Kinder and East Beauregard will be back at the state championship softball tournament this weekend in Sulphur, with the Yellow Jackets hoping their freshman star pitcher can lead them to glory while East Beauregard hopes its late-season surge continues.

The No. 2 Yellow Jackets are part of a Class 2A field that features the four top seeds. Kinder will face No. 3 Port Barre in a semifinal at noon Friday.

No. 11 East Beauregard is the lowest seed in Class 1A, reaching Sulphur the hard way with upsets over No. 6 Slaughter Community and No. 3 Merryville. The Trojans will face perennial power No. 2 LaSalle at 4 p.m. Friday.

Kinder has won 10 of its last 11 games, led by two-way star Brianna Fontenot, who is 19-2 as a pitcher and has hit 19 home runs with 77 runs batted in. She has not allowed a run in three playoff games.

The Yellow Jackets have one senior, Asia Richard, who is the lone Jacket to have played in the state tournament.

“One thing we have done through the year is stay focused so I am not too worried about the atmosphere,” Kinder head coach Haley McCall Landry

said. “Hopefully they can get over the butterflies and play like they can. They know they are not here by accident.

“We have talked to them about what it will be like. Asia has been a great leader and I think once the game starts we will be able to focus on what we need to do.”

Richard (.489) sets the table for the Kinder offense.

“She is our leadoff hitter and gets on base consistently with hits and walks,” Landry said.  “We have a couple of veterans behind her in Hadley Lemons and Megan Fuselier. Sophomore Cicily Hill has been consistent for us. We’ve been able to get people on base then lean on Briana to produce some runs. She does a great job in the circle too, but I think our defense is really what we have relied on all year.

“Our bats have been there for the most part, but when they are not we can get away with only scoring a couple of runs because our defense is so good. In the circle, Briana has grown a lot. She’s got a lot of confidence in her teammates and can be dominant. She is consistent at the plate and has been able to help herself out.”

East Beauregard (12-12) went 2-6 in District 4-1A play but has peaked at the right time. The three playoff wins matches the Trojans’ longest regular-season winning streak.

Head coach Mandy Clendening said confidence and toughness has sparked her team’s surge.

“We’ve told them all year that they were better than they thought,” she said. “They didn’t really believe it, but we went to Slaughter and played a great game and maybe that’s where it clicked. Then we beat Merryville, a district rival that this group had never beaten.”

Clendening wants the Trojans to keep believing.

“We’ve already done the impossible,” she said. “We beat a 6 (seed) then beat a 3. I want them to go out Friday and just be fearless. All year we just needed some mental toughness. We have had some girls step up in the playoffs and hit better than in the season. We need to keep going.”

The Trojans are led by pitcher Camryn Reeves and catcher Hailie Daigle, who homered at Slaughter and had three hits against Merryville.