FAIRMONT — After Fairmont’s Santana Anderson hit a home run in the first inning of Thursday’s game against St. Pauls — her fourth in five at-bats this season against the Bulldogs — she was intentionally walked in her next three plate appearances.

Lindsey Floyd, the next hitter in the Golden Tornadoes’ lineup, made the Bulldogs pay.

Floyd tied the game in the third inning with a two-RBI double, then walked in the fifth to spark a big inning that led the Golden Tornadoes to a 6-5 win.

“We’d talked about that since the last time we played them,” Fairmont coach Donnie Carter said. “We knew that she wasn’t going to get anything to hit, and you can’t blame them, so Lindsey and (the girls behind her) came out ready to swing the bat.”

“It felt good to be cleanup, and for them to think that I couldn’t hit the ball,” Floyd said. “I did — and that’s the reason I was behind her anyways.”

Floyd was also the winning pitcher, shutting down St. Pauls (0-7, 0-2 Three Rivers Conference) from the second inning through the sixth after allowing three runs in the first; the two runs she allowed in the seventh were unearned. She finished with eight hits allowed, three earned runs, five strikeouts and no walks.

“I feel like my momentum pitching changed,” Floyd said. “I got warm, and then I was ready.”

“In the circle, she was on,” Carter said. “Wherever she wanted to throw it she could throw it. A little slow in the first inning but we still got out of the inning. Our defense let us down in the first, defense let us down in the last (inning), but the five innings in between they played well defensively.”

After the three first-inning runs by the Bulldogs, Anderson homered in the bottom of the first for Fairmont (4-3, 2-1 TRC) to make it a 3-1 game. She was walked in the third after a one-out Macie Huggins single, and Floyd cleared the bases with her double down the left-field line to tie the game at 3-3.

“She threw me inside and I was ready to hit it,” Floyd said. “When I hit it, I was going to go (to third), but I had to stop. But if my girls weren’t on bag, we wouldn’t have scored all those runs.”

“(Walking Anderson) would’ve worked if we had caught that fly ball over there,” St. Pauls coach Phillip Tyler said. “If you catch the ball, we’re out of the inning with no runs. Sometimes it works for you, sometimes it don’t. But (Anderson) didn’t beat us either. The last time, she beat us, really. Nothing against her, she’s just a good player; it’s just strategy.”

A Huggins groundout after Alexis Hinson’s leadoff single in the fifth brought Anderson to the plate with a base open, so the Bulldogs intentionally walked her again. Floyd’s subsequent walk was on four pitches, loading the bases, before Hinson was forced out at home on a grounder. Adrianah Chavis hit a bloop single to left field two score two runs, giving the Golden Tornadoes a 5-3 lead, before Lakayla Chavis scored on a wild pitch.

“We had some big hits,” Carter said. “And even some of the balls we didn’t get hits on, we hit hard and they made plays.”

St. Pauls’ three-run first inning came as the Bulldogs’ first four hitters each got hits. Braxtin Kinlaw singled; Madison Williams singled to score Kinlaw, who had stolen second; Alicia Monroe doubled to plate Williams and Jordan Ivey singled to drive in Monroe.

The Bulldogs scored two runs in the seventh and nearly tied the game. A two-out error kept the game alive, then Ivey and Yomaris Vasquez each singled, with Vasquez’ hit scoring Monroe. Kayley Carter reached on an error, allowing Ivey to score, but was thrown out trying to advance to second just before Vasquez could reach home to tie the game.

St. Pauls did not make an error in the game. Vasquez took the loss after allowing six hits and five earned runs with four strikeouts; Williams pitched a hitless sixth inning.

“I commended them on (their defense), you played good,” Tyler said. “But we’ve got to build on that. We’ve got to be more selective at the bat too and get a timely hit.”

Fairmont plays Tuesday at Whiteville; St. Pauls will host South Columbus.