Jena Head Softball Coach Sara Roark and her team made another trip to Sulphur this past weekend. The Lady Giants made their way into the semifinal round after defeating defending state champion Kaplan a week earlier.
The Lady Giants would have to face a familiar opponent in the Sterlington Panthers during the semi-final game held Friday, April 26. This would be the fourth matchup between Jena and Sterlington in Sulphur since 2018. Last year Sterlington defeated Jena 4-2 in the semi-final round before losing to Kaplan in the state championship. This year Jena and Sterlington had two regular season matchups as Sterlington defeated Jena 4-1 back in February and then defeated them again 2-1 in nine innings back on April 6th. So, the two teams are very familiar with each other. Sterlington came into the game with a 29-1 record and nationally ranked as one of the best teams in the nation.
The Lady Giants would score first as in the top of the first inning they would load the bases. Sydney Williams would score as Trinity Williams was hit by the pitch. Then Callie Decker would score on an RBI groundout by Kiette Cooper to give the Lady Giants a 2-0 lead. Sterlington would score two runs in the bottom of the third to tie the game at 2.
The two teams would be at a standstill throughout the rest of the game until the seventh inning as they would continue to make big plays in the field and the pitchers would shut down the bats.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Sterlington would get a couple of runners on at first and second with one out. Jaleeah Alford would hit a long fly ball to right field. Jena centerfielder Trinity Williams would make an incredible running catch at the fence in right field and would quickly turn and throw the ball in. Allie Chrislip would tag up from second base and would quickly round third as she would come in to score as the ball would roll in to the infield to give Sterlington the 3-2 victory. The Lady Giants have nothing to hang their head about as they played one of the best teams in the nation and fought hard to the very end.
Kiette Cooper pitched an excellent game going all seven innings only giving up three runs on four hits with eleven strikeouts. Cooper, Haylee Dangerfield, Hallie Paul and Maggie Brown all had hits in the game for the Lady Giants.
Sterlington would go on to defeat Doyle in the state championship game 1-0. Congratulations to Head Coach Sara Roark and her staff on another great season of Lady Giants softball.
