In the bottom of the ninth inning with bases loaded, the Loreauville Lady Tigers softball team found themselves trailing Iota by just one run.

With zero outs and the winning runs already on base, most people would’ve expected Loreauville to come away with the win. Unfortunately for the Lady Tigers, back-to-back strikeouts followed by an infield fly meant a loss in the last game of the regular season.

Head coach Jude Dugas said the loss comes down to untimely performances despite the team’s favorable ninth inning position.

“If you tell me that the bases are loaded with no outs and I’ve got (batters) two, three, and four coming up, I’m going to take that situation 1,000% of the time,” he said. “My message was that it was just an untimely thing, not getting the timely hit. That’s part of the game, it’s going to happen, but if you’d have asked me if I would want that situation I would’ve wanted it 1,000% of the time.”

The Lady Tigers gave up runs early to the visiting Iota team, conceding twice in the first inning and three times in the second. Starting pitcher Saydi Landry made way for Alyssa Soileau in the second inning, with Soileau going to work to quickly settle the rattled Lady Tiger defense.

“Alyssa has thrown a lot of innings for us, and she threw the full seven for us on Monday, so the plan was to give her a break,” explained Dugas. “We kind of struggled early on, but like I said it’s just untimely things. Alyssa came in and competed, she battled, and she always does. She’s a competitor, and you’re going to get that every time that she goes out there.”

Loreauville took a while to get going offensively, but found their rhythm by the fifth inning, tying the score 5-5. A double play by Soileau managed to curb the momentum the Iota team had begun building, allowing Loreauville to deny the Lady Bulldogs any runs until the ninth inning.

“That was huge because they were on first and third with one out, so they could’ve done a lot of damage there so that double play was huge,” said Dugas.

Despite the loss, the 16-18 Lady Tigers are battle-tested against some of the best teams in the state, something Dugas said will make his team dangerous in the playoffs.

“I feel like we’re ready,” he said Wednesday night. “Everything that we’ve seen this season, from the competition to these kinds of games, I really feel like we’re ready to compete with anybody. We’ve seen everything that we could possibly see, we’ve been in six or seven one-run games. This team has a lot of grit and fight in them, and I think that they’re going to be very scary come playoffs.”

The official playoff seedings were released on Thursday, though Dugas had an idea of where his team would fall following their last regular-season game.

“I think we’ll be 12 or 13, so it’s just survive and advance now,” he said. “That’s what it’s about.”

Loreauville celebrated Senior Night against Iota, celebrating two players as well as the team manager. The seniors honored were Malory Segura, Anna Broome and Tessie Segura.