ELLSINORE -- The East Carter softball team nearly wrote itself off before Maddyson Holloway and Shelby Cyr decided to do something about it.
Holloway provided the first of six two-out hits, tying the game in a six-run fourth inning Monday, while Cyr delivered the last one late as the Redbirds rallied twice to beat Naylor 11-10.
East Carter (9-9) scored five of its 11 runs with two outs and had to overcome six errors in the first four innings to top their Ozark Foothills Conference rivals.
"We just played absolutely horrible, in the first inning especially, and we all agreed they looked like the Bad News Bears," East Carter coach Teresa Kearbey said. "But they didn't give up, they kept battling and our bats finally came together."
Trailing 8-2 after three, Makenna Moore hit a leadoff single and advanced to second when PJ Gholson walked one batter later. Both runners advanced on a passed ball before Aaliyah Coursey beat out an infield hit allowing Moore to score.
Gholson scored on Bailey Gargac's one-out hit two batters later before Coursey and Gargac pulled off a double steal to plate a run and cut the deficit to 8-5.
Naomi Crowley followed with an RBI triple and Brooklyn Loftis was hit by a pitch before Holloway drove in both with her two-out double to tie the game.
"I'm very confident with the top of that order and they came through," Kearbey said. "Just getting on and moving each other over, they're accustomed to doing that in big situations."
Naylor (8-12) didn't commit an error in the demoralizing fourth inning, but couldn't quite make the routine plays to get out of the jam.
"Youth jumped up and reared its ugly head because we're out of that inning if we make one or two plays," Naylor coach Gene Deckard said. "We've just got to think we can win, have somebody step up and make the right plays so we can figure out how to win close ballgames."
The Eagles didn't sink their heads too low a half inning later when Shelby Sullivan led off the fifth with a single and advanced to second on a passed ball.
Maddy Cagle moved her over to third with a groundout to the right side before Faith Sullivan reached on a slow rolling grounder allowing Sullivan to score and give the Eagles a 9-8 edge.
The lead didn't last long as Gargac and the Redbirds started a hit parade with two outs in the bottom of the fifth. Crowley added a single to put runners at the corners before Loftis belted her second triple to give the Redbirds a 10-9 lead.
"When they don't pitch to our other big hitters around her, she picks it up and makes them pay for it," Kearbey said of Loftis, who was 2 for 3 with three RBIs.
Cyr, after going 0 for 2 with a walk in her previous three at-bats, needed one pitch to belt an RBI single that held up as the game winner.
"In the last few tough games that we've played, teams have not pitched to Shelby at all," Kearbey said. "So when she came up in that I was worried because she hadn't hit in so long. I'm glad Naylor pitched to her to be honest."
Naylor managed to cut the lead to one and put the tying run on third in the top of the seventh when Faith Sullivan reached on a fielder's choice and scored after Aribi Pruett reached on an error. However, Ricki Spargo, who singled with two outs, was left stranded as the Redbirds induced a ground out to end it.
East Carter's early undoing came mostly at its own hands. The Eagles, who made the most of three East Carter errors, added two hits and scored five runs in the top of the first.
Callee Pickrell drove in the first with a double and scored when Maddy Cagle reached on a fielder's choice two batters later while three more runs came via errors.
Moore put East Carter on the board in the second when she tripled and scored on a throwing error during the same play before the Eagles erased it and padded their lead in the third as Shelby Sullivan and Cagle hit back-to-back singles and scored on errors for an 8-1 advantage.
Loftis hit her first of two triples with two outs in the third to make it 8-2 before the Redbirds mounted the rest of their comeback.
"Early on the offense was going and we took advantage of some good situations until we let the bad ones get the best of us," Deckard said. "It's like I told the girls, 'this game should show you you can contend. Just a few plays and this ball game is ours.'"