PHILADELPHIA — Champions adjust.

It didn’t matter whether the pitch was outside or low, inside or high, Lauren Holifield was going to do damage.

It also didn’t matter if the fence in left-center field was an imposing 235 feet away. Holifield had hit a home run to the same spot in the regular season, and she knew she could do it again.

More importantly, her team needed her. It didn’t want to run the risk of playing a third game and seeing its title chances vanish in a case of what ifs.

Holifield erased those fears with one swing.

The junior outfield launched a walk-off three-run home to left-center field in the bottom of the seventh inning Tuesday night to lift the New Hope High School slow-pitch softball team to an 8-7 victory against Neshoba Central in game two of their Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 5A North State championship series.

“Every time there is a runner on third and less than two outs, (coach Tabitha Beard) always tells us to hit it hard and wish it well,” Holifield said. “That’s what I did, and it went well, even 235.”

Coupled with a 15-5 victory in game one, New Hope (23-7) advances to take on Picayune, which swept West Harrison in the South State series, in a best-of-three state title series at 11 a.m. Saturday at the V.A. Fields in Jackson.

New Hope has won four state championships in a row (the past two in Class 5A) and 13 overall.

Holifield has played a key role in the past four titles, so she knows how to seize the moment. She did more than her share Tuesday, going 9-for-9 with eight RBIs in the doubleheader.

The biggest blow, though, was the rocket she hit to send the Lady Trojans to “the ship.”

“I was hoping it would be (a game-winning situation),” Holifield said. “I love those situations, all of the pressure and adrenaline. It just makes it a whole lot easier because you have the adrenaline rush and you have a whole lot more to put into the ball so it goes a lot further.”

Neshoba Central (9-16) scored two runs in the top half of the seventh in game two to re-take the momentum with a 7-4 lead. But No. 10 hitter R.J. James started the rally with an infield hit. She advanced to second base on a throwing error on the play. Leadoff hitter Kaitlin Bradley followed with a single and D.J. Sanders doubled to right-center field to score James and set the stage for Holifield.

Holifield said she stepped into the batter’s box thinking she would hit a home run. After piling up five singles and three doubles, hitting a home run was just about the only thing she hadn’t done to that point Tuesday night.

“I didn’t know (if she was in a zone swinging the bat), but that’s what you hope,” Holifield said. “That’s everybody’s goal, to bat 1.000. For me to be able to do it makes me so excited. I never thought I could do it.”

Beard didn’t say anything special to Holifield prior to her game-winning at-bat, only to “hit it hard and wish it well” per the team motto. That saying encourages Lady Trojans to sacrifice themselves with less than two outs in an attempt to help the team score a run.

Beard said Holifield lived up to the message, even if she didn’t come up with a bases-loaded situation to have a chance to hit walk-off grand slam.

“It was a great, great example of not giving up,” Beard said. “We had every reason to get down in that game. We came out flat, we couldn’t catch, they turned some double plays, and they got some calls that went their way and sort of got us out of it in the beginning. But they fought, and they kept fighting, and that’s what they’re going to have to do. That was an amazing thing.”

The change in Holifield’s swing was pronounced. On Saturday, Holifield smacked three home runs in a doubleheader sweep of Yazoo City in the first round of the Class 5A North State playoffs. On Tuesday, it appeared she took Beard’s line-drive approach to heart, as she hit line drive after line drive. Her three-run, line-drive double down the third-base line would have taken the third baseman’s glove off had it been in the way.

But Beard knew Holifield was going to try to jack the ball with the game on the line.

“When she got in that situation, no matter what field in the world you’re on you’re trying to hit the ball over the fence,” Beard said. “You want it to go as far as you can score as many runners as you can and you can put as many runners in position to score.”

Neshoba Central coach Lee Killen credited Holifield for delivering in a clutch situation. He knew Holifield had the power to end the game with one swing, but he hoped for another outcome. He admitted with 20-20 hindsight he might have made a different decision and walked Holifield to load the bases to face Kasey Stanfield, who had a single and an RBI in three at-bats.

“She hadn’t really hurt us too bad all night, but she came through in the clutch when it mattered,” Killen said. “The thought process was she hadn’t hurt us that bad all night and we were hoping to get out of the inning. ”

Neshoba Central lost all four games to New Hope this season. Killen said his players responded better to the challenge of starting quickly in game two, scoring three runs in the first and two more in the second. From there, though, the Lady Rockets missed opportunities to add to the lead. In the second, Neshoba Central had the bases loaded with one out and didn’t score again. In the third, Kayla Willis smacked a leadoff double but was thrown out at third on a relay from James to Bradley to Stanfield.

“We knew New Hope was going to hit, but we challenged them to take what they were going to do and then respond,” Killen said. “We responded in a way I wasn’t expecting, but they did. I am very proud of my girls.”

Killen praised the play of catcher Miranda Crewnshaw, who three hits and an RBI in the second game.

In game one, New Hope used a six-run second to break the game open and steal the momentum. Bradley had three hits and two RBIs, Sanders, Anna McCrary, and Abby Wilson each had two hits in an 18-hit attack.

But the blow to remember was the “Rambo-esque” shot on Holifield’s final shot. It was a fitting moment for a junior who has taken to wearing a yellow bandana on her head to signify New Hope is going into battle and that she is ready to do whatever it takes.

“I can’t say enough about how poised she was about (her hitting approach),” Beard said. “She did a great job of keeping the ball in play. It is almost like she was saying, ‘Ha ha coach, get off my back a little bit. I got this.’ She did a great job.”

Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.