The Lady Eagle softball team will play in the Regional Semifinals at Abilene Christian University this weekend against the Azle Lady Hornets. The team earned the Regional Quarterfinal championship against El Paso Chapin last weekend.

They won the first two games, with scores of 1-0 on Friday and 7-5 on Saturday. This is the first season since 2008 that the team has advanced to the semi-final round and their first time since moving to 4A.

First-year head coach Nicole Coffee credits her success to her determined players.

“This is my first year to be a head coach, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” Coffee said. “This year has definitely been a learning process for me, but I credit my success to learning from our mistakes and building on the good things we have accomplished throughout the season.”

Coffee said the “little things” from here on out are going to win games.

“Our approach to every game is always the same,” Coffee said. “We are really focusing on our offensive game this weekend and making sure we make the right adjustments to ensure we can get ahead and take the momentum early on.”

Freshman pitcher Brynn Owen said she knew that El Paso Chapin was a great offensive team.

“I went into the game focused and determined to hit my spots,” Owen said. “We were the visiting team, so we scored two runs before the other team did, which helped my mindset going in to pitch the first inning. There was little pressure because I knew my defense would back me up, even though we were playing a great offensive team.”

Freshman Dakota Newsom said she had confidence that her team would advance this far into playoffs.

“Setting goals and working hard made it easy to advance this far into playoffs,” Newsom said. “When we are on the field we play for each other, not for ourselves.”