ABILENE — Kicking off a high-profile region semifinal series with Hermleigh on Friday at Abilene Christian University’s Poly Wells Field, the Eula softball team grabbed a rare upper hand on its area rival, using a three-run top of the first as the catalyst for a wire-to-wire 6-4 victory in the opener of the best-of-three affair.

With the win, the Lady Pirates snapped a five-game playoff losing streak to the Cardinals, who have eliminated EHS from the playoffs each of the last three seasons and four times total since the Class 1A bracket was introduced in 2016. 

The win also put coach Jayton Thompson’s team in a position to advance past HHS for just the second time in that span with a win in Game 2 or Game 3, when the series resumes at 2 p.m. Saturday back on the ACU campus.