If there were any doubts about the legitimacy of Ridgeland’s quick ascent into the top five of the latest Georgia Class AAA softball coach’s poll, one swing of Hayley Lawson’s bat Thursday should silence them.

Lawson’s leadoff home run in the sixth inning off Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe ace Jessica Penney proved to be the difference in the Lady Panthers’ 1-0 win — the first over the third-ranked Lady Warriors for Ridgeland’s young group. Though the Lady Panthers already had several impressive wins, Thursday’s victory was special.

“We’ve never beaten Lakeview since I’ve been here, so this is big,” said the junior Lawson, who hit Penney’s first pitch well over the left-field fence. “Coach (Scott Harden) told me to swing at the first pitch because she always throws it right down the middle, so I did.”

Lawson also had a little extra motivation after her shot to the wall leading off the bottom of the first inning led to her being thrown out at third trying to stretch the hit to a triple. It was the only hit off the LFO ace until Lawson connected in the sixth.

“I was a little mad after that, so I wanted to make up for it,” she said. “We’re having so much fun this year, and this win shows that we can compete with anybody.”

It took more than Lawson’s homer to hand the Lady Warriors (8-1) their first loss. Ridgeland (15-1) also received a strong outing from junior pitcher Jessie Forrester, who limited LFO to four hits and allowed just one runner to reach third. She also did a good job of letting her defense get her out of jams, including two excellent plays in the last three innings.

LFO’s Jennifer Friar led off the fifth with a double but was thrown out at third on a sacrifce-bunt attempt when Forrester passed up the safe out at first. In the seventh, LFO’s Maddie Bray reached on a one-out single but pinch runner Ashley Garcia was erased a batter later when Ridgeland catcher Courtnee Hall threw her out at third on a chopper in front of the plate.

Two batters later, after Ridgeland’s lone error of the night moved the potential tying run to second with two outs, Forrester sealed the win by getting Penney to fly out to left.

“All night we kept them from getting that extra base, and that was the difference,” Harden said. “Jessie’s had better games, but she moved the ball well, used all her pitches and located well. We played good fundamental defense and got the huge hit from Hayley. We didn’t want to go extra innings them them. Tony (Ellis) has coached in many more of these games than I have, so we wanted to get this over with.”

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