T-Town will now face either Marshall or top-seeded Mt. Carmel. Those two teams play today (Friday). The regional championship will be played at 11 a.m. Saturday. If Marshall upsets Mt. Carmel, the game will be in Teutopolis. If the Lady Aces prevail, the regional final will be in Mt. Carmel.

After two innings, it appeared as if the Lady Shoes were going to have an easy time of it, building an early 5-0 lead.

But T-Town fans got a bit nervous when the Lady Eagles trimmed the gap to 5-4 and appeared to have the momentum heading into the final innings.

But Tipton gathered her team around her as they prepared to hit in the bottom of the sixth inning.

“I just told them we didn’t have enough runs,” she noted. “We got that early lead and then just fell flat. I told them to put the pedal to the medal.”

And the Lady Shoes followed those instructions.

Emily Konkel and Lexie Niebrugge started the inning with back-to-back singles. Daischa Piedra drove in a run with a fly ball. Kaylee Niebrugge then singled and Tia Probst followed with another base hit, bringing home another run. A wild pitch allowed the third run to score and provide the Lady Shoes with some cushion.

“Those runs in the sixth were huge. Definitely huge,” Tipton admitted. “Tia had been struggling a little on the mound and those runs helped her relax for that last inning.”

Probst, who was coming off an outstanding pitching performance against Casey-Westerfield, wasn’t as sharp against Newton. She allowed eight hits and four runs, while walking one and striking out seven.

“It wasn’t her best game,” Tipton said. “We’ve been making some small adjustments and working on where to pitch people. She just didn’t hit her spots today.”

The Lady Shoes took a 2-0 lead in the first. Erin Althoff led off with a base hit and Konkel walked. Althoff scored on an error and Kaylee Niebrugge had an RBI single.

T-Town tacked on three more in the second. With one out, Danielle Sarchet and Althoff had back-to-back singles. Then with two outs, the Shoes got three straight run-scoring singles from Lexie Niebrugge, Piedra and Kaylee Niebrugge to make it 5-0.

But Newton pitcher Kayla Kocher then shut the Lady Shoes down on just two hits over the next three innings.

And during that time, the Lady Eagles mounted a comeback. They scored two runs in the third and added single tallies in the fourth and fifth to get within 5-4.

But Probst allowed only one baserunner over the final two innings to secure the victory.

The Lady Shoes collected 13 hits in the game, but left nine runners stranded, including five in scoring position.

“We put the bat on the ball today,” Tipton said. “Having 14 hits is outstanding, but we have to capitalize when we have runners on base. We really didn’t hit the ball as well when we had runners on.”

Kaylee Niebrugge had three hits, while Althoff, Lexie Niebrugge, Probst and Sarchet each had two.

The Lady Shoes improved to 14-12 on the season.