Lawrence High's Samantha Hays takes a swing against Olathe South. The Lions dropped a doubleheader, 5-4 and 10-6, Tuesday at Holcom Complex, dropping LHS to 0-8 on the season.

LAWRENCE HIGH PITCHER SYDNEY SERATTE winds up during the Lions' doubleheader against Olathe South. The Lions lost both games Tuesday at the Holcom Complex.

Hannah Somers had never homered in a high school softball uniform.

So you can imagine Somers’ reaction when she unloaded a grand slam in Lawrence High’s softball doubleheader loss to Olathe South on Tuesday night at Holcom Complex.

“I was pretty excited,” said Somers, a junior outfielder, “but we still needed more runs.”

Lawrence was trailing by five in the opener when Somers came to the plate in the bottom of the seventh with the bases juiced and drilled a Lauren Boston pitch over the temporary plastic fence in left-center field.

“Amazing,” senior teammate Amanda Weishaar said. “I’ve never seen a grand slam in a high school softball game.”

Unfortunately for the Lions, they couldn’t muster any more scoring after Somers’ clout and bowed, 5-4. Olathe South completed the sweep with a 10-6 victory in the nightcap.

Lawrence remained winless in eight games, but coach Reenie Stogsdill saw a silver lining.

“Today was much better than we had been playing,” Stogsdill said. “We came out and competed, and we hadn’t been doing that.”

The Lions had scored only five runs combined in their first six games, so Stogsdill had challenged her players in practice on Monday..

“I asked them, ‘Isn’t it more fun when you compete?'” Stogsdill said. “So we competed and had some fun. Winning is more fun, but we’re making progress.”

Somers’ salami late in the first game seemed to awaken the Lions because they pounded 10 hits in the second game and twice came back to forge deadlocks.

Weishaar’s second two-run single of the nightcap forged a 5-5 deadlock in the bottom of the fifth. Then Somers’ RBI single knotted the count at 6-6 after six. But the Falcons exploded for four runs on four hits in the top of the seventh, and the Lions couldn’t answer that salvo.

Still, on the night, the Lions doubled the number of runs they had produced in their first six games.

“Our bats finally got going,” Weishaar said. “That’s a key.”

Centerfielder Samantha Hays led the Lions’ 10-hit second-game attack with three safeties – two singles and a double – and scored three runs.

Now the Lions have to find a way to post their first win.

“It’s not fun to lose, everyone knows that,” Weishaar said. “Being this low, though, we can only improve.”

The Lions are scheduled to meet Leavenworth and Shawnee Mission West in a doubleheader next Monday at Sport 2 Sport.