Postseason Highlights

The Lady Lions softball team started off their tourney run with a close 5-4 win over rival IMS.  IMS took a 4-0 in the third inning, but the Lady Lions came right back in the top of 4th to tie the game.  Lone Tree took the lead in the top of 6th when Maggie Schmidt drew a walk, followed by Abbie Schmidt who reached on a fielder's choice, but Maggie was forced out at second.  Nicole Zadow pinch ran for Abbie, went to second on wild pitch then scored the winning run on Avery Edward's single.  Avery pitched to three batters in the bottom of the sixth and seventh to preserve the victory. "We did a great job coming back after being down 4-0."  Jenny Jones led the team with two hits and Maggie Schmidt had a two-run triple.

On Thursday, the Lady Lions faced 5th ranked Lisbon on their home field.  The Lady Lions pulled the big upset winning 6-4.  The teams were deadlocked 1-1 going into the bottom of 5th.  In the bottom of the 5th the Lady Lions were able to take advantage of several Lisbon mistakes and take a 6-1 lead.  Lisbon came right back in the top 6th behind a solo home run to score three runs, but the Lady Lions made some great defensive plays to preserve the lead.  With the score 6-4 going into the top of 7th, Lisbon led of with a single then advanced to second on a wild pitch, but pitcher Avery Edwards stayed tough striking out the next batter, then getting the next two batters to fly out and ground out to end the game.  "It was a very exciting win for our team.  Our players believed they could beat this team."

Then on Friday, the Lady Lions faced Bellevue Marquette in the regional semi-final.  Marquette took an early 2-0 in the first inning, but Lone Tree bounced back in the top of second with four runs to take a 4-2 lead.  That lead held up until the bottom of 5th, when Marquette struck for six runs with five hits to take an 8-4 lead.  Lone Tree was unable to mount a comeback and lost 8-4.  Earlier in the game, the Lady Lions had several chances to extend the lead, but just couldn't get a hit to fall to score more runs.  "I thought our players played their hearts out.  We expended a great deal of energy beating a very good Lisbon team the night before, and just couldn't seem to get our bats going tonight against Marquette. I thought our defense was excellent throughout the entire tournament, but Marquette's hits just happened to go where we weren't.  I'm very proud of our team's tournament run.  I'm sure most didn't think we would make it past Lisbon."