Decatur had its hands full all game against sophomore pitcher Brookelyn Taylor and the Liberty Panthers as the Eagles’ state run ended in the UIL Class 4A semifinals 9-1 on Thursday at McCombs Field in Austin.
Liberty (37-8), the two-time defending Class 4A champ, will go for a three peat when the Panthers play in the title game at 10 am Saturday against the winner of Thursday night’s game between Aubrey and Corpus Christi Calallen.
Decatur was making the trip to state for the first time since 2019 and third overall.
The Eagles end the season 30-9-1.
Taylor (26-4) allowed four hits, one run, two walks and struck out five.
Her offense came through with a five-run inning in the third.
After Taylor and Decatur senior ace pitcher Macey Jones (19-5) went toe to toe through the first two innings, the Panthers got a lead off double in the third from Bryana Pantalion. Bailee Slack laid down a bunt to short and stole second to put runners in scoring position and no outs.
Jones got a liner from Reese Evans for the first out and then Hollie Thomas hit a three run home run to deep left to give Liberty a 3-0 lead. Alex Wiley came up next and hit a double to the right center wall.
Liberty made it four consecutive hits when Kylee Bishop hit a two run double to left field and Wiley and Abby Vickers scored to push the margin to 5-0.
Jones got out of the inning with her third strikeout of the game.
Jones finished with six strikeouts, three walks and eight earned runs on 14 hits. She is a big reason why Decatur made it this far.
The Eagles lost Game 1 of the Class 4A Region 1 final last weekend against Burkburnett before winning two on Saturday 7-0 and 6-0 to clinch their state berth. Jones threw 14 innings, allowed zero runs and struck out 17 total batters on the day.
Jones will continue her softball career at Texas A&M International in Laredo.
Decatur got its first base runner of the game with a two out walk to Chayse Freeman in the fourth, but Taylor kept the Eagles scoreless. After the Panthers added two in the bottom of the fourth inning, Madi Moreland single to left to break up Taylor’s no hit bid in the top of the fifth. But again, the Eagles couldn’t drive in a run.
Ryanne Murphree got Decatur’s second hit for the Eagles in the top of the sixth followed by a walk to Freeman to put two on and one out. Taylor got a fielder’s choice to make it runners on the corners and two outs before getting a pop fly to right that ended the scoring threat.
Slack hit a lead off homer to deep right in the bottom of the sixth to push Liberty’s lead to 8-0 and then the Panthers went up 9-0 after six with an RBI single from Thomas.
The Eagles did manufacture their only run in the top of the seventh to avoid the shutout. Madi Moreland hit a one out double to center and Macy Helton followed with a single to left. With runners on the corners and one out, Madi Davis laid down a punt back to Taylor and Moreland scored.
“That’s the thing with these girls especially in the playoffs, our point of emphasis has been to be mentally strong and have grit and they showed it all through playoffs and honestly we showed it off today too,” Decatur coach Bryan Chaney said.
“We ran into a pretty good team. They were good and they put those balls in play. The fact we were here, kept it from being a run rule, got one across, they fought to the very end and that’s all I can ask for and I’m very proud of them.”
Liberty also won a state title in 2018.
The Panthers improved to 7-0 at the state tournament.
Meanwhile, Decatur dropped to 0-3 at state.
The Eagles lost to Anna in the semis in 2019 and to Splendora in 2002.
Chaney will graduate five seniors, Jones, Helton, Kenna Chaney, Nelly Rodriguez and Freeman.
