SLIPPERY ROCK — Just 12 months ago, the Slippery Rock High School softball team ended its season with just one victory.

A year later, much has changed.

These Rockets have more games to play after the regular season finale.

Even though Slippery Rock fell to Hickory at home 7-4 Thursday afternoon and missed out on winning the Region 5-AAA title outright, the Rockets share the region crown with the Hornets and will enter the District 10 playoffs as the No. 1 seed.

“That’s pretty much the speech I gave them,” said Slippery Rock softball coach Dan Hindman. “You’re sitting at 12-3 and you share the region with a team that was expected to win the region and you battled them every step of the way. It’s nothing to hang your head about, that’s for sure.”

Slippery Rock (12-3, 6-2) beat Hickory in the first meeting this season, 8-3.

The Hornets (8-7, 6-2), though, flipped the script in the second meeting, getting to Rockets’ freshman pitcher Cheyenne Hindman for five runs in the fifth inning to break open a close game.

Hickory was in a win-and-in, lose-and-go-home situation against the Rockets and the Hornets treated it like a playoff game.

“We’ve been waiting for this team to put it together for the entire season,” said Hickory coach Tanya McClafferty. “This is the type of team we have expected to come out. This is the type of team we expected from the beginning. They finally put it together when it really mattered.”

Cheyenne Hindman struck out nine, but walked four and gave up 10 hits to the aggressive Hornets.

Still, Slippery Rock led 2-1 after three innings.

Hickory, though, tied the game at 2-2 in the fourth and then got to the Rockets’ pitcher in the fifth with five consecutive two-out hits.

“She pitched pretty well,” said Dan Hindman, who is also Cheyenne’s father. “But we also left some pitches over the plate and we made some mistakes and when you make mistakes against that team, you’re going to pay.”

McClafferty had high praise for Cheyenne Hindman and said her team learned a bit from their first experience against her.

“This freshman pitcher they have is going to be a force to be reckoned with,” McClafferty said. “She is now. We’re just proud of the fact we were able to be patient and sit and hit the pitches we needed to hit.

“We came in (the first time against Slippery Rock) a little unprepared,” McClafferty added. “We hadn’t seen her before and we didn’t know what to expect. This time around we knew what to expect.”

Cheyenne Hindman was also a force at the plate for the Rockets.

She doubled, singled, drove in a run and scored two runs.

Joella Neal also had a pair of hits and drove in two and Macy McCall singled twice.

After falling behind 7-2, Slippery Rock cut into the Hickory lead with two runs in the bottom of the fifth.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth inning and two outs, Hindman hit a shot right at Hickory left-fielder Amanda Perrico to end the threat.

“If that gets by her,” Dan Hindman said, “you’re probably looking at a tie game.”

As it is, Slippery Rock will enter the playoffs for the first time since 2000 and with the most wins since that season.

“Fortunately, we have a few younger players playing and a few older players playing, too, and we played some together through the summer months, which really helped us,” Dan Hindman said. “They’re young and they’re going to get better. They’ve made some great strides and when (Cheyenne) is on the mound, you have a chance.”

Hickory 100 150 0 — 7 10 0

Slippey Rock 101 020 0 — 4 10 1

W: Sabrina Black 7IP (1K, 1BB). L: Cheyenne Hindman 7IP (9K, 4BB).

Hickory (8-7, 6-2): Hannah Gallagher 2B 2-R, Paige Rush 3B 1B RBI, Black 2B RBI, Michaela Layshock 2B 1B, Amanda Leist 1B 2B RBI, Aliza Scheuermann 1B 2-RBI, Leslie Gargano 1B RBI

Slippery Rock (12-3, 6-2): Macy McCall 2-1B, Hindman 2B 1B RBI 2-R, Alexis Vogan 1B RBI, Joella Neal 2-1B 2-RBI, Megan Mingione 1B, Brynn Horner 2-1B

TBD: Slippery Rock in District 10, Class AAA playoffs