Competing in the best 2-A softball conference in eastern North Carolina, nothing comes easy. All motivational coaching clichés and idioms aside, every game is a must-win.

For a Washington team with aspirations of an Eastern Plains Conference title, coming off a crushing 3-2, late-inning road loss to North Johnston earlier in the week, a loss to North Pitt on Thursday would almost certainly put an end to those championship hopes, erasing the chance at a first-round home playoff game, while raising the peak of an already uphill climb.

And down 3-1 after four innings, Washington almost dropped the season’s most crucial game to date, but a timely 250-foot home run from senior Haley Hutchins and a three-run sixth inning gave the Pam Pack a come-from-behind, 5-3 win over the Panthers.

“They bounced back incredibly,” said head coach Doug Whitehead. “We had our minds on some other things tonight. We may have looked past this team and we can’t do that at all. We used the bench, everyone on this team, and came back. This is going to win a game for us later.”

North Pitt, entering with a 9-6 (1-2 EPC) record, brought the conference’s best hitter, sophomore Grace Cochran, and the flame-throwing senior Makayla Meeks to the table. Cochran, a lefty, is second in the conference in hitting at a .575 clip to go along with 20 RBIs, while Meeks leads the Eastern Plains in strikeouts. That was, until tonight.

Hutchins gave up three earned runs over seven innings — the most runs she’s allowed since a 7-5 loss to Beddingfield on April 2 — but her 13 strikeouts was the second-highest total of the season for the senior right hander.

“She did an excellent job,” Whitehead said. “She struggled a touch on North Johnston, walked five, which is not normally like her. She had all her pitches working tonight.”

Through the first two innings, both Hutchins and Meeks kept each other’s respective lineups at bay, Hutchins fanning five of the first seven batters she faced and Meeks escaping a first-inning jam unscathed.

But in the third inning, the most costly blunder of the night for the Pack, Hutchins walked two batters — Gabby Wallace and Meeks — putting two runners on for Cochran. And on a 3-0 count, Panthers head coach Brady Quinn gave his captain the green light and she made Washington pay with a booming double to center field. A batter later, Kimberly Whitehurt scored Cochran on an RBI single up the middle.

“They’re coached well. Brady has been around 12 years and coached them every year, put out a lot of good ball players,” Whitehead said. “Grace can hit the ball. That was the mistake tonight, Haley got behind her. They turned her lose on 3-0 and what do you do when you get 3-0? You have to feed it across and she took advantage of it.”

Junior Chrissy McKissick, arguably Washington’s hottest hitter of late (batting .382), responded with an RBI triple in the bottom half of the frame, but was gunned down by the center fielder trying to advance to home.

Following a scoreless fourth, Washington chipped away again in the fifth inning in the form of two-out, 250-foot home run over the flag in dead center by Hutchins, cutting the Panthers’ lead to 3-2.

In the end, however, North Pitt could not hold off the Pam Pack lineup. McKissick reached second base on a throwing error by Meeks and after a Jada Lodge groundout, Brantley reached first on a walk. McKissick later tied the game on a wild pitch, as Brantley advanced to second.

Following a ground out by Sarah Lynch, the second out of the inning, sophomore Jordan Pierce came in to pinch-hit for Jessica Evans and smashed a single up the middle, scoring courtesy runner Chaleigh Baynor. Baynor, who tried to score from second base, got caught in a rundown, but was plated after the catcher’s throw deflected off Baynor’s helmet. The next batter, sophomore Meghan Moore, followed with an RBI single to left, the final run of the night.

With the win, Washington improves to 9-3 (3-2 EPC) and will face Farmville Central at home on Tuesday.