LUMBERTON — Through 12 innings against South View pitcher Jordynn Parnell — seven on March 14 and the first five Thursday — the Lumberton softball team hadn’t scored a run against the Tigers’ freshman standout.

Even the streak-ending run that came in Thursday’s sixth inning was an unearned run resulting from an error.

But finally, with one big swing of Tiara Stueck’s bat, a ball flew high and far into the Robeson County night — and suddenly the Pirates had beaten Parnell and the Tigers 2-1 in eight innings, giving South View its first United-8 Conference loss of the season.

“I had a strike on me. I just had to pull through for my team,” Stueck said. “This was a really big win, and I was successful at the plate. … I sat back on it and drove it.”

Stueck’s walk-off home run over the left-center-field fence was her seventh home run of the season.

“When she hit it I just started yelling ‘make sure you touch all the bases’ because I knew it was gone,” Lumberton coach Mackie Register said. “I didn’t know she was going to hit a home run, but I knew she was going to square one up, because she’s been on that girl all night. She was due to hit one; I was thinking the gap, maybe, and get another hit to win the game, but I’d rather do it that way.”

The win pulls Lumberton (13-2, 8-2 United-8) within one game of South View (14-2, 9-1 United-8) in the conference standings.

Parnell allowed one earned run on six hits with two walks and 11 strikeouts in 7 2/3 innings; the right-hander threw a one-hit shutout against the Pirates in the first meeting of the season, which South View won 5-0.

“She’s a really good pitcher, I’ve got to give it to her. But tonight, I just had to get this win for my team,” Stueck said. “It was good because when we played them at their house, they shut us out. But tonight we came in, and we never gave up.”

Lumberton stranded two baserunners in both the third and fourth innings. Then, trailing 1-0 in the sixth, the Pirates tied the game on a well-struck ball by Stueck that was dropped for an outfield error, bringing home Alona Hanna from second base.

“The approach was good and (it went) deep, and if she gets a little bit more of that one that one’s probably out,” Register said. “That thing blew a little bit further than they thought it was going to go.”

South View scored a second-inning run, when Paige Ford singled to drive home Savanna Hardee, for its 1-0 lead. The Tigers then stranded two baserunners each in the second, third, fourth and fifth innings, but any successive runs were prevented by Lumberton pitchers Kaleigh Martin and Halona Sampson.

Martin pitched 3 2/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits with two walks and one strikeout. Sampson relieved Martin with two runners on base and two outs in the fourth, and escaped that jam before allowing no runs on two hits with no walks and four strikeouts over the final 4 1/3 innings.

“Kaleigh and Halona are a little different styles, so I think that throws teams off as well,” Register said. “I’ve called it our two-headed monster, and really is; Kaleigh gets us to a point where Halona can shut the door, or Kaliegh can keep rolling, but them two together, it’s a deadly combination.”

“She came in and shut it down like she’s supposed to,” Stueck, the Pirates’ catcher, said. “Her screwball was working very good, and she just got the outs that we needed.”

After Sampson retired the Tigers in order in both the sixth and seventh innings, Hardee reached on a one-out double in the eighth; Martin, who stayed in the game at first base after leaving the circle, made a leaping catch for the final out of the inning which saved a run and brought the Pirates to the plate in the bottom half with a tied score, setting the stage for Stueck’s pivotal blast.

Stueck had two hits for the Pirates and Aniya Merritt, Alyssa Stone, Nyiah Walker and Jaelyn Hammond each had one. Hardee led South View with two hits.

The win marked the second-straight Thursday night with a key conference win in extra innings for the Pirates, after last week’s win at Cape Fear. In addition to the impact on the conference race, it also gives the Pirates added momentum going into next week’s Robeson County Slugfest, which Lumberton opens against Red Springs at 7 p.m. Monday.

“The team right now, we’re starting to believe in ourselves,” Register said. “We busted down that wall against Cape Fear to where we expect to win these type of games, and we’re finding different ways to win them.”