Lady Lions in an upset

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Members of the Senath-Hornersville Lady Lions softball team celebrate with head coach Bradley Sneed (left) after Senath-Hornersville upset top-seeded Kennett 5-4 in the championship game of the Bootheel Conference Tournament Thursday at Caruthersville. [Click to enlarge]

CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. -- The Giants over the Patriots. North Carolina State over Houston. The United States Olympic hockey team over the Soviet Union. Villanova over Georgetown. Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson.

Add the Senath-Hornersville Lady Lions over Kennett to that list of stunning upsets.

Senath-Hornersville turned six errors into five unearned runs and got another clutch pitching performance from freshman Evelyn Rodriguez to shock the previously-undefeated Lady Indians 5-4 here Thursday in the finals of the Bootheel Conference Tournament.

Staff photo by Mike Buhler Kennett's Taylor Wake fouls off a pitch during Thursday's championship game of the Bootheel Conference Tournament against Senath-Hornersville Thursday at Caruthersville. [Click to enlarge]

"Wow is correct! That's about all you can say," Senath-Hornersville coach Bradley Sneed said.

Thursday's victory was even more shocking considering Kennett had beaten the Lady Lions by the 10-run rule twice earlier this season.

"Like coach said, we had three goals at the beginning of the season -- beat Kennett, beat Kennett and beat Kennett," Senath-Hornersville senior Kasey Mara said. "We accomplished our goal at the right time."

Katelyn Gibson, the Lady Lions' other senior, echoed Mara's and Sneed's sentiments.

"I'm speechless right now -- this is great," said Gibson. "This is the perfect game for us two seniors to end our high school careers on."

On the other side of the field, it was a different story.

"We had a few costly errors and mental mistakes," Kennett coach Laurie Vaughan said. "Our team has prided itself all year on being defensively sound. Today just wasn't our day. We did have some good defensive stops and made some great catches throughout the rest of the game. Senath definitely came ready to play and they played well. Their defense made some outstanding catches that most of the time would fall for us."

The tone of the game was set early Thursday when the Lady Lions took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning thanks to a pair of errors, putting Kennett on its heels and forcing the Lady Indians to play catch-up all day.

"That was one of the worst innings for us all season," said Vaughan. "I think we came out a little too laid back on defense and they caught us by surprise. No matter how much you talk about being prepared, some times it just doesn't work out that way."

The Lady Tribe (12-1) rallied, making it a 3-1 game in the bottom of the first inning when Ciara Dewrock tripled in Kalee Gore with two out.

However, Senath-Hornersville once again made the Lady Indians pay for defensive missteps in the next inning, as a pair of errors allowed Megan Smith to double home Mara and Jena Payne to push the lead to 5-1.

"We've been talking all year about being aggressive at the plate," Sneed said. "These last two games we've just put it together and started swinging at good pitches. With the girls that we have in the lineup, if we swing at good pitches, we'll put some runs up and we proved that Tuesday and we proved that today."

Kennett did not give up, cutting the lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the second when Jordan Wagster singled home Allyson Luce, then turning two Lady Lions' errors into a pair of runs in the third inning.

Jordan Malady walked and scored on Luce's sacrifice fly, then Dewrock -- who had reached on an error -- scored on a wild pitch to make it a one-run game.

The Lady Indians seemed poised to break the game open in the bottom of the fourth inning, loading the bases with nobody out, but Senath-Hornersville got a flyball double play and an interference call to quell the rally and take the wind out of Kennett's sails.

After its fourth-inning rally was crushed, the Lady Tribe had just one baserunner the rest of the game

"We had our opportunities to score more runs but came up short each time we had runners in scoring position," said Vaughan. "They also were able to take advantage of our mistakes."

Another story Thursday -- and for the tournament -- was Rodriguez, who stepped in when the Lady Lions' regular pitcher was sidelined and responded by leading her team to the conference tourney title.

"We had so much against us that we had nothing to lose," Mara said. "We gave it our all."

Said Gibson: "We came together as a team. We all played good. Our hitters came together. We all stepped up."

Despite the loss -- Kennett's lone loss of the spring -- Vaughan was pleased by her team's performance this season.

"I talked to the players after the game and told them that they had an outstanding season and should be proud of all the things that we accomplished," Vaughan said. "They learned a lot about softball and each other. This has been an amazing year for me as a coach. I am so proud of the girls, their attitudes and their sheer desire to compete. That is why it made it so hard to end a great season on a loss."