Coming into the second round of the AISA softball tournament at Lagoon Park on Saturday morning, all eyes were on the Class A semifinal matchup.

Lowndes Academy, the class’s No. 1 seed entered with a record of 32-8 and no in-class losses. Their opponents, the Lakeside School Lady Chiefs entered 21-0.

The Lady Rebels and Lady Chiefs were set to meet once during the regular season, but the Lakeside coaching staff called and informed Lowndes Matt Marshall that they were going to have to cancel.

In Saturday’s game, however, there were no cancellations.

Lakeside jumped out to an early lead with hits to center and to left and then scored on a double by Abby Kline, to go up 2-0. The Lady Chiefs tacked on a second pair of runs in the third due to errors and pushed ahead 4-0.

Lowndes answered with runs in the bottom of the second and the third, cutting the lead in half.

Lakeside added one more run in the top of the fourth to push ahead 5-2.

In the seventh, the Lady Rebs tried to rally, but came up short, Lauren Callen scored on a single and then on a sac fly to the outfield by Lauren Kilpatrick.

Sam Wilkinson was called out on strikes to end the game.

Advantage Lakeside.

The two met for a second time in Championship Final with more drama and more excitement than it’s predecessor.

This time, the Lady Rebs strike first in the second inning. Mallory Insinga scores, putting LA up 1-0.

The Lady Chiefs, however, answer Insinga’s run with one of their own in the third and then posts a trio of runs in the fourth to jump ahead 4-1.

The Lady Rebels refuse to quit and post a pair of runs in the sixth and one in the seventh. But they were never able to push the tieing run across the plate, falling 4-3 in the championship.

The game, however did provide Marshall with an idea of what he would be working with next season.

Throughout the game, he let his eighth and ninth graders get a taste of softball on the varsity level.