Hewitt Midway Sweeps Tyler Lee In Softball Bi-District Round

TYLER -- Tyler Lee's breakthrough season ended Friday at Faulkner Park with losses of 11-0 and 9-0 to No. 18 Hewitt Midway in the bi-district round of the Class 6A playoffs.

Despite the lopsided score, there are plenty of reasons for Lady Raiders fans to be optimistic about the future of the program.

Their team clinched a postseason berth for the first time in four years. Before that, it clawed late in the season to force a fourth-place district playoff game against Lakeview Centennial.

"It's a huge achievement for our kids to be here playing in the postseason," Lee head coach Maggie Stephenson said. "With us being such a young team, this is great experience for our underclassmen. We have a ton of sophomores that started in our lineup. Just moving forward to next year with our kids, playing a high pressure game in the playoffs is only going to work to our favor in the coming years."

Makenn Aycock threw 201 pitches through the two games and helped Tyler Lee push Midway the distance in Game 2 of the series at Faulkner Park. (Mark Martin, ETSN.fm)

Midway (22-4), by contrast, has not missed the playoffs since 1992. It looked the part of a serious state contender.

Starting pitchers, Morgan Ling and ace Chandlar Coskrey, combined for a no-hitter through 12 innings of play, including a six-inning Game 1 called on the 10-run rule. The team's defense recorded 18 put outs behind the outstanding efforts in the circle.

Ling allowed four total base runners in the first game, and two of the Lady Raiders' runners reached on defensive errors.

Coskrey picked up where Ling left off. She allowed one walk through the first six innings of her outing.

Yet senior Lee captain Makenna Aycock, a Hill College signee, made Midway work all the way through Game 2 despite opening the game with her 100th pitch of the evening.

An especially nice 201-pitch parting gift for the young team, considering Midway worked its way to a 9-0 lead through three innings and needed just one score in the fifth or sixth innings to clinch the series with another mercy rule win.

Sophomore Chelsea Robinson broke up the combined no-hitter with a two-out single in the top of the seventh inning.

"That just shows that our team is getting better and we're tougher now, mentally, than we've ever been," Stephenson said. "In the past, we would have folded after one sign of them beating us down. We would have given up.

"Our team this year, we showed heart and fought through every bit of adversity we've faced. That's how our program is going to be moving forward."

Midway jumped ahead in the opening game with an RBI triple from Taylor Ellis. Sophie Wideman's two-run homer in the third inning gave the club breathing room, and it tacked on three more runs in the fifth before earning the victory with five scores in the bottom sixth.

Macey Mize hit a three-run homer and Wideman tallied her second long ball of the game en route to the win in Game 2.

Midway recorded three base hits in the final three innings. Lee managed to work out of those situations.

The Lady Raiders will return 11 of 15 letter winners next season, including eight players that started through the two postseason games.

"Our team was a tight-knit group of girls," Stpehenson said. "Especially the seniors. It's tough for this season to end for us. Our seniors are going to be missed. But the way we've come together, through the last two weeks, we really played as one. To see us fight and secure a playoff spot for the first time in four years was huge. I'm very proud."

Tyler Lee's Chelsea Robinson slides safely into second base for a successful stolen base in the second game of Friday's playoff double header. (Mark Martin, ETSN.fm)