Juston Lewis | The Valdosta Daily TimesLowndes softball coach Stewart Thomas argues a call with the umpire during the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against North Paulding. 

VALDOSTA –– Lowndes softball has a chant used when they hit a foul ball and are down in the count.

New life, use it.

Now they’ll have a chance to use their new life. 

Lowndes and North Paulding will square off in a battle to continue their season today at 4 p.m. It’s the third game in a best-of-three series that saw both sides pickup victories on Wednesday. 

The Vikettes won the series opener 9-3, but dropped the second game 7-5. Now they’ll have to defend their turf to keep the season alive. 

“It comes down to a game three what more could you ask for,” head coach Stewart Thomas said. “You’ve got to give it to the ball club across the way. Any time you have a team from the metro area come down they’re going to have a good team. They’re going to have good players. But we’ve got good players too and I’d take mine 10 times over theres. Our kids are going to fight tomorrow. Our kids are going to protect the house tomorrow. I’m excited to see what they do.” 

The Wolfpack struck first on the day but saw Lowndes drive in nine runs in the first three innings to pull away. 

North Paulding was able to get two runs in the fourth inning but the Vikettes had done their damage by then and were happy to close the first game unscathed through the fifth and sixth innings. 

Lowndes needed another big offensive performance to close the series out but it was the Wolfpack that had an offensive explosion. 

They drove in three runs in the first and four in the four and never looked back. 

Lowndes battled throughout the game but they could never overcome the deficit. Not even a three-run homer in the final inning could bring them back. 

“Bad calls or good calls, we’ve got to make plays,” Thomas said. “That’s what loss the second game. We’ve got to make plays. When we have two outs and runners on base we’ve got to shut the door. We didn’t do it tonight. They scored a handful of runs off of errors that we gave them. If you take those away and wake up the bats a little bit, I’ve got a good feeling about game three.” 

An entire season hangs on one game. 

The mood of the team wasn’t desolate after the game, but conscious –– knowing where they are in their season and what’s at stake. 

So now they fight.

“It’s just a matter of fighting,” Thomas said. “At this point in the season it’s just about who wants it more. Again, I would take our bunch over anybody. Because they’re not ready to go home yet. I’m not ready to go home yet. So as far as a boxing match goes, it’s going to be a war. It’s going to be a fight. And I would take our kids everyday of the week.”