ABILENE — Hermleigh softball coach Sammy Winters said he only got about three hours of sleep on Friday night after his team lost 6-4 to Eula in the opener of its Region I-1A semifinal series at Abilene Christian University’s Poly Wells Field.

Winters left the school at 1 a.m. and was still wound up as he was replaying the game, studying GameChanger and poring over statistics before finally falling asleep a little after 3:30 a.m.

The extra time and effort paid off as the Lady Cardinals, who were down to their final strike in the seventh inning of Game 2, rallied to claim a 6-5 win in eight innings before finishing off the series with a 6-1 win in Game 3.