After losing in the 2A South State championship series last year, the Lake Lady Hornets took the next step by advancing to the Class 2A state championship series.
Despite outhitting St. Patrick in both games, Lake lost both games as they lost 3-2 in Game 1 and 7-5 in Game 2.
“The way the kids battled in both games really impressed me,” first-year Lake coach Eric Neel said. “For those kids to fight through 11 walks and have the tying runner on base really impressed me. I think in the end, two things happened. If the strike zone doesn’t change in the fourth inning of Game 2, we probably win that game. We outhit them in both games but there’s not much you can do about not getting strike calls. And we let Game 1 slip away. Their three seniors have won several state championships and the moment didn’t get to them like it got to our kids. If we will continue to improve as much as we did in the last year, we will be in really good shape next year.”
St. Patrick finished the season with a 22-7-1 record. Lake finishes the season with a 27-11 record.
St. Patrick 7, Lake 5
The Lady Hornets were unable to take advantage of five errors as they issued 11 walks in a two-run loss to St. Patrick in Game 2 of the championship series.
After falling behind 2-0, Lake scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Lake scored as Taylor Duncan led off the inning with a single. She later scored on a single to left field by Hannah Wilkerson. After a single score 7-4.
Lake made things interesting in the bottom of the seventh as Breland reached on an error by the St. Patrick third baseman. Breland then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by the catcher. Wilkerson then singled up the middle to score Breland and pull Lake to within 7-5. Lake got another base runner but St. Patrick got a strikeout to end the game.
Lake had nine hits in the contest as Olivia Clay was 3-for-3 with an RBI. Wilkerson was 2-for-4 with three RBIs while Duncan was 2-for-3 with two runs scored. Laurel Breland had a single and scored twice.
Duncan pitched 6 2/3 innings and gave up six runs on eight hits and 10 walks while striking out three. Kate Gladney pitched 1/3 of an inning and gave up one run on one hit.
St. Patrick 3, Lake 2
The Lady Irish opened up the series by scoring two runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a one-run win on Thursday.
After two scoreless innings, Lake scored a single run in the top of the third. The inning started when Jordan McLemore was hit by a pitch.
Taylor Duncan and Laurel Breland reached on back-to-back singles to load the bases. Reagan Clark then walked to score McLemore and give Lake a 1-0 lead. But two straight outs left the bases loaded as Lake led 1-0.
Lake added its other run in the top of the fifth. With two outs, Hanna Wilkerson doubled to left field. Courtesy runner Kate Gladney scored when Reagan Clark reached on an error by the right fielder to give the Lady Hornets a 4-0 lead.
St. Patrick scored an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead to 2-1.
In the sixth, St. Patrick put the first three runners on base and scored two on a single and sacrifice fly to take the 3-2 lead.
Lake had five hits in the contest.
