The Lady Patriots softball team on senior day defeated rival Myers Park 7-3 to clinch a tie with Hickory Ridge for the Southwestern 4A Conference regular season title.

In the first inning, the Patriots jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead. A lead-off base hit by Jaylin Adkins, she would promptly steal second base, Mallory Shaver would deliver a line drive single scoring Adkins, Maya Douglas would advance the runner to second, then McKenzie Grant drilled another base hit up the middle for the RBI, now with two outs Emily Shaver would hit a shot in the gap for a triple scoring the runner to take the 3-0 lead.

In the fourth, Adkins would single, Mallory Shaver singled, Maya Douglas delivered another hit to set the table.  Then the middle of the order delivered again with additional timely hits and a sacrifice fly and the Patriots were off to a comfortable 7-0 advantage over the visiting Mustang’s.

Myers Park did strike back picking up a run in fourth inning, they added two runs in the fifth, with the big blow coming off the bat of Whittney Barringer who drove in two runs on a double one hop off the center field fence on the hardest hit ball of the day.  Barringer went 4-4 on the day for the visitors.

Meanwhile, Kayla Douglas pitched five innings for the win. She allowed 6 hits, 3 runs, 6 base on balls, along with 7 strikeouts.  Jaylin Adkins came in relief to pitch two solid innings allowing no runs on just 2 hits, 1 walk, 1 strikeout to close out the game for the save.

Offensively, the good hitting Patriots picked up 11 hits with Anna Easter going 2-3, 1 RBI, Emily Shaver 1-3, 2 RBI’s, Mckenzie Grant 1-3, 1 RBI, Jaylin Adkins 2-4, Mallory Shaver 2-4, 1 RBI, Maya Douglas 2-3, Brianna Grant 1-3 to lead the charge on senior day at the Patriots Softball Stadium.

Independence and Hickory Ridge Finish in Deadlock in Southwestern 4A Conference Softball 

In a game that never should have started the seventh inning due to darkness cost the Patriots the regular season conference title and now share with the Ragin’ Bulls.

Early in the season the Patriots defeated the Bulls 10-9 on the road.  Then at home with a 6-4 lead after six full innings, the umpires decided to play the seventh under darkening skies hoping to have a one, two three inning.  However, this did not occur, after one out and two runners on base on a foul ball to shallow right field two fielders collided with the right fielder sustaining a head injury from the collision.  The game was now delayed another 7-8 minutes making it difficult to judge the flight of the ball.

On a play that should have been the third out, a pop up in the infield with the bases loaded dropped near the pitchers mound without being touched by any Indy player who did not react to the flight of the ball, scoring the go ahead run making the score 7-6 Hickory Ridge.  The game was decided on Friday with the final score remaining unchanged.

On the season, the Patriots finished the regular season 14-5 overall, 12-2 in the Southwestern 4A Conference.  Hickory Ridge finished 13-6 overall, 12-2 in the SW Conference.  Both teams in head to head competition beat one another by one run, and lost to Butler by one one.  Therefore, in a dead heat for the the conference regular season title. With the conference tournament coming up, the top four teams will be in the mix fighting for the tournament championship, including their Western Division seeds in the state playoffs to follow.