AUSTIN — The Jonesboro Lady Eagles had to keep their heads up in the Class 1A state championship game and, in the end, a heads-up play won them another state title.
Jonesboro freshman rightfielder Landri McFarlin scooped a hard-hit grounder in right field and threw a dart to first baseman Kyliegh Walker for the final out, preserving the Lady Eagles’ 9-8 victory over Brookeland on Saturday at McCombs Field.
Brookeland had the tying run on third and the winning run at second with two outs, but McFarlin’s throw to Walker stopped the Lady Cats cold and started the Lady Eagles’ championship celebration.
Jonesboro let a 6-0 lead slip away earlier in the contest and eventually had to dig out of an 8-6 deficit. The Lady Eagles never lost their edge, though, even when Walker let a ground ball get by her.
“It definitely was (a game-tying hit),” Walker said about the sharp grounder hit by Brookeland’s Kaelyn Strother with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. “I believe that we pick each other up. I missed a ground ball. That’s my fault. But (McFarlin) picked it up.”
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Walker, who went 2-for-3 and drove in two runs, choked up as she described her teammate’s game-winning play. But she was soon smiling with a gold medal around her neck.
With the win, Jonesboro (19-10-1) backed up the 1A state championship the Lady Eagles won in 2024. Jonesboro defeated Neches, 3-1, for the state championship a year ago and had an even more intense final this time around.
“You’ve got so much emotions,” Jonesboro coach James Turner said. “It’s seven innings and 21 outs. You’ve got to keep it together until that final out. At one point, we had to tell them to calm down. Mistakes are going to be made. It’s how you bounce back and make the next play.”
The Lady Eagles committed two errors, gave up five walks and 11 hits. Miscues in the field helped Brookeland rally for three runs in the fourth and fifth innings to take an 8-6 lead.
But Jonesboro also made the right play a bunch of times, including in the final frame.
Lady Eagles centerfielder Adalyna Andrade threw out Brookeland’s Marley Malone at third base for the second out of the seventh. Jonesboro third baseman Ella Gustin fielded Andrade’s throw and caught Malone overrunning the bag.
That set up the McFarlin-to-Walker finisher.
“To have our rightfielder, a freshman, come up, knowing what to do with the ball to get the final out was big,” Turner said. “We practice that and they come up big.”
Gustin, the state championship game MVP, came up with the game-winning hit for the Lady Eagles in the top of the sixth. Lady Eagles baserunners Ally Thorman and Walker were at second and third when Gustin drilled a 1-0 offering into the gap in left-center field. Thorman and Walker easily scored on the play as Jonesboro regained a lead it would not relinquish this time.
Thorman, who relieved Lady Eagles starting pitcher Julie Henderson in the circle with one out in the fifth inning, shut out Brookeland in the final two frames.
Of course, she had some help from her defense.
Jonesboro was the second Central Texas softball program to claim a state title this week after Robinson won the 4A Division II crown on Friday. Midway was set to play in the 6A Division I state final versus League City Clear Springs on Saturday afternoon.