It was only natural that Madison Memorial junior Jazmine Buckingham had a few things spinning through her head during her last at-bat against Madison La Follette junior ace Michelle Jones.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh inning of a tie game and teammate Jackie Koykkar on second base, Buckingham tried to keep cool after getting down in the count 0-2.

"The first couple pitches, they were nice, but I had a lot of things going through my head," Buckingham said. "I just calmed down and had to tell myself, 'I got the next one. I'll hit it. Keep my head on it, just relax.'"

The personal pep talk worked.

The Spartans' third baseman got her pitch and blasted a home run over the left-center field fence to give Memorial a 6-4 walk-off win over Big Eight Conference rival La Follette Tuesday night at the Jefferson Middle School diamond.

Jones, who struck out 11 for the Lancers, took the loss.

"When she threw the last (pitch), I just saw it, relaxed, got (the head of the bat) on it and just swung," Buckingham said. "And it just went out."

The Spartans (5-0 overall, 3-0 Big Eight) and Lancers (3-2, 2-1) battled 20- to 30-mph wind gusts, blowing from left to right across the diamond, turning the most routine infield fly ball into an adventure in aerodynamics.

La Follette coach Heather Fish said she discussed the wind with her team in pre-game warm ups, but stressed it was something the Lancers needed to battle through.

"We talked to the kids (saying), 'You need to back each other up in the outfield. If it's a pop fly, everybody's got to be talking and communicating,' " Fish said.

Memorial was able to first use the wind to its advantage, posting three runs in the second inning.

With two outs and two on, sophomore outfielders Kelsey Schmitz and Tori Nelson scored on a pair of wind-aided throwing errors.

"The balls were dropping in (for us)... then back in the sixth, seventh inning, the wind was playing a factor against us," Spartans coach Pat Joyce said.

The Lancers responded with the bases loaded in the fifth, cutting the Memorial lead to 4-3 after an infield fly deflected off Koykkar's glove at second base, allowing two runs to score.

Memorial starting pitcher, senior Lexi Johnson, who went all seven innings and struck out eight to earn the win, bailed herself out of another bases-loaded jam — this time with no outs — in the top of the seventh.

La Follette scored a run to tie the score, but Johnson was able to minimize the damage. Fish, who graduated eight seniors from La Follette's 2007 state-qualifying team, called the loss a learning experience.

"I always tell the kids, remember that feeling in the pit of your stomach, remember that disappointment," Fish said. "That's going to make you work harder in practice and when you work harder in practice good things are going to happen in games."