Freshman Grace Lance had two fly balls go over her head in center field on Tuesday night, but she wasn’t going to let it happen a third time.

In the top of the seventh inning, with two outs, Trinity was leading West Washington 5-2 in the regional championship on the Cougars’ home turf.

Pitcher Kamzi Gross got the first two outs — catching a pop up and fielding a ground ball hit back to her. With one out to go, Gross threw the pitch and it was sent out to center field. Lance got under it perfectly, made the catch and sealed the game.

The celebration ensued. Players hugged one another, threw their arms up in the air and screamed with excitement. The Cougars had just won the school’s first ever softball regional championship.

“It’s unbelievable,” senior second baseman Ally Russell said. “We knew we could win if we all had our minds to it, and so it’s just an incredible experience.”

Trinity and West Washington met another time this season, and the result of that wouldn’t have led you to believe Tuesday’s game was going to go this way. The Senators trounced the Cougars 16-1 on April 26.

Trinity was a different team, though. They were battling injuries, had players in all sorts of different positions and didn’t have their ace, Gross, back to 100 percent yet.

The first time Trinity fielded its full lineup that it thought it had in spring training was last week to begin sectionals.

“We just didn’t have people in the right spots,” head coach Bob Tabeling said. “Since we’ve been able to do that, it brought everything together. Our defense is better and our offense is doing the little things.”

The game couldn’t have started any better for the Cougars. After a 1-2-3 inning to start for Gross, she followed it up with a 2-run homer in the bottom of the first to give Trinity a 2-0 lead.

“It was insane,” Russell said on Gross hitting the early homerun. “We are all like, ‘this is it. This is why we are here, we play for it.’”

West Washington got one back in top of the third when pitcher Elliot Lance returned the favor on Gross, hitting a solo shot to make it 2-1.

The Senators threatened to do more damage in the inning, but with two outs, Lilly Thompson tried to steal home when Gross got it to Olivia Cain who stood strong and tagged Thompson out.

In the fourth inning, West Washington once again made things difficult on Trinity. With two on and one out, Morgan Brewer made a nice play at third base to keep the ball in front of her, step on the bag and get the second out.

After a walk, the bases were

loaded and the ball was hit up the middle, but Russell scooped it up and stepped on second base to end the inning.

“Those plays are huge,” Tabeling said. “You talk about those things, but at the end of the day the girls have to execute. All those things like that, just itty bitty plays, but they help you win innings.”

All the defensive plays were great, but the Cougars needed more runs.

In the bottom of the sixth, Gross singled to start the inning. Madison Keith walked, and then Cain bounced a chopper up the middle, and it was a wild throw to first, which allowed both Gross and Keith to score as Cain advanced to third.

Brewer then stepped up and rocketed the ball to right field, and even though she was called out running to first base, it allowed Cain to score.

“That run with Morgan was huge,” Tabeling said. “We were gonna bunt, but they brought their infield in so much, so we take off the bunt, let her swing away and she just drives it through. She hit it so hard the right fielder was able to pick it up and throw her out at first base. She did what we’ve been talking about, and that’s less than two outs, score that runner.”

The Cougars got the runs they needed as they took a 5-2 lead into the seventh inning. There was no thought in Tabeling’s mind to have anyone other than Gross go finish the game.

“It was her game,” Tabeling said. “She and Olivia were working. I called about two pitches the whole game. She was doing what she was doing, and I had 100 percent confidence in Kamzi.”

Gross did just that, and the Cougars hoisted up their second trophy in five days.

“We were really confident,” Russell said. “We have a great defense. It was unbelievable the past few games. It’s never been better, and I’m just so proud of this team and our defense.”

Trinity will now advance to the semistate semifinals and take on Hauser, who defeated Indianapolis Lutheran on Tuesday night. The game will take place on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at North Daviess with the semistate championship being later that night at 7 p.m.

Trinity and Hauser also played earlier this season, and Hauser won 10-0. But much like the West Washington regular-season game, the Cougars were a much different team then than they are now.

“We have changed,” Russell said. “We have changed people in positions, we’ve had so many injuries, but now when everybody can play and come together, you can just see it. We’re dominating, and let’s keep going.”