The 22-6 Eaton Reds girls softball team battled its entire year but lost the state championship game 3-0 against the Strasburg Indians Saturday, Oct. 20 to take second place.

It was a tough loss made even more heartbreaking after having come up short against the Indians (22-5) during the state tournament last year as well. In the end, Eaton watched its 2018 season end as Strasburg claimed its second state championship in two years.

The Reds have nothing to feel sad about, however. In a combined score of all their games during playoffs, the girls racked up a total of 60 runs to their competitions’ 12 on a winning streak that led them straight to the final two games of the 3A Championship.

Early in the morning of state, the girls came out strong in the first inning against Delta, scoring 11 runs. From there, the Reds continued to trounce their opponents, holding them scoreless to take the final playoff game. After a scoreless second inning, the girls scored one run in the third inning and three more in the fourth. The final score going into the afternoon championship game was Eaton 15 Delta 0.

Two years ago, Eaton lost to Delta in the 2016 state semi-finals, so the win gave Eaton hope against beating their opponents from last year’s loss as well 

Against Strasburg, the girls had a rough start, unable to score any points and getting a mere one hit in seven innings from outfielder Remington Ross. Jennifer Jarnagin said, “We really did think we could hold them but didn’t come out with a lot of energy and didn’t piece together enough hits.”

The Indians came out the first inning scoring one run against the Reds but did not score again until the fourth. However, the Reds could not piece together enough hits to win their last game of the season. Ali Hobbs later said, “We did have a good season and I really did love playing with these girls, but we just came up short our last game.”

Coach Dale Hughes said, “This is a great group of girls and I enjoyed coaching them this year and do look forward to coaching them next year.”