PONTOTOC – Pontotoc wasted little time on Sunday building on their 5-0 lead after restarting their rain-delayed game against Tupelo with bases loaded and one out.

Zach Chavers and Lee Wilson drove in a pair of runs with back-to-back singles. David Bowen, Will Wallis and Jake Smithey pushed across the final five runs to invoke the 10-run mercy rule after blanking Tupelo in the top of the seventh inning for a 12-1 win.

The loss put Tupelo in the loser’s bracket and directly into an elimination game with the defending American Legion state champion Hub City (Hattiesburg) Bombers’ senior team.

The 49ers’ took a 9-7 lead into the seventh after a solo home run by Drew Alford and a two-run shot by Maikhail Miller in the sixth.

The Bombers answered with a pair of runs to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh when Blake Herrin cranked a solo bomb over the wall in left and Tucker Morgan scored on a wild pitch.

Alford roped his second lead-off homer of the game in the top of the eighth to give Tupelo a 10-9 edge, but the Bombers’ rolled the dice in the bottom of the inning when Brett Moss successfully stole home with two outs to tie the game.

Brandon Woodruff represented the go-ahead run for Tupelo in the ninth inning, but was picked off before Herrin retired the final two 49er batters to set the table for Morgan’s walk-off home run to help the defending champs escape elimination with an 11-10 victory.

The Bombers await the loser between Pontotoc and Corinth in their third elimination game of the tournament.