Nine days after falling 11-1 to Columbia on the road, it was Warren County softball’s turn to welcome the Lady Lions to McMinnville Thursday evening. After a close start, a four-run top of the sixth inning ultimately cost the Lady Pioneers on the way to a 5-2 district loss.

“We just didn’t make the plays. That’s been the story all year. We’ve gotta make plays. If we want to win games, we’ve gotta go take them. We can’t just let them fall to us,” Warren County coach Jerry Martin said. “Our girls didn’t do a good job of taking it tonight. I thought (Ceilee Gudat) did a good job in the circle tonight, gave us a chance to win, but we just didn’t take it when we had opportunities. (Columbia) scores four runs with two outs, somehow, some way, we’ve got to get an out and get out of that inning.”

The Lady Lions got on the board early, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first and remaining up by a run through the first four innings.

Leading off the bottom of the fifth with Warren County still looking to answer, Cortlyn Porter knocked a fly ball to center field and reached first base on an error to get the inning started. Two at-bats and two outs later, Ky Damon came to the plate. After Porter stole second, Damon sent a line drive to center and brought her teammate home to tie the game at 1-1.

The Lady Pioneers went on to open the sixth inning by forcing a pop out and a ground out on the first two Columbia at bats, but began to unravel from there. Columbia answered with a pair of singles, which was followed by the go-ahead run on the next at bat. The Lady Lions continued to push ahead from there and finished the top of the inning up 5-1.

In the bottom of the sixth, Warren County was able to cut the Columbia lead to three when a Kyaira Sharpe single allowed pinch runner Kaidence Crouch to score with two outs.

The Lady Pioneers continued to have chances as the bottom of the seventh inning got under way, quickly putting runners on first and second and bringing the tying run to the plate. The next three at bats resulted in a fly out, a ground out and a pop out to bring the game to a close.

“We’ve just gotta make plays. I think all the top four teams are even, but you’ve just gotta make plays when it’s your opportunity,” Martin said. “We haven’t done that this year against the good teams.”

Warren County finished the game with six hits, led by Damon with two. Sharpe, Lola Wells, Ceilee Gudat and Ali Young each added one.

Damon and Sharpe each had one RBI for a team total of two.

Gudat pitched the first six innings and came out of the circle with four strikeouts, 10 hits, five runs and two walks. Sharpe followed in the top of the seventh and added one strikeout and one hit.