ROGERS CITY-The disappointing ending to last season still resonates with the Rogers City softball team.

There were too many swings at bad pitches, too many strikeouts and in the end, too few runs scored during a 4-1 loss to Indian River Inland Lakes in a Division 4 regional final.

“I think we were anxious to get a hit, so we were just swinging at everything,” sophomore Hannah Fleming said.

But a new season has renewed the Hurons’ optimism and they’ll get a chance for redemption at 4 p.m. today when they face Inland Lakes in a quarterfinal in Traverse City.

The Hurons (29-11) have had a rematch with the Bulldogs in mind all season and both teams made it possible with regional championship wins on Saturday. Inland Lakes topped Norway 3-1 to win its third straight regional and Rogers City defeated Mio 6-4 for its third regional title in four seasons.

“That was one our goals this season: win the conference, win the district, win the regionals and we kind of had Inland Lakes (penciled) in on the other side of that,” Rogers City coach Karl Grambau said. “I think both teams thought we would meet each other in the quarterfinals, but we had to take care of business in districts and regionals.”

A rematch against the Bulldogs also means the Hurons will face Inland Lakes ace Cloe Mallory once again. As a sophomore last season, Mallory mowed down a Rogers City lineup with six members of the 2014 state championship team. Mallory allowed a run on three hits last year against the Hurons. She finished the game with 13 strikeouts and fanned seven of the first nine batters she faced.

As a junior, Mallory has gotten better, especially in the postseason. She struck out 19 in 10 innings against Newberry last weekend and won a pitching duel against Norway in the final, striking out the side in the final inning to secure the win. The previous weekend, she struck out 15 in a district final win over Pellston.

“Cloe’s a good pitcher, one of the better pitchers in the state, she throws hard,” Grambau said. “But like with any other pitcher, you have to hit the good pitch and I think with the schedule we’ve played and the pitchers we’ve faced, that’s helped us prepare for this moment.”

To counter Mallory’s mix of movement and speed, the Hurons know they must be disciplined at the plate. Too often in last year’s game, the Hurons swung at pitches well out of the strike zone. Rogers City knows it can hit and has hit well during the postseason, but the Hurons know they have to wait for good pitches to hit.

“I think it’s pretty easy for me, once I see the ball I know where it’s going,” sophomore Kayla Rabeau said. “I have one batter before me, so I get to see what she’s throwing.”

Along with hitting well, the Hurons know they must execute well in all facets of the game. At this stage of the postseason, the smallest errors can often spell trouble in games where both teams are equally good.

Both teams found that out the hard way last year. Against Inland Lakes, the Hurons made three errors in one inning and the Bulldogs capitalized by scoring four runs. A few days later, the Bulldogs made a costly error which allowed Hillman to beat them for a spot in the semifinals.

“I think we have good pitching, good hitting and good fielding and it’s all got to come together against Inland Lakes to move on,” Grambau said. “Usually when you get to games like this, the team that makes the least amount of mistakes wins and we want to be that team that makes the least amount of mistakes.”

The winner of today’s game heads to East Lansing on Friday to play the winner of the Coleman-Holton quarterfinal. Of the remaining eight teams in Division 4, five of them were ranked in the final top 10 list for the season.

James Andersen can be reached via email at sports@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5694. Follow James on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.