SULPHUR – No. 1 Sam Houston’s top half of the lineup was one of the most feared in the state this season. But it was the end of the batting order that came through when they needed it the most to win the program’s sixth state championship on Sunday at the Louisiana High School Athletic Association state softball tournament in Sulphur.

With the score tied 2-2, sophomore Taelyn Droddy, hitting in the eight-spot in the lineup, made the biggest hit of her young career so far.

With one out and Mazlin Authement on third base after a two-base error at the bottom of the sixth, Droddy hit a liner to the right field to send Authement home for the go-ahead run.

“I actually just told my assistant coach this, this morning, I think, that I felt like all of our pregame work this last week or so, that (Droddy) has been really driving the ball and really making some great contact,” Sam Houston head coach Beth Domingue said. “So, I felt like she was going to come through at some point, and that was cool to see. Especially seeing once again the bottom of our lineup do something.”

It was reminiscent of the Broncos’ (30-2) 5-3 extra-inning semifinal win over St. Amant Saturday. In that game, nine-hole hitter Kailyn Mire hit her first home run of the season to send the game into extra innings.

It was the Broncos’ first state championship since 2015. Sam Houston lost in the finals to St. Amant two years ago. Sam Houston ended the season on a 28-game win streak.

“It’s real special to me,” Domingue said. “I mean, I feel like this one’s different.

“It’s special, I think because some of these girls were here two years ago when we lost in the finals. This group is different. I just feel like they always had fun with this, so I love to see those types of kids walk away and end their season this way.”

Mire was named the title game MVP, after holding the Griffins to two runs on three hits with one strikeout and two walks. With the game on the line and two runners on base with one out in the top of the seventh, Mire fielded a grounder and threw out the lead runner at third base and got a fly out to right field to end the game.

“(Mire) has been phenomenal this entire season,” Domingue said. “I think she gets overlooked a lot because she’s not the strikeout pitcher.

“She’s not throwing 65 miles an hour, but she has literally put this team on her shoulders and carried us.”

Dutchtown (25-10) scored first and took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning, but the Broncos responded in the bottom half of the inning on back-to-back hits by Layla Landry and Aubrey Hobbs with two outs.

“We’ve been there a few times this year,” Domingue said. “They have a ton of fight, and it’s so cool to see.

“They trust their approach at the plate. They trust their bats. They trust their offense. We had to have better at-bats. I felt like we were hitting so many fouls, and I just felt like we had to change our approach at the plate. We had to actually make the adjustments.”