Sports Texoma

The other three semifinalists were all in their first appearances on the high school game’s biggest stage, but the Lady Bobcats had nearly half their lineup in a familiar position as one of the final four teams standing.

Experience wasn’t going to be the deciding factor, but it played a huge part as Celina defeated Longview Spring Hill, 4-1, in a Class 3A state semifinal game at McCombs Field on Friday morning.

Celina (37-5) will face Needville (33-8) for the state championship at 2 p.m. on Saturday at McCombs Field. Needville defeated Gatesville, 2-1, in the other semifinal on Thursday night.

Facing crucial situations throughout the game, the Lady Bobcats were ready at every turn to make a play while Longview Spring Hill (29-9) looked to be dealing with a case of nerves.

“Maybe a little because I have four seniors who have been here before and the one in the circle really counts,” Celina head coach Billy Coleman said.

Senior pitcher Kylie Roos has been in this spot before, getting her team to the title game as Aubrey’s ace in 2007. She worked out of two jams while her offense gave her an early lead.

Brittanie Knowles started a two-out rally in the bottom of the third inning with a single and younger sister Lindsie followed with a triple to right-center. Roos smacked a single to right and Celina had a 2-0 advantage.

“Those two runs weren’t enough of a cushion,” Brittanie Knowles said. “We knew we had to keep pushing runs across.”

Celina added a run in the fourth on a groundout to second by Kaitlyn Drummond and another in the fifth when Brittanie Knowles was hit by a pitch to start the inning and eventually scored on Roos’ sacrifice fly to right.

“We just try to bunch runs together,” Brittanie Knowles said. “We have a whole lineup that can hit and it’s my job to start it off.”

Knowles was one of those seniors who made it to state as freshmen when the Lady Bobcats lost in the semifinals.

“I was kind of taken with the atmosphere,” she said. “We had a talk with our team to get them ready, especially the freshmen.”

Spring Hill had only two hits but threatened with each one. Kayla Williams had a lead-off triple in the fourth but Roos wriggled out of trouble by retiring the next three in order.

In the sixth, the Lady Panthers finally broke through but missed an opportunity to really cause some damage.

Shannon Peters, who reached base in all three at-bats, led off with a single and Roos issued back-to-back one-out walks, on a total of nine pitches, to load the bases. Lizzie Autrey grounded out to short to drive in a run before Sha’ McDowell flew out to left to end the inning.

“Getting out of that jam was huge,” Coleman said. “It totally killed their rally. We’ll always trade a run for an out with a 4-0 lead.”

Spring Hill went in order in the seventh and the smiles in the Celina dugout stuck around for another day.

“We didn’t come down here just to be happy,” Coleman said. “We came down here to win state."