Northeast Lauderdale coach Tyler Vick embraced each of his team’s three seniors — Tatyana Cole, Carrie Grace Baty and Jimmyia Smith — as the Lady Trojans’ trio of upperclassmen walked off their home field.

Cole, Baty and Smith were the cornerstones of a Northeast Lauderdale team that won 18 of its 22 games over the last two months, but the Lady Trojans’ season came to an untimely end Saturday night. 

Lawrence County defeated Northeast Lauderdale 14-0 in Game 1 of the third round of the MHSAA Class II slow-pitch softball playoffs, and the Lady Cougars earned a 14-13 Game 2 victory in a nail-biter that went nine innings.

Northeast Lauderdale ended the season 24-8.

“Those seniors have been extremely great for us,” Vick said. “For six years, they’ve set the bar for the younger girls. They’ve set the tone. They’ve done everything that as a coach, everything that you could ask for. They mean the world to us. They’re just a special, special, special group of girls.”

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Lawrence County’s Sydney Pevey hit the walk-off single to score Julianna Johnson and send the Lady Cougars to the fourth round of the postseason.

Northeast Lauderdale trailed 6-3 entering the fifth inning when Molly Moore led off the fifth with a single. Baty reached first base via a Lawrence County error, and Cole hit a three-run home run to center field to tie the score at 6. 

In the top of the sixth, Braylen Tingle scored on a Lawrence County error to give the Lady Trojans a 7-6 lead, and Kennedy Boston pushed Northeast Lauderdale ahead 10-6 with a three-run homer that plated Kayde Lee, Cole and herself. Smith followed Boston’s three-run shot with a solo homer that gave the Lady Trojans an 11-6 lead.

The Lady Cougars received a two-run home run from Skyler Speights and a solo homer from Pevey in the bottom of the sixth, and Lily Stephens and Alyssa Lambert added RBIs in the frame to tie the score at 11.

Boston hit a two-run homer in the top of the eighth to push the Lady Trojans ahead 13-11, but a home run from Lawrence County’s Pevey and Abbie Errington again knotted the score at 13.

“Our girls have fought all year long, and I knew if it had to end that way, that would be the way it ended,” Vick said. “All year they have shown incredible drive, and they never give up. They fight and fight, and they mean so much to us. It’s tough to lose that way, but if we had to lose, I knew that would be the way it would happen — we would go down fighting.”

In Game 2, Boston was 4-for-5 with six RBIs and two runs. Smith was 4-for-5 with two runs and an RBI, and Cole was 2-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs. Raelee White went 2 of 5 with one walk and one RBI, while Molly Moore was 2-for-5 with two runs.

Northeast Lauderdale accumulated 18 hits to Lawrence County’s 21, and both teams committed three errors.

In Game 1, Regan Wagner, Haily Backus, Smith and Cole each went 1-for-2.