The Dallas County Hornets’ softball team had its season end Thursday at Troy University in the class 5A South Central Regional Tournament of the Alabama High School Athletic Association playoffs. The Hornets lost to Helena 16-1 in a first round game, and they followed it up with a 7-6 loss to Brewbaker Tech in an elimination game. Dallas County head coach Willie Moore, who said this would be his last season coaching the softball team, said he was proud of the way his team fought to stay in the second game late.

With one at-bat separating the Hornets from elimination in the game against Brewbaker Tech, Dallas County trailed 7-0. Two walks, followed by five hits, put the Hornets down by just one run. Unfortunately for Dallas County, the run ended there.

“I was very proud of the effort that our kids gave because realistically we were three outs away from just losing 7-0, and we battled back,” Moore said.

The first game wasn’t as close. The Hornets’ first three batters went 0-for-9 against Helena with nine combined strikeouts. Nine Dallas County errors led to 16 Helena runs. Yasmeen Green scored the lone run for the Hornets.

“We had a good season, but I would have liked to have won a game or two here,” Moore said.

Moore said although he won’t return to coach softball, he plans to be back at Dallas County next school year.