EudoraNews.com

One season after advancing all the way to the state tournament finals, Eudora’s season came to an end just as its postseason was getting started. The Cardinals lost 3-2 to Santa Fe Trail in a thrilling first round match-up in the regional tournament.

Inconsistency was a problem for Eudora all season, and it proved costly in the most important game of the year.

“We just really struggled to come together as a team,” coach Cara Kimberlin said. “This is a great group of girls that, for the most part, try to do what we asked them to do, but in the end perhaps it just came down to softball skills and understanding of the game and the situations.”

The Cardinals had hopes of at least returning to the state tourney, and as the regional host they would have had home games all the way there. As it turned out, being the home team for the first game wasn’t quite enough to get them into the second round.

Junior pitcher Miranda Cobell mowed down the competition early, retiring the first six batters she faced, four of them on strikeouts. In the third inning she struck out a couple more, but there were a pair of errors mixed in that allowed Santa Fe Trail to score its first run.

The Chargers came back in the fourth with their first hit and another run, aided by yet another Cardinal error.

That pressure woke up the Eudora bats as they responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the fourth.

Freshman Allie Johnson got on base to lead off the inning, and sophomore catcher Evan Folks knocked the ball to the outfield to bring her in.

With one out, senior Kayci Vickers brought Folks around to score and tied the game at 2-2. Eudora wouldn’t record another hit for the rest of the game.

“I have second guessed myself all season with this team,” Kimberlin said. “How we are approaching situations, how can I get them to do this or do that. We spent four days at practice focusing primarily on hitting and then we come out and strike out nine times against a very average pitcher, but in the end what it comes down to is discipline and skill.”

Cobell returned to the mound and continued her outstanding performance. She retired the Chargers in order in the fifth inning and pitched her way out of a difficult situation in the top of the sixth. However, with the Cardinal bats again silent, the pressure was on Cobell to get out of the seventh and into extra innings.

She retired two of the first three batters and seemed poised to take the team into the bottom of the seventh with a chance to win, but then an error allowed a runner to score and put Santa Fe Trail up 3-2.

The Cardinals couldn’t jump start the offense after two flat innings and the Chargers escaped with the victory.

“The last loss of the season is always tough, especially for the five seniors,” Kimberlin said. “This is it for them, they have worn a Eudora uniform for the last time, and they know that.

“There is not one girl that walked onto that field and wanted to make mistakes or wanted to lose…they are competitors and losing hurts.”

Eudora showed a lot of promise at some points in the season, but it never took too long before it would drop back to earth and struggle at the plate. The goal for Kimberlin and all the returning Cardinals next year will be to find some stability at the plate.

“It’s disappointing, but sometimes you have seasons like this and as a coach or a player you have to learn and grow from it,” Kimberlin said. “Hopefully that is what we will do and we will come out next spring and go after another

season.”

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