The Bullard Lady Panthers celebrate a walk-off win during a playoff game against Waco Robinson May 17 in Bullard. (Contributed photo by Capturing the Moment by Amber & Heidi)

Bullard and Liberty have established themselves as two of the top Class 4A softball programs in the state of Texas.

Bullard has advanced to at least the regional finals in four straight seasons, reaching the state semifinals in both 2021 and 2022 and falling in the regional finals in 2023.

Liberty has advanced to the state tournament in the previous three years, winning it all in 2021 and 2022. Liberty also won a state championship in 2018.

Bullard and Liberty — both the Lady Panthers — are set to meet for the third time in four postseasons. Bullard lost to Liberty in both the 2021 state semifinals and the 2023 regional finals.

The Class 4A Region III final will be a best-of-three series. Game 1 will be at 6 p.m. Thursday at Huntsville High School. Game 2 will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Hudson High School, and Game 3 will be at 7 p.m. Saturday at Hudson, if necessary.

“This will be three of four years, so we are familiar with them and they are familiar with us,” Bullard head softball coach Julie Murry said. “On the flip side, I think we have a completely different look this year in so many ways, so it’s hard to be very familiar. To us, we are not making this some big revenge game. We want to be as calm, cool and collected going into this series. We have a lot of respect for them as a program, as good as they’ve been and are right now. But we don’t fear them, either. We have to have a mindset of competing on every pitch and playing fearless softball.”

In last season’s meeting in the Class 4A Region III final, Bullard won Game 1, 5-4, on a walk-off home run by Hadi Fults in the bottom of the ninth inning. Liberty won Game 2, 7-1, and then won Game 3, 2-1 in eight innings.

Bullard is 33-6-1 this season, winning 20 of its last 21 games since a March 9 setback to nationally ranked Melissa. Bullard reached the regional finals by defeating Center (15-2, 10-0), Hamshire-Fannett (4-1, 0-3, 7-2), Little Cypress-Mauriceville (10-4, 7-1) and Robinson (13-6, 3-2).

“I think they’ve done a good job of competing and trusting one another in their preparation,” Murry said. “I think they’ve done a good job of playing for each other and with each other in big moments. We haven’t had just one person be the hero; a bunch of people have stepped up in big moments.”

Kirstin Malone (.409), Matti Nix (.337), Brooklyn Brannen (.319) and Emery Baker (.309) are the average leaders for Bullard. Brannen (12), Nix (8), Baylie Walker (6), Denim Boles (5) and Baker (5) are the home run leaders. Brannen had driven in 45 runs, and Nix has 41 RBIs. Malone has swiped 23 bases, and Brannen has 22 stolen bases.

In the pitching circle, Anistyn Foster is 18-3 with two saves, a 1.76 ERA, 181 strikeouts and 58 walks in 134.2 innings. Brannen is 14-3 with three saves, a 2.26 ERA, 155 strikeouts and 57 walks in 95.2 innings.

“They really complement each other well,” Murry said. “They’re each other’s biggest fans. Between the two of them, it makes it a little tougher on our opponents.”

Liberty is 37-2 with the only losses coming to Barber’s Hill and Katy, which is ranked No. 1 nationally. Liberty reached the regional finals by defeating Vidor (13-3, 12-2), Henderson (15-0, 10-1), Bridge City (2-0) and Salado (8-2, 8-3).

“They do a lot of things well,” Murry said. “It’s not a huge surprise. They have a lot of good team speed and several arms in the circle. They have seasoned leadership. They still have a couple of kids there that we faced in 2021. They have all of the ingredients of a really good team.”

Bailee Slack is a Texas State commit and scored the winning run to end last year’s series. Hollie Thomas, who had the season-ending RBI last season, is a Louisiana-Monroe commit. Brookelyn Taylor is a McNeese State commit.

The winner will advance to the UIL Softball State Tournament at Red & Charline McCombs Field in Austin. The Class 4A semifinals will be at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. on May 30.

Team members include: Kirstin Malone, Brooklyn Brannen, Matti Nix, Baylie Walker, Emery Baker, Kenzi Roberts, Denim Boles, Dakota Payne, Zaylee Zahirniak, Anistyn Foster, Kaylan Mercer, Secilia Salzmann, Lila Robertson, Kamyn Honzell and Savanna Lewis. Julie Murry is the head coach, and Danielle Guerra and Destinee Dixon are assistant coaches.