Lady Hawks tie for fifth at national tournament after 6-5 win vs. NEO and 11-3 loss to Lake Land

Friday was another long day of softball filled with highs and lows for Howard College. After starting the day off with a 6-5 victory over No. 6 seed Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (NEO), the Lady Hawks’ run for the national championship ended with an 11-3 loss against No. 11 seed Lake Land College.

“Our game against NEO was definitely a hard fought battle,” said head softball coach Kelly Raines. “I saw a lot from our team as far as toughness goes, and they never gave up."

“We kind of ran out of gas in our last game. If we were to play them on a new day, I feel that the game would have been a lot better and might have been a different outcome,” said Raines. “But that is all part of it. Once you lose one game, you have to struggle to fight back through.”

“I think we surprised a lot of people at this tournament. We were the last Texas team standing and we really represented well,” said Raines. “I am just so proud of this group, how they have developed all year long, how hard they played and how they finished.”

For full game coverage and more information on this story, please see Sunday's paper.