GENTRY — After a hard-fought season and some big wins, the Lady Pioneers ended their season Friday in regional play against the Pottsville Apaches.

In the first round of the 1-4A District Tournament, the Lady Pioneers faced off with the Prairie Grove Lady Tigers for a chance to advance to the regional tournament. Prairie Grove jumped out to an early 7-0 lead after two innings of play. The Lady Pioneers battled back, scoring 10 runs over the next three innings to take the lead, 10-8. The Tigers quickly answered with two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie the gameat 10 apiece. Both teams added four runs in the seventh, to go into extra innings. Gentry scored three in the 8th to jump ahead, 17-14, and held Prairie Grove to a single run. The final score was 17-15, enabling Gentryto advance to the regional tournament for the first time since 2008. Rindy Hudson was 3-5 with an RBI. Suzie Sikes was 4-6, Jordan Olds was 3-4 with 4 RBIs, Josie Graves was 4-6 with 4 RBIs.

The semifinals of the district tournament matched up the Lady Pioneers against the Farmington Lady Cardinals. Gentry struck early with an RBI single by Jordan Olds and scored Rindy Hudson. But the Lady Cardinals were just too much offensively for the Pioneers. They scored six runs in the first and third innings. Farmington scored 14 runs on 18 hits. Gentry committed six errors in the game. The final score was 14-1, Farmington.

Gentry then played in the third-place game against Ozark on Monday. The Gentry girls played one of the best defensive games of their season but came up short with their bats. The final score was 3-0, with Ozark winning.Hits were hard to come by for both teams. Ozark picked up three runs in the fifth inning to take the 3-0 lead, and that is how it ended. Gentry had only three hits in the game.

In the regional tournament on Friday, the Lady Pioneers were matched up with the number-one seed Pottsville Apaches, with one of the best pitchers in the state. Gentry scored early in the first after Rindy Hudson led off the game with a double. Suzie Sikes added a single to score Hudson and make it 1-0.Josie Graves would also single in the inning to score Sikes and make it 2-0 Gentry after one inning. But things began to unravel defensively for Gentry in the fourth, and Pottsville began to hit the ball. The Lady Pioneers just couldn’t retire the side in a couple big innings for Pottsville. The girls lost 12-2, ending Gentry's season and their hopes for advancing to the state tournament.

Sports, Pages 9 on 05/09/2012