The numbers on the scoreboard didn’t lie Thursday at Ridgeland High School, where Ringgold took a big step toward clinching a top seed in the upcoming Region 6-AAA softball tournament with a 7-2 win.

Other important numbers were 5 and 0: errors for the losers compared to errors for the Lady Tigers. The five misplays led to four unearned runs and kept the Lady Panthers from making their own run at that top seed.

Ringgold (20-7, 8-0) has to win just one of its final two games to earn the top spot from the north sub-region, which would give the Lady Tigers a bye until the tournament semifinals and put them just one win from a sectional berth.

“This puts us in a good position to get that spot,” said Ringgold coach Vince Phillips, whose team hosts second-place Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe on Tuesday before visiting Southeast Whitfield. “We’re getting closer to where we want to be as a team, and going 2-0 this week against a good LaFayette team and Ridgeland is nice.”

Ringgold’s Caty Sparks and Ridgeland’s Jessie Forrester were locked in a 1-1 pitching duel through five innings before a disastrous sixth doomed the Lady Panthers. Four hits and two key errors led to four runs. Hayley Robinson’s groundout scored Haley Gibson with the inning’s first run, and a throwing error on the play allowed another to score. After a sacrifice and another misplay brought in the third run, pinch-hitter Jacy Tinker singled home Megan Crawford.

“We took advantage of some things, but we also put the ball in play and made them make plays,” Phillips said. “Jacy Tinker comes in and gets a big hit, and that’s the kind of thing we need — to be able to pick up your teammates with the big hit.”

Ridgeland (19-7, 4-4) had its own chance in the bottom of the inning but could not get that big hit. A single and two Ringgold mental errors on fielder’s choices loaded the bases with no outs, but Sparks bore down to strike out Dana Jones, Kiera Coln and Mallory Epperson and end the threat.

“It was getting nervous there for a bit. We finally broke through,” said the junior Sparks, who struck out six batters. “This was a big win for us. To get that top seed would be amazing. Since I’ve been here we haven’t been at the top, so that would mean a lot for us.”

Ringgold added two runs in the seventh, thanks to another error and an Emily Ledbetter RBI single, and Haley Lawson homered for Ridgeland in the seventh. Sparks and Jensen Hackett had two hits each for the winners.

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