The Ellwood Christian Academy Lady Eagles held the lead, but let it slip away, as they fell 19-15 to the Sumter Academy Lady Eagles Monday at the Selma Sportsplex.

Ken Watts, head softball coach of Ellwood (0-4), said it was another close loss for his team due to errors.

“The girls started off real good, played good defense,” Watts said. “Over in the third inning, gave up some errors and got behind, but came back and tied the game up. In the fifth inning, we had another little break down with errors and that’s where we gave the game away on some small errors. Other than that, the girls played a solid game. They hit the ball well and played good defense, just got to improve on some of the mistakes we made.”

Sumter jumped ahead 3-0 in the top of the first inning, but Ellwood answered back when a sac fly by Kenyata Watts scored Gabriel Dunning from third base and made it 3-1 in the bottom of the first.

Ellwood added four more runs in the inning off of fielding mistakes by Sumter and a pair of walks with the bases loaded that made the score 5-3 after one inning.

Sumter responded with a five-run inning of its own in the top of the second to take an 8-5 lead.

Ellwood wasn’t done, as Dunning hit a shot to center field, doubled and scored runners Paulisa Crum and MyKira Mitchell to make the score 8-7 in the bottom of the third.

Ellwood continued to produce on offense, as Heather Bright put the ball in play in the infield and Sumter overthrew the first baseman, allowing Ellwood runners Ebony Simpson and Dunning to score and give Ellwood a 9-8 lead in the bottom of the third inning.

Ellwood added one more run off an error by Sumter to push the lead to 10-8, but a combination of fielding errors by Ellwood and strong hitting by Sumter led to a six-run inning for Sumter in the top of the fourth inning that gave them 14-10 lead.

Ellwood fought back with a little help from Sumter, who walked in Ellwood’s Jayla Soles and Watts and made it 14-12 in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Ellwood got closer when Chasity Minter scored from third base on a fielding mistake by Sumter that made it a 14-13 game.

But Sumter scored two runs in the fifth and three runs in the sixth while shutting out Ellwood until the bottom of the seventh when Dunning scored from third on a fielder’s choice play and Bright scored from third on a wild pitch.

Ellwood will take the field again Tuesday, April 3 when they’ll play cross-town foe Meadowview Christian at Meadowview starting at 2 p.m.