MILLBROOK – There is nothing easy about making a playoff run. To start, you have to defeat enough division opponents, or have a good enough regular season to qualify. Then, depending on how the other schools in the division perform, you are given a tournament seed and it dictates where you play. For the Lady Bears of Tri-Valley, earning the No. 5 seed meant that they would be on the road.

For the first round of the Section IX tournament, Tri-Valley traveled to Millbrook. Jenna Carmody was instrumental in the 10-7 win, as she has been all season. Pitching a complete game, striking out 11 and only giving up four hits was a tremendous help for the Lady Bears.

Brooke Delaney hit a double and had an RBI, Emily Rusin had a single with two RBIs and Jordan Dymond had a single and two stolen bases for Tri-Valley.

After upsetting Millbrook with the road victory, Tri-Valley’s next test was Pine Plains on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the magic ran out when the Lady Bears took on the No. 1 seed, and Pine Plains won via a 12-0 shutout. Tri-Valley stranded nine runners on base, unable to get the timely hits to drive in the runs as their season came to an end.

“We graduated six senior starters last year and had a few players not return, so we started the season with a small group of young, hard working girls who bought into the process and a team-first mentality,” Tri-Valley Coach Kimberly Costa said.

“The improvements in each player from our first week have been remarkable, and every player contributes on the field.”

Costa also discussed the two sectional games and what it meant for the team. “As far as sectional experience goes, it was great for the girls to get two sectional games this year. They competed well for the win against Millbrook and lost Wednesday to a talented class act of a team in Pine Plains. The learning opportunities this week were both immense and invaluable.”