MONTGOMERY – Finishing as one of the top eight softball teams in the state’s 1A classification must be considered a success, but Maplesville wanted more.

The Red Devils on Thursday lost their first two games in the state tournament—8-5 to Waterloo and 8-6 to Ariton—despite a belief they were more prepared than last season, when largely the same group of girls endured the same result at state.

—

Heather Chambers: 5/8, 2B, 3 R (two games)

Katlyn Freeman: 3/8, 2B, 2 R

Courtney Killingsworth: 3/7, BB, RBI

“We told them that’s two years in a row we had a bad showing,” coach Ashlie Harrison said. “We didn’t want them to be satisfied with being in the top eight.”

Harrison blamed the losses, both of which could have gone either way, on a lack of focus by her Devils (24-11).

Maplesville committed 11 errors in the first game, and each of Waterloo’s eight runs was the result of those errors.

MHS cut the deficit to 6-5 with two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, but Waterloo answered with two runs of its own in the top of the seventh to put the game away.

It was Maplesville taking an early lead in its second game of the day at Lagoon Park in Montgomery.

Kortisha Morrow led off the game with a home run over the fence in left-center field, and the Devils scored five runs on four hits (all singles) and two Ariton errors in the top of the third inning for a 6-1 edge.

But the Purple Cats scored three runs in the fourth and four in the fifth to take an 8-6 lead that would turn out to be the final margin.

Maplesville junior pitcher Courtney Killingsworth and senior catcher Heather Chambers singled with two outs in the final frame to get the game-tying run on base, but Ariton pitcher Haley Goodson induced a fielder’s choice to end Maplesville’s season.

Killingsworth, a junior, suffered the loss in both games.