When Jake Loper took over the Lake softball program, he brought a championship pedigree from Newton County and a love for the weight room.
It didn’t take Loper long to realize that he had something special at Lake.
The Lady Hornets capped off a dream season as they came back from a game one loss to Houston and won two straight to capture the team’s first-ever state championship with 9-2 and 13-3 wins over the Lady Hilltoppers on Saturday at Liberty Park in Madison.
Loper led the Lady Hornets to a 32-3 record in a season in which they won 23 games by the run rule and scored in double digits 27 times. The Lady Hornets opened the season with 19 straight wins and after two mid-season losses reeled off 11 straight before losing game one 5-2 to Houston
“I’m just thankful to start my career like this, this is special,” Loper said “Every practice, I preached that we are going to win it with how we work in practice. I told them while everybody else was at the house eating chicken, we were going to be up there working and getting better. I think that’s what made us mentally tough and we never gave up. I told them to get us to a game three.”
Loper said he realized this summer that the Lady Hornets had a chance to be special.
“We played this summer in fast-pitch and knew we were going to be pretty special in fast-pitch,” Loper said. “I was worried about slow-pitch because we weren’t very athletic. I was afraid we would get a lot of force plays at second. These girls have a lot of fight in them and my hats are off to them. They worked so hard in the weight room and did everything I asked of them.”
Lake 13, Houston 3
The Lady Hornets grabbed an early lead and scored in every inning but one as they took a run-rule win over the Lady Hilltoppers to claim the series and the state championship.
Lake scored two in the first as Taylor Duncan doubled to lead off the game and scored on a single by Laurel Breland. Breland then scored on a double by Landry LeBlanc to take a 2-0 lead.
After a Houston run in the second, Lake added a run as Abbie McGe singled and eventually scored when TraShayla Wilson dribbled a grounder to second and forced an error as Lake led 3-1.
The Lady Hornets took control of the game with three runs in the third inning. Alana Edmonds led off the inning with a double and scored on a single by Kaytie Hillman. Hillman came around and scored on a triple by Kate Gladney. McGee then scored Gladney as she tripled to give Lake a 6-1 lead.
“I think the biggest difference in the game was we work so hard on hitting line to line,” Loper said. “Us being able to hit to right field and being able to move runners. I think that was the biggest difference in the game was being able to move runners.”
Houston scored two in the top of the fifth to cut the lead to 6-3 but Lake answer with two runs as LeBlanc reached on an error. Hillman then walked and Gibbs plated LeBlanc on a groundout to second. Hillman then scored on an RBI single by McGee to make the score 8-3.
After holding Houston scoreless in the sixth, Lake finished the game off in the bottom of the sixth. Wilson opened the inning with an infield single and Duncan followed with an infield single as well. After a sacrifice fly to right to move up both runners, Alana Edmonds singled to score Wilson. Leblanc followed with an RBI single to score Duncan. An infield single by Hillman loaded the bases and Gladney drew a walk to score a run. McGee grounded out to first to score Edmonds and Katlyn Lott finished off the game with a two-run single to score LeBlanc and Hillman to secure the championship.
Lake had 14 hits in the contest as Hillman was 3-for-3 and scored two runs. McGee was 3-for-3 with a triple and two RBIs. LeBlanc was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs while Edmonds was 2-for-3 with a double. Duncan and Brantlee McGee each scored two runs while Josie Gibbs had two RBIs.
Lott scattered nine hits and gave up three runs to pick up the win.
Lake 9, Houston 2
The Lake bats woke up as they banged out 18 hits and used an eight-run third inning to force a game 3.
Houston led 1-0 after two innings before Lake sent 14 batters to the plate in the third to score eight runs. Kate Gladney and Josie Gibbs each had two-run singles in the inning while Laurel Breland had a two-run triple.
“I told them to not change their approach,” Loper said. “I thought we hit the ball hard, we just hit it right to them a lot of times. I told them to keep hitting it and they would start falling. If we were playing on a 200-foot fence like we have a Lake, it would have been a shootout.”
Lake outhit Houston 18-9 in the contest. Breland had a big game as she went 4-for-5 with a triple and three RBIs. Tra’Shaylah Wilson was 3-for-3 while Josie Gibbs was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Abbie McGee was 2-for-4 with two RBIs while Gladney singled and had two RBIs.
Katlyn Lott itched all seven innings and gave up two earned runs as she scattered nine hits.
Houston 5, Lake 2
The Lady Hilltoppers won game 1 of the series as they scored in the first four innings and held Lake to a season-low four hits.
Houston scored single runs in the each of the first four innings and led 4-0 before Lake added single runs in the fourth and fifth innings. Houston added an insurance run in the sixth for the win.
Lake only had four hits as Brantlee McGee had an RBI single and Abbie McGee singled and scored. Abby Pinter and Alana Edmonds had Lake’s other hits.
