The Booneville Lady Bearcats saw their season come to an end with a 5-3 loss to Salem in the opening round of the Class 3A State Tournament in Greenland Thursday afternoon.
After Roni Tillery turned a double play (shown) to end the first inning the Lady Bearcats (19-11) took a 1-0 lead in the second inning and had runners in second and third but could not do further damage.
Cam Parish started the inning with a single off the pitcher and Peighton Montalvo dropped a ball in right field for another hit. Torie Nobles put down a bunt to move the runners and when the ball was thrown away Parish scored and Nobles reached second.
Unfortunately they would be stranded.
Salem tied it with a home run and went in front 2-1 with a run scoring double in the bottom of the second.
The Lady Greyhounds added a run in the third and another on a sacrifice fly in the fourth and led 4-1.
Farrah Stringer walked to lead off the Lady Bearcat fifth and moved to third on a single by Ellie Smith. She scored on a ground ball by Presley Walker to make it 4-2.
The Lady Bearcats committed four errors in the bottom of the sixth but Makinley Ensey managed to limit the damage to a single run that made it 5-2, giving her team a chance.
Stringer reached on a Salem error to open the seventh and after Caroline Diffee singled, Smith had her second base hit and it was 5-3 but that was as close as it would get.
The loss forces the Lady Bearcats to say goodbye to four seniors in Tillery, Stringer, Smith, and Shelbie Myers who played all the way through graduation day.
