They waited ... and waited ... and waited. But the lightning never stopped, and when the rain began to pour Wednesday evening, Alcovy and Eastside’s matchup was called off.

Through four innings, the Tigers were just four outs away from victory as they led 5-1 in the bottom of the fourth. If the Tigers had held their lead for just one more inning, the game was theirs.

Kalia Johnson started on the mound. At first, it looked like the inning would be a quick three up and three down, but Caitlin Ray proved that theory wrong. After two quick outs, Ray jolted a shot deep to right and over the fence it went. With Johnson pitching, however, that would be their only run of the game.

When it was Johnson’s turn to return the favor, she delivered. Johnson connected on a line drive on her first attempt at the plate to score Aubree Thacker and tie the game at the bottom of the first.

The second and third innings were big for Alcovy. Emma Waddell, Alexis Nolley, Autumn Evans and Johnson all scored between the two innings. Eastside had a number of errors that helped make it easy for the Tigers, who deserve a lot of credit for the way they hit the ball.

Johnson finished the game with seven strikeouts. At the bottom of the fourth, with the Tigers up to bat, the sky grew darker and lightning that was in range forced the hand of the coaches to stop the game.

The Tigers were anxious to start the game back up. They waited as long as they could, but the bad weather couldn’t be avoided, and the game was called.