Even though the Pike Liberal Arts softball team was the last team to get into the state tournament thanks to a victory in a play-in game, the Patriots made its presence felt this past weekend.

Despite suffering a set back in Friday’s first game, an 11-1 loss to Kingwood Christian School, PLAS was able to win out the rest of Friday’s games and in the process advance to the AAA Final Four on Saturday morning.

In that game, the Patriots met a familiar foe in Lee-Scott, a team that had beaten PLAS both times in the regular season.

And like the regular season results, the postseason result was the same, as the Patriots were downed, 2-1.

“It was a good season,” head coach Mendy Avant said Monday afternoon.

“The team went through its struggles this season, but they hung in there and played together and that is a big reason why we went further than most people expected.”

The Patriots’ final record for the 2010 season was 21-8.

After taking a 1-0 lead in the inning, the PLAS bats were unable to do so the rest of the game.

Lee-Scott tied things up in the bottom of the third, after a Kailee Taylor wild pitch.

The Warriors would score again in the bottom of the seventh as Lee-Scott’s Hannah Baker hit a two-out walk-off single, scoring Morgan Whitman.

Following a 13-strikeout performance on Friday, Taylor, who is an eighth grader, took the pitcher’s circle again for the Patriots and again did her best to help her team advance, striking out eight Warriors while surrendering just five hits.

Sara Richburg finished the game going 2-3 at the plate, with a single and double, while Rebecca Farrar scored the final PLAS run of the season.

As far next season, Avant said she believes her team is looking good.

“We had eighth graders playing in two of our keys positions (pitcher and catcher) and both played well,” the coach said.

“There is a lot of success next year’s team can work off of.”