When you’re hot, you’re hot. The Mansfield Lady Tigers were more than hot leading up to their District Semifinal game against the Lavaca Lady Golden Arrows. Mansfield had scored 43 points in their first two games, defeating Cossatot 20-2 and Charleston 23-13. With fire shooting out of the batters box like that, it’d be hard to think they could be slowed down. But there’s a flip side to the saying “when you’re hot, you’re hot” and that’s “when you’re not, you’re not”. The Mansfield Lady Tigers were on the not side when they took on top-seeded Lavaca as the Lady Golden Arrows doused Mansfield’s bats with some fire hose pitching as Mansfield was left smoldering with an 11-1 loss.
Lavaca shut down the Lady Tigers’ previous scoring spree right off the bat by starting with a three-up three-down to send Mansfield back into the dugout. The Lady Golden Arrows then flexed their batting muscles by bringing in a pair of runs against Mansfield to set the score at 2-0 Lavaca to close the opening inning. Daisy Nelson started the second inning with a walk to get Mansfield on base and was followed up by Ambria Whittaker who drilled a line drive into center field to put runners on first and second base. Trinity Triska was snagged out by Lavaca, but the hit allowed Nelson to steal third. Ashlynn Whittaker popped an infield hit to shortstop that was caught for an out but gave Nelson an opening for the score. The Lady Tigers were bumped off the field by a strikeout to end the top of the second inning with Mansfield down by a 2-1 score. Mansfield then took a card out of Lavaca’s book with a fast out by Daisy Nelson to first baseman Bailey Quick. Then Kamryn Infalt struck a Lady Golden Arrow out, then a strikeout to set the Lady Tigers up with two defensive outs against Lavaca. Infalt allowed two Lavaca players to reach bases before earning the third and final out of the inning with a three count of strikes.
The top of the third inning saw Abby Smith up first to bat and she didn’t disappoint as Smith took one ball then smashed a pop fly over first base to get on base. That was as good as the Lady Tigers would get though as Lavaca chopped down the next three at bats for Mansfield. The Lady Tigers defense dropped the first Lady Golden Arrow at bat, but Lavaca popped a bombing home run on the next at bat to push the Lady Golden Arrows’ lead to 3-1. Mansfield was down but still held on to their two outs in the bottom of the third inning and none other than senior, Trinity Triska, caught the next sky hit to end the third inning. The Lady Tigers started the fourth inning by striking out, then being walked to first base by Lavaca’s pitcher. Trinity Triska hit a grounder to second and made it to first base, but the hit was snagged by Lavaca’s second baseman who tagged out Ambria Whittaker. Lavaca again snatched a Lady Tigers hit to chalk up a third out for Mansfield and sent Lavaca back up to bat with a 3-1 lead going into the top of the fourth. The Lady Tigers couldn’t hold Lavaca’s bats at bay though as the Lady Golden Arrows went on a five run streak in the fourth inning to set the tone for the remainder of the game. Mansfield couldn’t keep pace with the top-seeded Lady Golden Arrows in the fifth inning as the Lady Tigers fell 11-1 in the five-inning semifinal game.
The Lady Tigers’ loss put Mansfield at a 13-7 overall record for the season thus far, but did not end their 2025 season. The Lady Tigers will enter the 3A Regional Tournament on May 8th in Lincoln. Once the 3A-4 District Tournament is complete, the Lady Tigers will find out their seeding for Regionals along with their first-round opponent. If Mansfield can get their bats lined up again, they could wind up being a tough out for any team in the Regional Tournament.
