MERRY HILL – Anyone expecting to see Lawrence stroll to a tournament championship was wrong.

The Lady Warriors beat Hobgood Academy for the fourth time this season Tuesday afternoon in the Tarheel Independent Conference championship, but it certainly wasn’t easy.

Lawrence got down 2-0 in the first inning thanks to a pair of errors and had to battle back to stay in the contest.

Despite having gone through the TIC regular season unbeaten for the third consecutive year, the Warriors knew they were in for a fight.

After the errors allowed two runs to score, however, right-handed pitcher Kendall Street settled down and went to work. She sat down 19 batters in a row, including five consecutive strikeouts, to keep the Lady Raiders at bay while the Warrior bats came around.

After securing the tie, Lawrence went into the bottom of the seventh looking for the win.

With one out, Debbie Stotesbury singled. Leanne Eubanks then drilled a shot to right field, where an error allowed Stotesbury to come all the way around from first to score the game-winning run.

Lady Warrior skipper Bill Swain kept him team focused on the task at hand throughout the contest.

“We have to hit the ball and make it happen one at the time,” Swain said.

The Lady Warriors were able to do just that as they recorded win number 20 on the season against just one loss.

The Warriors are likely to be one of the top four seeds in the upcoming North Carolina Independent School Athletic Association state tournament.

As of last week, they were ranked second in the NCISAA 1-A rankings behind defending state champion Cape Fear Christian School.