The Indian Land Lady Warriors' tears were a lot louder than their bats last week when they were knocked out of a run for the state championship by McBee.

Indian Land fell 3-2 in an elimination game in the Upper State bracket as the team uncharacteristically made three errors in the loss. Earlier in the week, Indian Land fell 1-0 to Chesterfield in nine inning to set up its game with McBee.

"Obviously, we have been on our game defensively and this game we weren't," said Lady Warriors head coach Monica Barfield. "Errors killed us this game. This hurts for our seniors to come up short like that."

It was the fourth time the two teams met this season. In the regular season, they split with Indian Land winning the first on a no-hitter by senior Kimber Coley.

The Lady Warriors lost the second game 8-2 to split the season series, but Indian Land won the Region III-A title by beating McBee 2-1 in a one-game playoff for the region title.

Junior Kristin Campbell got the start on the mound, just a day after a dominating pitching performance in Chesterfield, where she went eight strong innings allowing just three hits and walking one while striking out eight.

Indian Land struck first with senior Jacquelyn Delaune getting hit to start the game. She then stole second and ended up on third before scoring on a passed ball to put the Lady Warriors up 1-0.

Things looked up for Indian Land as it did get one hit in that first inning, a single by Campbell. But from there, the bats went cold for the most part.

In the second inning, McBee started to get to Campbell as they tied the game at 1-1 on two hits.

Then in the third inning, things really went bad for the Lady Warriors. After Campbell gave up a walk, two throwing errors allowed the go ahead run to score and then a single later on in the inning put McBee up 3-1.

Campbell settled down afterwards, but the damage was done. She went four innings giving up four hits, while walking three and striking three out.

Coley was brought in to finish the game and went three innings, allowing just one walk while striking out six.

Indian Land did get its mojo working in an attempt to rally when sophomore Paige Brugh hit a solo home run and catcher Beth Martin singled in the sixth inning to pull within a run at 3-2.

After the loss, Barfield and her team sat in left field for about a half-hour letting tears flow, trying not to let go of a season they thought would be theirs.

"To fall short is more hurtful this year than last year," Barfield said. "We felt we could win state this year. This team was starting to gel. Everything you want on a team, we felt we had."

The Lady Warriors will be losing three players to graduation, all three in the starting line up.

Graduating for Indian Land includes Coley, Delaune and outfielder Ashley Vitek.