SULPHUR — For five innings, the Delcambre Lady Panthers appeared ready for the first championship game in school history in softball.

But the South Cameron Lady Tarpons aren’t defending state champions for nothing.

SC’s Shelby Willis hit a two-run homer in the sixth to tie the score and Kelsy Mudd gave the Lady Tarpons the lead with a two-RBI single in the seventh, and South Cameron held off a two-out rally from Delcambre in the bottom of the seventh inning to advance to the state finals against Hanson with a 5-4 win.

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“We kept hitting the ball, but it took us until the end of the game to get it out of the infield,” said South Cameron coach Laura Reeves. “Delcambre has a solid defense and if we want to win against Hanson in the finals, we needed to make those adjustments earlier.”

South Cameron played Hanson, a 5-2 winner over Oberlin in the other semifinal, in the Class A state championship game Saturday night.

True to a team that wouldn’t die however, Delcambre came close to pulling off the win.

Trailing 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh, the Lady Panthers had runners on second and third with two out when South Cameron’s catcher dropped a third strike that allowed Kellie Nero to reach first and Kellie Romero to score to cut the lead to 5-4 while Teirrany Peltier ran all the way to third base.

Kaitlin Grossie followed with a shot to the left side but shortstop Haley McCall came up with the ball and fired to nip Grossie at first base for the final out as Peltier raced home with what would have been the game-tying run.

“That’s the signature of our year, we don’t do things the easy way,” said DHS coach Mark Suire, whose team finished 28-7 overall and one game short of the championship game for the second straight year. “Most of the time it’s worked out for us. We were down two going into our last at-bat and the team refused to quit again.

“We made it to the end of the game with runners in scoring position. Kaitlin comes up and hit the ball well for us. All we can do if ask them to do their best and hope for the best.

“I really feel like if you are going to lose, it’s better to lose when you are playing your best as opposed to giving you opponent the game. In the end they made the play that counted.”

For most of the game, it appeared that Delcambre would make the plays that counted.

After giving up a run to South Cameron in the top of the first inning, the Lady Panthers came right back in the bottom of the frame when Jenny Bouillion reached on one SC error and scored all the way from first base two batters later on another South Cameron error.

Delcambre grabbed the lead one inning later as Linzy Landry hit an RBI double and Jaci Trahan had an RBI single.

“I wasn’t worried after going down a run because I told the kids that one run can never beat you,” said Suire. “If you don’t score, you don’t win anyway. One run is not the end of the world.

“But I like the way they responded. We hit the ball well and got the lead and when you have a 3-1 lead with six outs left, you have to feel pretty good about it.”

With the lead, Trahan and the Delcambre defense held the Lady Tarpons in check until the sixth inning when Mudd led off with a double. Two outs later and a runner on third, Willis crushed a Trahan pitch over the center field wall to tie the game 3-3.

“I knew that we weren’t going to have success against Delcambre bunting the ball,” said Reeves. “So I told my hitters to swing away and we hit a home run.”

South Cameron again swung away in the top of the seventh and with two-out and runners on second and third, Mudd singles to center to score two runs to give the Lady Tarpons a 5-3 lead.

“That home run changed the game,” said Suire. “If we get that out then they only have three outs left and it totally changes the complexion of the game.”

The Lady Panthers came right back in the bottom of the inning.

Jenny Moneaux hit a one-out single. Two batters later Regan Broussard added a two-out single and both were lifted for pinch runners. Nero reached on the dropped third strike that scored Romero but McCall made the play on the ground ball to end the threat, the game and Delcambre’s season.

“We’ll make the finals. It’ll come,” said Suire. “We’re a relatively young program and we’re still improving every day. I don’t think that anybody gave this group a chance after what we graduated last year.

“As long as those people inside the dugout believe in what we are doing, they’ll be back.

“Any group of 15 young people that can bring a whole community 100 miles is special. We’ve give the parents something that they can be proud of and the kids deserve a lot of credit for that.”