Lake Creek is rarely tested on the softball field. That has been the case the previous two seasons as the Lions won a pair of Class 5A state championships. This season, for the most part, had been no different.

Until Friday.

Forced to a decisive Game 3 in its Region III-5A semifinal series against Foster, Lake Creek dominated 9-1 in eliminating the Falcons at Cypress Ranch High and earning a fourth consecutive trip to the regional finals.

The Lions (34-7) play Lake Belton next week with a third straight state tournament appearance at stake. Foster, in the regional semifinals for the first time since 2018, closed an outstanding season at 34-7-1.

“I still don’t think we’ve played our best softball yet, but this is just a gritty team,” Lake Creek coach Candyce Carter said. “We’ve worked hard, we’ve trusted the process, we’ve stuck with the plan and the girls found a way to push through and execute. I saw a lot of growth in them over this series, and that was really great.”

After winning Game 1, 8-6, in eight innings in dramatic comeback fashion Wednesday, Lake Creek fell 5-3 in Game 2 earlier Friday.

Foster outhit Lake Creek, 10-6, in Game 2, which featured a 71-minute lightning delay. Senior shortstop and Arkansas signee Ella McDowell, ranked No. 3 nationally, was phenomenal, going 3-for-3 with a double and a solo home run.

Lake Creek took the bat out of McDowell’s hands following that fifth-inning bomb. McDowell was intentionally walked in each of her next five at-bats spanning Games 2 and 3.

The three runs scored in Game 2 were the fewest the Lions had scored in a game this season since a loss March 22 against A&M Consolidated.

Unable to get much of anything going at the plate in Game 2, things changed for Lake Creek early in Game 3 on junior Chesney Davis’s two-out, two-run single in the first inning for a 2-0 lead.

The Lions never relinquished the lead.

“It felt nice to get on top early and settle the nerves a bit,” Davis said.

The two runs were enough for Lake Creek sophomore ace Sara Wiggins, who threw all eight innings of the Lions’ Game 1 win.

Wiggins authored another complete-game effort, this one in seven innings, and allowed one unearned run on two hits while striking out three and walking seven.

“I’d pitched to them before, so I knew their weaknesses and pitched more to outs than strikeouts,” said Wiggins, whose dropball was an effective pitch all night long.

Foster senior ace Sophie Brammer, who threw five innings of three-hit relief ball to rally the Falcons back to win Game 2, fought through another 4⅓ innings of Game 3 before exhaustion bit.

Brammer allowed five runs on nine hits in Game 3, striking out three and walking two.

“We went in knowing she’d want to come at us like she has, and we had to fight and bring it right back at her,” Davis said. “At some point, pitchers kind of break down, and that was just kind of our goal.”

Lake Creek pounded out 12 hits in Game 3. Foster had only two as leadoff hitter McDowell was rendered ineffective.

Five Lions (Davis, Wiggins, sophomore Madalyn Davis, and seniors Carmen Uribe and Piper White) had two hits apiece. Chesney Davis had three RBIs.

Senior Alyson Higginbotham had a grand slam in the seventh inning for her third home run in seven playoff games.

“In is my pitch right now,” Higginbotham said. “But that last one was outside, and I haven’t really hit an outside pitch well. But I got my hands through that one pretty good.”

This Lake Creek team looks considerably different despite returning four starters from last year’s champion.

There is no marquee name like Ava Brown (Florida), Maddie McKee (LSU) or Kalee Rochinski (UTSA) dotting the roster. Everything is more by committee.

Carter, in her first year as head coach after being an assistant last year, is anxiously awaiting when Lake Creek puts it all together — hitting, pitching, defense, baserunning.

“It’s not a bad thing that we haven’t played our best softball yet,” Carter said. “Every day, we take a step towards it.”

Every game, the Lions fight for it.

“We definitely have something to prove when we step on the field,” Higginbotham said. “Winning earns what we deserve. We earned what we got the last two years, and this year is nothing different.”