar and Frenzel.

Friar worked eight innings, allowing 12 hits while striking out 11 and walking five.

Both teams return to action Thursday as the Lady Bobcats head to Vidor while the Lady Bears visit Silsbee.