Lady Panthers end Lady Wildcats' season at 4A regional

"We played terrible," said coach Brian Haynes of the season-ending 10-3 loss his Lady Wildcats experienced against Heber Springs in the 4A East Regional Tournament at Lonoke Saturday. "When you get to the regionals you can't make errors and other mistakes. We had seven errors which all resulted in runs and then on the offensive side we only got three hits for the game."

The frustration and disappointment was obvious in Haynes' voice as his Lady Cats were 14-2 late in the season and considered one of the prime squads in the area. Unfortunately, Trumann seemed to hit their stride too early as they finished the season 1-6 in the last two weeks.

The loss to the Lady Panthers not only knocked Trumann out of any further play at the regional tournament, but kept them from qualifying for the state tournament beginning Friday.

"We just went down at the end of the year," added Haynes. "We ended up with a pretty good season. It wasn't great as we expected to have, but it was okay. We finished 15-8 and 7-3 in the conference. But with four, four-year seniors coming back we expected to finish a lot better."

Those four, Shea Holman, Kaelynn Benson, Christin Guthrie and Molly Begly, will be sorely missed on both sides of the ball.

"They will be hard to replace," said Haynes. "Day in and day out I could depend on them. I'll miss them."

Two of the seniors, in fact, Begley and Holman, along with pitcher Haley Brewer, were the only Trumann players to make hits and score against Heber Springs, the winner of the 4A-2 conference.

Brewer finished the day with two strike-outs while giving up four earned runs on six hits and two walks.

"I want to thank the fans for their support, as well as the parents," concluded Haynes. "Also I want to thank Michele Robbins, who's been my assistant coach my four years here. Stacy Toddy will take her place next year."