Paris might have lost two one-run games Friday but were both played at state.
For the first time in program history, the Lady Coyotes earn a state Final Four trophy after taking fourth at the MSHSAA Class 1 championships at Killian Softball Complex in Springfield. Paris lost 4-3 to returning Final Four team Gallatin in the morning and then lost 3-2 after nine innings against Stanberry in the Lady Coyotes' first extra-inning game of the season. Stanberry (13-15) tied the game at 2 with a Randi Jenson RBI single in the bottom of the seventh inning and won with a walk-off single by Alyssa Wallace in the ninth inning. Paris (23-8) had hard-hit balls with two runners on in the eighth and when the bases were loaded in the ninth but lost its sixth one-run game of the season. Kennedy Ashenfelter was 2-for-5 with a two-RBI double in the first inning, and Emma Ashenfelter was 3-for-5. The senior Kennedy Ashenfelter pitched in all nine innings for Paris, accounting for all the Lady Coyotes' postseason innings this season.
Look for a full state softball story in the Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, edition of the Mexico Ledger.
