Mansfield Lake Ridge falls in seventh inning to O’Connor in state softball title game
Mansfield Lake Ridge had a big fifth inning, but San Antonio O’Connor rallied with two late home runs and then the Panthers got a bases-loaded walk to win in the bottom of the seventh, 7-6, for the UIL Class 6A state championship on Saturday at McCombs Field.
It was Lake Ridge’s first trip to the state softball tournament and the first for any school in the Mansfield district.
The Eagles finish with a 32-7 record.
“It hurts for my kids. They’ve battled all year long. We’ve done some good things this season and we did some great things tonight too, just couldn’t come out on top,” Lake Ridge coach Bobbi Cruff said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow, a tough loss, but we put our name on the map and we’ll be back.”
Like it did during Friday night’s semifinal, Lake Ridge had a two-out rally.
The Eagles scored six times with two outs in the fourth inning against Deer Park in the semis. They scored three runs with two outs in the fifth against O’Connor to take the lead.
Kassidy Chance hit a hard grounder that got under the third baseman’s glove and into left field, and it scored two runs to give Lake Ridge a 5-4 lead. Maggie Miller added an RBI single up the middle and the Eagles led 6-4.
The rally started when Paris Johnson had an infield single to short and stole second to put runners at second and third for Chance, who hit a 1-2 pitch.
“We’ve been doing that all year long. We’ve been two-out rallying all year,” Cruff said. “It was exciting to watch and to be a part of it. They got the job done at the plate. We just had a couple of defensive errors that didn’t help us too much.”
Chance went 3 for 4. Johnson had three stolen bases and finished with 48 on the season.
The Panthers (32-1) had a solo home run in the sixth by Haley Carder to bring it within 6-5 and then a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the seventh from Jada Munoz that tied the game at 6-6.
Munoz was voted 6A state championship game MVP.
Following Munoz’s homer, O’Connor loaded the bases with a walk from Ella Gonzales, a single from Meiko Dominguez and a walk from Sammie Portillo.
Still without an out, AJ Sanchez took a 3-1 pitch for ball four and the game-winning run came to score.
Lake Ridge started out hot with three runs in the top of the first inning.
Johnson, who went 2 for 3, singled to left and then got her 46th stolen base. She scored when Chance hit a hard grounder and the throw was off at first base. Brooklyn Morris drove in Chance and Raigan Brannon added an RBI single to left that scored courtesy runner Avery Hoang to give Lake Ridge an early 3-0 lead.
“That’s been a point of emphasis all year long, to score in the first inning,” Cruff said. “So that slow start last night, today they were hungry for it. They wanted to come out and start the game how we normally start games.”
O’Connor, which won its first state softball title, would get two runs in the bottom of the first with Lake Ridge committing three errors.
The Panthers added two more in the bottom of the second to grab a 4-3 lead.
“No body thought we would be here and no body thought that would be a 7-6 ball game either,” Cruff said. “We’re just going to build from here and we’ll be back.”
This story was originally published June 4, 2022 at 10:23 PM.