Free State junior Paige Rothwell came up short with the ball as Lawrence junior Kristen Bell is safe at third.

In the eyes of Free State High softball coach Lee Ice, his team’s 2010 season is becoming a kind of case study in Murphy’s Law –a collection of unfortunate gaffes and unforeseen late-game breakdowns that have cost the Firebirds at least a handful of games.

“It’s almost like we get to the point where we’re like, ‘Uh-oh, what’s going to happen next?'” said Ice, whose team will play at 6 p.m. today at Lawrence High in a rematch of last Thursday’s 9-1 Lions victory.

Unfortunately for the coach, he can point to plenty of examples to illustrate his point.

Against Olathe North last month, for instance, Firebird pitchers Mary Anne Smith and Megan Smith combined for a no-hitter through 6 2?3 innings before North put together three hits and took the game, 2-1. Against Olathe Northwest, the Firebirds led 1-0 with six outs to go before falling 3-1.

And in perhaps the most crushing of all, Free State led Shawnee Mission North 10-2 early on before suffering a 12-10 loss thanks to a number of late-game breakdowns.

“Right now, (our focus is) getting these young kids to believe that we can win,” Ice said. “They’ve got to get to the point where they know they’re going to walk out there and get it done. That’s the whole process for us right now — staying focused.”

On the bright side, Ice says, his team is better than most believe it to be. A couple of those games go the other way, he says, and the Firebirds’ 5-14 record looks a lot better.

“That’s how close we are,” Ice said. “And I’m trying to stay as positive with the kids as I can. It’s not a matter of talent. Right now, we’re just finding ways to lose games instead of finding ways to win them.”

On the other side of town, meanwhile, Lawrence High has had little trouble rolling up victories as of late.

Since dropping eight in a row in April, the Lions have bounced back to win five of their past seven games, the biggest of which came during last Thursday’s long-awaited victory over the Firebirds.

And entering today’s game, the Lions want to keep that momentum going.

“I think it was a great week — it’s been a good last few weeks,” said LHS coach Reenie Stogsdill. “And we really want to keep this going. We want to make sure we take care of business tomorrow.”