Zebulon — Knightdale girls struck first in the back-and-forth, first-round conference tournament game against East Wake, but the Warriors hung on by a thread to seal the deal.

In the top of the second inning, Knightdale’s Heather Johnson found first on an infield single and worked her way to third on a Christina Fischer 2-out double down the left field line. Johnson made light of a wild pitch and the Knights took the 1-0 lead.

But the Warriors answered in the bottom of the fourth.

East Wake’s Katie Watkins singled to center field, followed by Mariah Souder, who singled to left. After a ground-out moved the runners to second and third, an ill-advised pickoff attempt sailed into left field, scoring Watkins. The following sacrifice fly from Emily Sanderson gave the Warriors the 2-1 lead.

Knightdale rallied again. In the top of the sixth, Lexie Brock lead off with single to center, Samantha Cox laid down a perfect bunt and beat the throw to first and Hannah Short was walked on. With the bases loaded and one out, Heather Johnson and Paige Peterson each hit infield rollers and base runners from third beat the throws to the plate. Despite plating two runs, Knightdale left the bases fully loaded at the end of the inning.

East Wake responded at last call — the bottom of the sixth — and the response ended the game.

Souder hit a single to right field, and then Shelbey Bishop was walked. Sanderson then singled, scoring Souder to knot the game 3-3. But it was Kristi Bisognano's ground-out that scored the game-winning run.

In the top of the seventh, Knightdale had a runner on second with the team’s best hitter, Hannah Short (.423) at the plate, but Watkins denied the attempt with a strikeout.

The Warrior squad managed eight hits to Knightdale’s six. Souder and Watkins each went 2-3 at bat. Johnson went 2-3 for the Knights.

Watkins recorded 17 strikeouts for the Warriors, walking four, and Kayla Boggs struck out five and walked three for th Knights.

The game was close played and could’ve gone either way, according to Knightdale coach Ben Vessa.

“It was a back-and-forth, well-played, emotional game which both teams wanted to win very badly,” Vessa said. “Had we played nine innings, the lead probably would have switched hands three more times.”

The win sent the Warriors into round two to face Garner, Saturday.