Friday's game meant a little something extra to Katy. 

The Tigers had already secured a district championship and the first seed out of District 19-6A heading into the playoffs, but there was more to it. 

Katy still remembered how last years regular season ended, with a loss to Taylor where the Tigers could never get the bats going and lost 1-0 to Taylor. Katy was determined to not let that happen again. 

The Tigers (31-1-1, 16-0) only needed five innings to get their revenge, beating second place Taylor (20-11, 13-3) 15-1 in a run rule game where the Tigers got hot early and never slowed down. 

“We came out here and we wanted it bad,” said Katy first baseman Montgomery Henderson. “We talked about it a few times this week and we knew we had to come out ready to play. We’ve thought about last years game a lot and we just came out with a mindset of beat Taylor.”

Henderson gave the Tigers an early spark with a 2-run home run to center field early in the first inning and Katy’s bats heated up even more in the second. Lexie Waugh started the inning with a 3-run home run before Henderson drove in another on a single. A walk brought home another run before Maddie Smith hit a grand slam to make it 11-0 after two innings. Ashtyn Reichardt added a solo home run, Henderson drove in two more. Taylor got a run back off an error in the third inning, but Paige Schulze hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth, with Katy not giving up any runs the rest of the game to clinch the win. 

“We’ve talked a lot about making good adjustments from one at bat to the next and I think they executed that pretty well today,” said Katy head coach Kalum Haack. “They didn’t make the same mistakes at the plate and that’s a big key. They’ve been doing a really good job of that lately and that’s a great feeling as a coach.”

Henderson led the Tigers at the plate with five RBIs while Maddie Smith dove in four runs and Lexie Waugh drove in three. Cameryn Harrison had another terrific game on the mound, pitching a complete game and allowing just two hits while striking out eight and walking none in the win. Harrison has been the backbone of the team all season and has only gotten stronger as the year has gone on. 

“She’s unbelievable and it’s not just her pitching,” Haack said.” Her work ethic and her leadership set the bar so high for everyone else. When anyone isn’t focused the way they should be or she feels we aren’t at the level we should be at she is the first to step up and correct that. When you have a player that steps up like that it makes a huge difference.”

The Tigers will take on Liberty in a warmup game before facing off against Dulles in the opening round of the playoffs. It’s another step in the direction the Tigers want to go and they’re excited and ready. 

“We are ready to go out and prove any doubters wrong,” Henderson said. “We’ve learned from last year and grown into a better team. This is our year and we are going to go out and take it and prove it.”