After a season where the softball team found a 22-8 record and a regional championship win, the team’s season has come to an abrupt close.

With two straight losses to Flowery Branch High School during the state playoffs, Decatur is going home after not even being able to get past the first round.

Head softball coach Allison Paul believes that the team overcame adversity in the two games, but just came up short.

“In both games we were hitting the ball very well,” Paul said, “but we lost due to our slew of defensive mistakes.”

Those mistakes combined to a total of 18 errors within the two games.

“When you make that many mistakes, you can’t expect to win at this level, especially during the playoffs,” Paul said.

The final scores of the two games was 16-6 and 11-3.

There were more factors than just defensive mistakes that played a role on the loss. Paul claims that the umpires were “terrible” and “did not help the cause.”

Even though the season did not end on a good note, according to junior Cyerra Burdette-Long,  there was a positive takeaway from the season.

“When it’s all said and done, we had a pretty great season,” Long said. “Yeah, we might not have gotten as far as we wanted to in the playoffs, but we did win the region, and that’s a nice accomplishment.”

Looking towards next season, the team will have lost seniors Olivia Brozek and Claire Smith. Even though it will be a “tough loss,” Paul believes that she has the right team that can compete for a state title next season.

“Moving forward, I think that we have the right set of girls,” Paul said. “We just need to find that leader who can help bring us to that next level.”