MARIETTA — Lassiter twice came from behind Thursday in its doubleheader against Etowah and beat the Lady Eagles 4-3 and 4-2 to sweep the best-of-three series and claim the Region 5AAAAA championship.

The top-seeded Lady Trojans (21-8), who won their fifth region title in 11 years and first since 2009, rallied from a 3-2 eighth-inning deficit to post the 4-3 win in Game 1. Lassiter then trailed Etowah 2-1 in the nightcap before scoring twice in the fourth to take a one-run lead before adding an insurance run in the top of the seventh.

Etowah (22-9), unable to add to the region title it won in 2009, earned the No. 2 seed from Region 5AAAAA and will host the No. 3 seed from Region 6AAAAA in a best-of-three first-round state playoff series beginning Wednesday.

“We competed in both games, but came up a little short,” Etowah coach Tonya Sebring said. “We hit the ball hard and played well enough to win, but Lassiter’s a great team, and they just played a little bit better than we did. They’re a good team, and it was a good doubleheader between two good teams. I feel like we’re playing well going into the playoffs next week.”

The first game started out as a pitchers’ duel as Lassiter’s Mackenzie Kayler and Etowah’s Chelsi Palazzo kept the batters in check over the first three innings.

Lassiter’s Elise Sandberg led off the bottom of the fourth with a walk and moved to third on a two-base error on Erin Leonard’s at-bat before scoring on Jordan Adams’ RBI single. Carli Kayler followed with a sacrifice fly to plate Leonard and stretch the Lady Trojans’ lead led 2-0.

Etowah tied the contest in the fifth as Courtney Atkinson doubled, Sharlene Strother singled and Palazzo walked to load the bases with two outs. Grayson Lutz belted a two-run single to left to plate Atkinson and Strother and knot the game at 2-all.

It stayed that way into the eighth, when Maddie Beth Jenkins’ RBI single scored Lutz, who was placed on second using the international tiebreaker rules, to give the Lady Eagles a 3-2 advantage.

But Leonard hit a one-out walk-off single in the eighth, plating Kelly Sinclair and Mackenzie Kayler with the winning runs.

Palazzo gave up four runs — three earned — on eight hits and struck out three in eight innings, while Kayler allowed three earned runs on five hits and struck out four.

The nightcap was just as competitive between the teams as Palazzo allowed four earned runs on eight hits while striking out three. Kayler gave up two earned runs on seven hits and struck out one for the compete-game victory.

Lassiter jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Sandberg, who was 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, singled home Kelly Sinclair.

Etowah tied the contest in the bottom half of the frame behind Allie Brown’s RBI double, which scored Kaitlyn Hughes.

Jenkins gave the Lady Eagles a 2-1 margin after hitting a two-out RBI single in the third that scored Lutz. But a two-out, two-run double from Sammie Green in the fourth — which scored Sandberg and Carli Kayler — gave Lassiter a lead it would not relinquish.

Kelly Sinclair, who batted 2-for-4 and scored twice, led off the seventh with a triple and scored on Veronica Ulicny’s double to give the Lady Trojans an insurance run and a 4-2 lead.

Mackenzie Kayler retired the side in the bottom of the seventh to secure the win for Lassiter.

“We knew coming into this that Etowah was going to bring their A-game, and they did,” Lassiter coach Scott Kelly said. “Etowah swung the bats, we swung the bats and both teams had chances to score runs in just about every inning. We just happened to get one more big hit than they did.”

Brown was 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead Etowah in Game 2. Torrie Garner also had a hit.

Ulicny batted 3-for-4 with an RBI for Lassiter.

Palazzo and Kayler each pitched 15 innings for their respective teams.

“I can’t say enough about both pitchers,” Sebring said. “They pitched incredible (Thursday).”