PRATT — With a pair of wins on Monday, the Hoisington High School softball team will advance to the Class 4A regional tournament championship game on Wednesday.
The Lady Cardinals, the No. 3 seed, beat No. 6-seeded Nickerson 4-1 in round one. They defeated Colby 8-6 to advance to Wednesday’s game against undefeated Pratt at 5:30 p.m.
“We’re right where we wanted to be at this point,” Hoisington head coach Lee Van Scyoc said. “We had our backs against the wall in the second game, but we were able to pull one out.”
Against Nickerson, senior pitcher Bailey Barnard went seven innings, giving up two hits and no earned runs. Nickerson scored on an error.
The Lady Cardinals (16-6) struggled in the first inning against Colby.
“We started out in the first inning with two or three mistakes that allowed them to score three runs,” Van Scyoc said. “We battled it back and battled it back. We had the bases loaded with no outs and we didn’t score, and I got a little worried.
“But we kept them scoreless and we scored four runs in one inning to take a 4-3 lead.”
Colby scored a run in the bottom of the fourth inning to tie the game at four.
Hoisington scored four runs to lead 8-4, and Colby scored one run in the sixth and one in the seventh to make it 8-6.

Lady Indians fall in second round
PRATT — Larned upset the No. 4-seeded Hugoton in the opening round of a 4A regional softball tournament before falling to No. 1 seed Pratt on Monday.
The Lady Indians beat Hugoton 7-2 to advance to a second round game against Pratt, a 9-3 loss.
Emily Lucas was the winning pitcher in the first game for Larned, which ends the season at 9-11.
Shay Shephard recorded the loss against Pratt.

CLASS 4A BASEBALL
Larned falls against Pratt
PRATT — The Larned Indians fell 8-3 in the opening round of a Class 4A regional tournament on Monday.
In spite of the season-ending loss, Larned head coach Chad Erway said his team played well.
“We were ahead until the fourth inning,” Erway said. “We went up 3-0 before they tied it up and got ahead. For the young team that we have, it was a progression. We have four freshman and four sophomores.
“We got better as the season went on. We didn’t have many errors. Easton (Palmer) pitched well. I was proud of them.”
The Indians (3-16) took the lead early. Tyler Stelter, Brady Keith and Brayden Smith each recorded an RBI. Palmer pitched six innings and recorded the loss.

Kingman proves too much
for Hoisington
KINGMAN — Hoisington fell into a 5-0 hole after one inning and couldn’t dig its way out as the Kingman Eagles won 12-2 in six innings.
The Cardinals finish the season at 9-12.
Kingman advances to the semifinal round, which will be held on Wednesday at Hoisington, the host of the regional tournament.

                                                           — Kevin Price