Finding a “way to finish” made the difference for the Logan County Lady Cougars when they put their past behind them and moved on the Fourth Region softball tournament late this spring.

“We had kept finding ways to lose, but this time we found a way to win,” said Coach Michael Crawford after his Ladies pulled off the upset over homestanding Todd Central in the opening round of the 13^th District Tournament. “We had been in position to win at Todd during the regular season, but let it slip away as we had done so often during the regular season.

Crawford, who had been an assistant football coach for the Cougars for four years before taking over the softball program this year, thinks the actual turning point came a couple weeks earlier at Hart County. The Lady Cougars led 2-0 going into the final inning, but gave up a run. Hart had the tying and winning runs in scoring position.

“Their batter hit a ground ball that usually would have turned a win into a loss for us,” Crawford remembers. “But Shelby (pitcher Shelby Milam) fielded the ball, looked the runner back at third and got the out. Then Lindsey (shortstop Lindsey Ezell) made a huge throw and we won our first close game of the year.”

That started a streak in which Logan won five games after having won just three games in the first six weeks. The regular season ended with another close win (7-6) over that same Hart County team.

Crawford praises the senior leadership of Alicia Croft, Cheyenne Bilicki and Ezell for getting his team working together toward the same goals. Sophomore Victoria Cates is a vocal leader who also contributes her share on both offense and defense as the catcher. She is half of a young battery. Milam is a sophomore and number two pitcher Meagan Ferguson an eighth grader.

Milam pitched the 9-2 win over Todd in the district. Then late that night Crawford called on Ferguson to pitch against Franklin-Simpson in the finals. She held the Lady Cats to one run for six innings.

The three seniors and Cates started both games on that long night of the district tournament, Croft at second, Ezell at shortstop and Bilicki at first. In the win, Rebecca Dezarn, Jonique Smith and Rachel Palmgren were the outfielders, Madison Abbott the third baseman, Megan Griggs the designated player and Laura Hunt the courtesy runner.

In addition to Ferguson, Taylor Borders, Shelby Browning and Hunt were in the starting lineup for the second game.

Named to the all-district honor squad were Ezell, Croft and Abbott.

“We were in a lot of games all season and kept having that one bad inning. At the end of the season, I saw evidence that we were learning how to stop that,” Crawford said.

“We also had a lot of fun. We're going to work hard during the offseason and build on what we accomplished this year. We lost our voice in those three seniors, but 14 girls return who will have a chance to step up and fill those roles,” says Crawford, whose previous experience in coaching girls came as head track coach for three years at Lone Oak High School. He also was an assistant in girls basketball one season.

Assisting in coaching the Lady Cougar softball team this season were ROTC instructor Joe Brockman and Olmstead staff member Jessica Lunger.