After his Chandler Lady Lions won the 66 Conference fastpitch tournament at the end of August, head coach Bryan Herring was asked how good his team could be.
“As good as they want to be,” he said. He gave the same answer again Thursday after they swept Alva in their Super Regional to earn a berth in this week’s Class 3A state tournament.
“Like I said before, the ceiling for them is as high as they want to set it,” he said. “They can be as good as they want to be.”
They were plenty good in the Super Regional, pulling out a 1-0 win in the first of the best-of-three series and winning the second game, 8-1. Now 34-5 and ranked No. 5 in the state, they play fourth-seeded Lindsay at 10 a.m. Thursday on OG&E Field at the Hall of Fame complex in Oklahoma City. With a win, they’ll play in the semifinals at 11 a.m. Friday on the same field. The state finals will be 11 a.m. Saturday. It will the Lady Lions’ first trip to state since 2016, when they brought home to the state championship.
Herring said Chandler has built its game on pitching and defense this season, and that certainly showed in the Super Regional. Starting pitcher Kennedy Allen held the Lady Bugs scoreless until their final at-bat in the second game and was in a jam in only one inning.
That was the fourth inning of the first game, a scoreless tie at that point. Alva had runners at the corners with one out and later at second and third with two out, but the Lady Lions worked out of the spot.
“You could feel the momentum shift, you could feel the excitement on the defensive side,” Herring said of the fourth inning. “And that’s what we’ve preached to these girls since the end of May, the first of June: what’s going to