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The St. Joseph Lady Flyers were the hunters last season as they faced the Midland Christian Lady Mustangs in the semifinals of the TAPPS Class 5A state softball tournament.

Today, the Lady Flyers enter their rematch with the Lady Mustangs with the target on their backs.

St. Joseph (17-12) upset perennial power Midland Christian (33-6) in last season’s semifinals before falling to Fort Bend Baptist in the championship game. Lady Flyers coach Craig Lauger knows the Lady Mustangs have been looking forward to today’s rematch.

“We hope we can use some of that to our advantage,” Lauger said Thursday as he and the Lady Flyers were making their way up U.S. Highway 77 for today’s 10 a.m. contest at the Waco ISD complex. “Maybe they’ll be pressing too hard. We just have to stay focused and get on them early.”

“Hopefully, they’ll be wanting to beat us so bad that they’ll get caught up in their emotions,” said St. Joseph outfielder Kirby Lauger, the coach’s daughter. “We just have to relax and do what we know we can do.”

Marina Vasquez (17-12) struck out five in last season’s 5-2 win over Midland Christian. The Lady Flyers overcame an early 1-0 deficit by scoring four runs in the fourth inning off Erica Gomez and Vasquez held the Lady Mustangs in check for most of the game. Gomez (17-2) should get the start for Midland Christian again today.

“If Marina can get off to a good start, they may start swinging at some of her pitches out of the strike zone because they are so aggressive at the plate,” Craig Lauger said.

“The girls are real fired up,” he added. “We’re as ready as we’ll ever be. We just have to catch a couple of breaks and we’ll be fine. But sometimes you have to make your own breaks.”

The winner will advance to Saturday’s 10 a.m. championship against the winner of today’s other semifinal game between Fort Bend Baptist and Tomball Concordia.

Craig Lauger feels his game today could be decided early.

“The first two innings will set the tempo for the rest of the game,” he said. “If we hold them close, I like our chances.”

Lauger’s players agree.

“We have to try to get on top of them in the first couple of innings,” first baseman Jennifer Mason said. “We have to keep our intensity level up.”

Even though the Lady Mustangs have waited a year to get another shot at St. Joseph, the Lady Flyers aren’t entering today’s game with any trepidation.

“We’re really excited to play them again,” infielder Katie Galvan said. “We’re coming into this game with a little swagger ourselves.”