When Bandys gets rolling, it makes you pay — and that’s what it wants to do.

The Trojans used hard hitting and aggressive baserunning to force Maiden into eight errors Monday, and scored a run in their final three frames to take a 5-3 win in the first round of the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference softball tournament.

Fifth-seeded Bandys will face No. 1 Fred T. Foard, an 11-0 winner over No. 8 Patton, today at 4 p.m. in the semifinals at Hibriten.

The hard hits from Bandys gave the Maiden defense fits all day. Fielders had to extend their range to get to ground balls, causing them to make off-balance throws to first. And when the Trojans got on base, the runners forced Maiden to try and pick them off, and several times the throw sailed wildly over the recipient’s head. “Most of the games we win we win ugly,” Mike Carpenter, Bandys head coach said. “We’re not embarrassed to win ugly. If we can make (the other team) make mistakes, that’s what we like to do.”

And Bandys started its mission early.

Leadoff hitters Carlee Carpenter and Olivia Huffman — Bandys’ battery for the game — led off the bottom of the first by reaching on back-to-back errors. Carpenter scored when pitcher Kelsey Leonard fielded Huffman’s sacrifice attempt but threw it over the head of first baseman Tai Lynn Lail, allowing Huffman to advance to second. After a wild pitch put Huffman at third, she scored when Macie Smith laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to third for the early 2-0 lead. “The girls hit the ball in the right spots,” coach Carpenter said.

With an early lead, the Trojans put their confidence in Carpenter on the mound. The Lenoir-Rhyne signee was perfect through the first three innings, and recorded nine strikeouts — seven in the first four frames — with a blazing fastball and a nice drop pitch. “She pitched a pretty good ballgame,” coach Carpenter said. “Her ball was moving pretty good.”

Carpenter didn’t allow a baserunner until Leonard, her opposing pitcher, laced a single up the middle with one out in the fourth. After Carpenter struck out Chelsea Williams for the second out, Natalie Drum ripped a ball into left field that became an RBI triple for the Blue Devils’ first run. Katie Scheller followed with an RBI single up the middle that scored Drum, tying the game at 2.

After taking a 4-2 lead with a run scored in the fourth on an RBI single from Jordan Setzer, and a run in the fifth on a throwing error, Maiden did its best to make things interesting in the sixth inning.

Leonard led off the inning with her second hit of the game, and scored when Williams drove her in with a triple to left. But with the tying run at third and no outs, Carpenter retired the side in order to end the threat and leave it a one-run ballgame. “We were really fortunate to get out of that sixth inning,” coach Carpenter said. “(Maiden has) done amazing things since the last time we played them. (Head coach Katrina Robinson has) done a really good job with those girls.”

An RBI triple in the home-half of the inning from Huffman scored Liz Goodwin, who reached on a throwing error, for a 5-3 contest. Maiden’s Lauren Sizemore reached on a one-out single and advanced to second on Huffman’s throwing error on a pickoff attempt in the seventh, but Carpenter struck out Shebra Brooks and Aubrey Bumgarner to preserve the win for herself.

While Bandys would like to win the conference tournament, coach Carpenter said its biggest goal is to reach the playoffs. The Trojans will be the CVAC’s No. 2 seed when next week’s 2A playoffs start, and he thinks his team is playing well at the right time. “I think we’re OK,” he said. “We just play to get into the playoffs. Basically, everything we do is to get to May. I think we can maybe win a couple rounds.”

Huffman, who has made a verbal commitment to Montreat College, had two hits, an RBI and scored two runs. Macie Lovette, who has also verbally committed to Montreat, was 2-for-3 with a double. Leonard had two hits and scored two runs for Maiden. She allowed only six hits, and of the five runs only two were earned.