By Kevin Lonnquist
NTX Varsity Sports Columnist
DENTON – One swing from Delaney Rosser’s bat foretold how Aledo’s softball team would treat the sequel of Wednesday’s meeting with Goliath at Denton High School.
After No. 3 Melissa delivered a haymaker with three runs in the top of the first, the Lady Cats responded with a loud counterpunch. So loud that the senior shortstop’s leadoff rocket of a home run clanged off the scoreboard positioned behind the left field wall.
The Class 5A Division I State Semifinal found its narrative. This winner-take-all one-game playoff demanded its victor summon mental toughness, precise and routine and execution and to grind through emotional swings.
From an emotional two-hour battle, Aledo emerged as the mentally tougher team. The Lady Cats 5-4 victory in front of a packed house transitions into a bus ride to Austin May 29 and play for the state title at 4:00 p.m. at Red & Charline McCombs Field. Aledo (30-11) faces No. 4 Barbers Hill (39-5).
Aledo is searching for its fourth championship in history. The first three were 2008, 2014 and 2015. The program fell in the state finals in 2021.
In many media circles, the unranked Lady Cats victory would be considered a major upset. You can’t fault them for that.
The Lady Cardinals were the nation’s third-ranked team by Max Preps for a reason. They had won the 2024 and 2025 5A state titles. They flashed the gaudy numbers. They averaged nearly 14 runs per game in the playoffs. They won via the run rule in their first six contests. For the season, this lineup belted 98 home runs coming into Wednesday.
So, when Melissa opened with a crooked number in its first at bat, it likely had that business-as-usual vibe. Why not? Melissa routed Aledo in this round in 2025, 15-4. Then, these two met again in tournament play on Feb. 26. Melissa won, 5-0. Aledo only had one hit against starter Eloisa Maes, whom it faced Wednesday.
As much as Aledo’s players and head coach Heather Myers talked about respecting but not fearing Melissa and playing a clean game to have a chance, all of that would only matter if their actions justified it.
Rosser’s answer cut it to 3-1, lit the fuse and set the tone.
“She’s got the most experience, and she’s leading as well,’’ Myers said of Rosser. “She’s the only senior who made varsity as a freshman and started. I’m so proud of her.’’
Aledo now believed it could stay in this game. Only Melissa knows how it felt after Rossers blast. It’s possible that program’s dugout felt the temperature change too. It would have to fight for this one.
Melissa’s lead then narrowed to 3-2 in the second on Kellyn Overtuff’s sacrifice fly. The game was more than on. It became theatre.
In every game, in every sport at every level, there will be a series of breaks. The question becomes who can take advantage. Melissa presented several. Aledo capitalized.
A baserunning mistake in the second led to a double play. In the second, left fielder Kennedy Cardenas alertly started it with a throw to third to catch Melissa’s lead runner Rihanna Rinn attempting to advance on a fly ball.
One batter later, right fielder Kayleigh Martin atoned for a misplayed fly ball single in the first with a diving catch to end the inning and squash a scoring threat.
In the fifth, Rosser nailed over aggressive courtesy runner Rylee Feagin. Rosser speared a sinking line drive at her shoe tops and threw to first to complete the double play to end that inning.
Melissa committed two fundamental base running errors. On a ball hit in front of you, make it go through before you advance.
Perhaps the Birdville series, going three games and winning the first game against Lubbock Monterey in the regional semifinals (3-1) gave the Lady Cats an edge Melissa couldn’t muster.
The history of this season validated for both teams. Prior to the playoffs, Aledo was 2-5 in games decided by one or two runs. Not good but this team went through the wear and tear to appreciate the atmosphere. Conversely, Melissa was only 1-1 in games in similar circumstances but no one-run games.
Before Wednesday, Aledo was 2-0 in those games in the playoffs. Winning the playoff opener against Birdville, 2-1, and then Monterey. Melissa had yet to be challenged.
The deeper this game traveled with the outcome in doubt, the more Aledo leaned into that experience.
“I think we’ve learned how to literally fight through adversity this entire season,’’ Myers said.
The innocence of Aledo’s fourth-inning rally started with two out. Overturff grounded a seeing-eyed single into center field. Then catcher Breleigh Meyer delivered a two-run bomb – her team-leading 11th and fifth of the postseason – to give the Lady Cats a 4-3 lead. The last time Melissa trailed? When rocks were new.
The breaks Aledo seized were the ones Melissa did not. After Shug Bradford tied the game, 4-4, with a leadoff home run in the sixth, the Lady Cardinals loaded the bases with one out. But they went no further.
Aledo escape artist right-hander Tempe Perry produced a strikeout of center fielder Bradyn Young and induced catcher Hutton Adrian to ground into a fielder’s choice to end it.
Momentum returned to the Aledo dugout. On the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth, Aledo first baseman Brooklyn Taloa delivered a towering blast to regain the lead, 5-4.
In a head-to-head matchup where Melissa was the wall bangers, Aledo beat this program at its own game. It outhomered the Lady Cardinals, 3-1.
Once Perry navigated through a tense seventh inning and struck out Rinn with the tying and go-ahead runs on base, the on-field celebration followed from the first the first base dugout. Stunned silence overwhelmed the third base dugout.
The immortal Yogi Berra once said 90 percent of this game is mental. The other half is physical.
Aledo valued the belief it could win this game. It channeled that mentality to what it did on the field. Maybe Melissa relied too much on the idea that it should win this game. See how those differ?
Whether it’s baseball or softball, there is this one truism. It is the fairest game, and when the final out is recorded, each team typically gets what it deserves.
Aledo earned what it deserved.