By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
COLOMA - The Niles softball team felt pretty confident heading into Saturday's Division 2 District final game against Lakeshore.
The Lady Vikes beat the Lancers 3-2 just last month and took a 4-0 win over St. Joe in Saturday's semifinal game.
But, too many errors in the fourth inning cost Niles a district championship as Lakeshore walked away with a 5-1 victory in Coloma.
Arnold went on to say that Lakeshore's Molly Lange highlighted the inning with her triple. Combined with three errors by Niles, the Lancers were able to jump to a 4-0 lead.
The Lady Vikes were only able to score one run in the top of the fifth when Stephanie Stoops came in for Nicole Ignowski, who hit a double for Niles. Stoops scored when Kayla Gross pounded a double over the center fielder's head.
Jenna Ignowski suffered the loss on the mound, giving her a final record of 15-9 during her first season with the Vikes.
Top hitters were Stephanee Schrader and Gross both with doubles, Nicole Ignowski had a double and a single and Cricket Fisher had a single.
Arnold, who stated his team features five freshman and sophomores, said some of girls have never played against this kind of pressure before
Semifinal game
In Niles' semifinal game against St. Joseph, the Lady Vikes wasted no time grabbing an early lead.
Nilkes jumped ahead 2-0 in just the first inning and added one run in the third and one in the sixth to advance to the final game.
Jenna Ignowski had another shutout win on the mound, her eighth of the year and sister Nicole drove in three runs with a double and a triple.
Other top hitters were Fisher and Nellie Coquillard both with singles.
Niles ends its season with a 19-10 record.
Finals
Niles 000 010 0 - 1 5 4
Lakeshore 000 410 X -5 5 0
Molly Lange (WP), Jenna Ignowski (LP, 15-9)
2B: Kayla Gross (N), Nicole Ignowski (N), Stephanee Schrader (N)
3B: Molly Lange (L)
Semifinals
St. Joseph 000 000 0 - 0 3 3
Niles 201 001 X - 4 4 0
Jenna Ignowski (WP, 15-8), Jill Kock (LP)
2B: Nicole Ignowski (N)
3B: Nicole Ignowski