Junior first baseman Madison Morris prepares to deliver a throw during the Lady Badgers’ Game 1 victory over Alamo Heights. PHOTO BY RICHARD AKRIDGE Now comes the hard part.

First, the Lady Badgers were allowed to skip the bi-district round of the playoffs.

Then Lampasas completed a twogame sweep of Alamo Heights Friday night to advance to the regional quarterfinals.

But the smooth road to a state title will most likely end there because the Lady Badgers must defeat the defending state champions in order to stay alive.

While upsetting the secondranked New Braunfels Canyon Courgarettes will not be easy, Lampasas head coach Chris Munoz is confident in his team.

“I’ve told these girls all season that I’ll take them to play any team in the state of Texas,” the coach said. “We’re not scared to play anybody.

“We’ll be ready, and we’re going to take it to them.”

Lampasas will play in the regional round Thursday against New Braunfels Canyon at 7:30 p.m. at Austin Westlake. The second game is set Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Austin Westlake. If necessary, a third game will be played Saturday at 5 p.m. at the same site.

After automatically advancing to the area round due to Austin Eastside Memorial’s forfeit at the bi-district round because of academic ineligibility, Lampasas got its postseason under way last Thursday against the Lady Mules in Fredericksburg.

The nearly two-week break since completing a 10-0 run through District 25-4A left the Lady Badgers a little rusty, but the team showed signs of its familiar offensive potency in the third inning of Game 1. Lampasas scored four runs on three hits, including a two-RBI double from shortstop Hadley Brown.

Lampasas added two more runs in the fifth inning to go up 6-1, but a couple of late errors and some hot hitting from Alamo Heights allowed the Lady Mules to score three runs in the seventh inning before Lampasas recorded the final out and secured the series lead.

Less than 24 hours later, the teams returned to Fredericksburg for Game 2.

Similar to the opener, the Lady Badgers took a little time to bet going, but eventually broke the game open with a five-run, six-hit fifth inning to go up 7-0.

After posting a pair of runs on the scoreboard in the third inning, Lampasas batted all the way through its entire lineup in the fifth inning.

Brown got things going with a double, and five of the next six batters safely reached base. Madison Morris, Jennifer Herron and Callyn Smith each recorded at least one RBI during the run with Smith knocking in the team’s final two runs of the game.

Alamo Heights picked up two of its three hits in the seventh inning as it attempted to stay alive, but the Lady Mules could only add one run before their season came to an end.

Pitcher Kady Crow earned the Game 2 victory to match junior Taylor Holloman’s first-game showing.

New Braunfels Canyon finished off its series against Pflugerville Hendrickson Friday night by beating the Lady Hawks by eight runs, 12-4.