The Prince Edward-Farmville Youth Association (PEFYA) Ponytails All-Stars, representing Virginia, defeated Tennessee 9-7 Sunday night to advance to the final six at the 2017 Dixie Softball Ponytails X-Play World Series in Sumter, South Carolina.

On Monday, the PEFYA Ponytails will face Alabama at 6 p.m.

Sunday’s night win improved the Virginia squad to 2-1 in the double-elimination event and 2-0 on the day.

“We hit good again,” Virginia Manager Larry Conwell said. “We had a few errors in the fourth inning that kind of gave them some runs, but we played good. We hit good, good defense — we had a real good all-around game, and I think Tennessee is probably one of the better teams we’ve played so far.”

The game was tied 1-1 after the first inning, but then Virginia went up 3-1 in the second and 6-1 in the third. Tennessee outscored Virginia 4-1 in the fourth to make the score 7-5, and each team scored two runs in the sixth to make it 9-7.

Virginia was in position multiple times to pile up even more runs.

“I think the third, fourth and fifth innings, we left bases loaded — three straight innings,” Conwell said.

Strong pitching helped power Virginia to the win, with Alyson Lucas playing the first four innings in the circle, throwing three strikeouts. Danner Allen pitched the final two innings and also threw three strikeouts.

Conwell said that on offense, Virginia was successfully stringing together hits, and it benefited from a lot of walks as well.

The win was preceded earlier in the day by Virginia’s breakthrough 15-0 victory over Texas.

At the end of his team’s 2-0 day, Conwell said, “That was the goal was to get some wins, and I was proud, and I think we’re playing good now … And I think maybe we’re just coming into form, and I hope to get some more wins.”