The Lakeland Lady Hawks (16-14) advanced from the district championship series against the Moscow Lady Bears to the state tournament in Post Falls, Idaho. 

The tournament took place on May 20-21, and Lakeland finished fourth overall, earning their first state trophy since 2013. 

The Lady Hawks dropped game one of their trip to state to Bishop Kelly, (13-3). After this opening loss, Lakeland had to play two elimination games on the same day. The Hawks won the first game against Pocatello and advanced to play Blackfoot. 

When asked about the tournament, freshman Alexis Hanna said, “It was a very emotional way to end the season, and we are going to miss the seniors a lot. It will be hard next season after losing all these very talented seniors. Haylee Smit’s pitching was awesome, and she definitely knows exactly what she’s doing out there. Once we settled in with the adrenaline, we had the time of our lives.” 

The Lady Hawks advanced to play Saturday against Vallivue, and after a hard-fought battle in which Lakeland outhit the Lady Falcons, Vallivue won 3-2 to take third place, giving Lakeland a fourth-place trophy and just their third trophy since switching to 4A. 

“As a team, that is the best we have played. We fought hard and left everything on the field, although it would have been cool to keep growing together. I think we have a bright future ahead of us despite losing some of the key factors to our success. We definitely have some big shoes to fill, but I would say from 1-10. I feel like we have about a 6.5 going into next season to do better than this season,” said sophomore Payton Sterling. 

“My favorite moment from the tournament was when Olivia tagged a girl running to second, which lit a spark that led to us coming back, and that play was a huge part of why we were able to stay in it,” Sterling added.