After Dyersburg and Dyer County both lost their opening round games of the district tournament, the two rivals met Monday in an elimination game at Obion County. Despite a late charge by the Lady Choctaws, the Lady Trojans pulled out a hard earned 5-4 victory, prolonging their season for at least another day.

"It was a good ballgame and exactly how it's suppose to be played when Dyersburg and Dyer County meet, it's a shame that one of us had to lose," said Lady Trojan head coach Doug French.

Dyersburg struck first in the ballgame off Lady Choctaw Paige French in the first inning on a RBI-double by Emily Greer which scored Alison Petty who lead the game off with a single while going 3-4 in the contest. The Lady Trojans hit the ball hard in the frame and jumped out to an early 1-0 lead.

The Lady Choctaws couldn't match the Lady Trojans in the bottom half of the first off Jessica Smith, despite a line drive double by Katelyn Massie down the right field line in the frame.

French settled in after surrendering a run in the first and put down the Lady Trojans in order in the top half of the second inning.

In the bottom half, Smith made short work of the Lady Choctaws while striking out two of the three batters she faced in the inning. Dyersburg went back to work in the third inning, scoring two runs on a Stephanie Johnson double, stretching the lead to 3-0.

"Their seniors really stepped up for them today, we just didn't' play well," said Lady Choctaws head coach Frankie King.

The hard throwing Smith continued to cruise through the fourth inning much like the previous three, putting the Lady Choctaws down in order and sending things back over to her offense.

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"Jessica pitched a great game for us and put us in position to win today," said French.

Neither squad managed any offense in the fourth inning, as the two experienced pitchers kept the others offense at bay until Dyer County made a run in sixth inning.

Stephanie Pepper lead off the inning with a single and would later score on a Jessica Tickle RBI-single up the middle, giving the Lady Choctaws their first run of the day. After Smith surrendered a walk to Alexa Tyler, Rebecca Norman followed with a two RBI-double off the right field fence, giving Dyer County their first lead of the afternoon.

With their season on the line, the Lady Trojans looked to rally behind their seniors, but found help elsewhere when Mary Baker took advantage of back-to-back Dyer County errors and smashed a two RBI-double down the left field line giving Dyersburg the lead back at 5-4.

"We can say those two errors cost us in the last inning, but we waited to long to decide we wanted to hit," said King. "If we wouldn't have committed those errors, I would say we stole one today."

With the lead going into the bottom of the seventh, Smith settled in after a rough sixth inning and shut down the Lady Choctaws offense in order, sealing the victory and ending Dyer County's 2008 season.

Dyersburg will play the loser of Westview and Obion County today at 7 p.m. in Troy for the right to play in the championship game.