DEXTER -- The Dexter softball team answered Advance's challenge.
The Bearcats scored seven runs in the fifth inning Friday to beat Advance 12-10 in an SCAA matchup.
Dexter built a 4-1 lead through three innings before the Hornets (4-8) scored one in the fourth and five in the fifth to take a 7-4 lead.
The Bearcats (3-5) strung together eight hits in the fifth to take an 11-7 lead and never trailed again.
"We lost the lead there that one inning. We had some things out here that didn't go right. For our girls to come back from that and score those runs, that's big for us, the mental aspect," Dexter coach Starla Pulley said. "We've talked about that this year, getting our girls mentally strong and being able to persevere through times like that."
The two teams will meet again at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Advance in the first round of the SCAA tournament.
Mckenzie Yount, who went 4 for 4 to lead the Bearcats' 14-hit attack, opened the fifth inning with a single.
Yount dashed home on Kelsey Carrier's long single to left-center field.
Aggressive baserunning was a key ingredient in the Bearcats' victory. They stole three bases in the inning and seven overall and routinely took the extra base.
After Chaylea Mosby singled, Mallory Dunlap singled home Carrier, and Annie Slaton bunted home Mosby.
Demi Cecil, Kelby Hill and Yount added RBI singles, and Payton Phelan scored on a wild pitch. Cecil finished 2 for 4.
"When you make mental mistakes, the ball will find the gap," Advance coach A.J. Horn said. "They will score, and they did. They did what they had to at the plate. We tried to come back on them but ran out of time."
Advance threatened in the sixth, scoring three runs and loading the bases with two outs.
Danielle Markham drew a one-out walk, and Katie Cook, who finished with two hits, singled with two outs.
Addie Curtis, who went 3 for 4 with three RBIs, followed with a run-scoring double. Roz Schrader, who totaled two hits, singled home Cook, and Alexus Hubbert drew a bases-loaded walk to cut the Bearcats' lead to 11-10.
Hubbert's walk ended starting pitcher Sydney Asberry's day.
Asberry, who secured the win, allowed 10 runs (four earned) on 12 hits with five walks and three strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
Carrier replaced Asberry and retired Alli Johnson on a grounder to shortstop.
Carrier retired the Hornets 1-2-3 in the seventh to pick up the save.
"Sydney did a good job for us today," Pulley said. "The last inning and a half she was in there, you could tell her rhythm was a tad off. She did a good job for us in the beginning. Then we just needed (Carrier) to come in and finish it for us."
Mosby, who went 2 for 3, helped produce an insurance run in the sixth for the Bearcats. She tripled to the right-center field gap and scored on Dunlap's ground out to third.
"She's just a great athlete," Pulley said of Mosby, "but she's been kind of struggling with hitting. Today, she got two solid-contact hits. Of course, if she's on the bases, she's going to go."
Horn said that Mosby's run didn't really matter.
"I think they had already done their damage in the fifth," Horn said. "The momentum was in our favor, and they took it right back."
Johnson was charged with the loss, allowing 12 runs (10 earned) on 14 hits with two walks and one strikeout in six innings.
The Hornets took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Curtis' RBI single.
Dexter tied the score in the bottom half on Yount's run-scoring triple. Asberry, who went 2 for 5, scored after reaching base on a one-out single.
Dexter scored two in the second and one in the third to take a 4-1 lead. A pair of Advance errors fueled those rallies.
Hubbert's run-scoring double cut Dexter's lead in half in the fourth, and the Hornets scored five unearned runs in the fifth. The Bearcats committed two errors in the fifth.
Curtis and Megan Simms had run-scoring singles in the inning.