Poteau gains ground with key win
Poteau’s softball team won a pair of early-week home games to stay in the thick of the district race.
In a critical game for contention among the top teams in District 4A-8 on Tuesday, Poteau rallied with 10 runs in its last two turns at bat for an 11-9 win against Stigler.
“Big win for us. We’ve just got to take care of Broken Bow,” Poteau head coach Ryan Dill said, referring to Poteau’s game today at Broken Bow at 4:30 p.m. “We still will need a little bit of help, and we may get it.”
After trailing 5-1 in the middle of the fifth, Poteau tied it with two-run doubles by Parker Patterson and Maggie Wheat in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“I got them together,” referring to his first three batters of the fifth inning, Emery Lomon, Emma Hackler and Parker Patterson, “and I said, ‘You three are going to lead us. I don’t need one of you on base. I need all three of you on base. You don’t know what might happen after that. Those three all got on base. Look what happened,” Dill said.
In the sixth, Lomon led off with a double and scored the go-ahead run on an error after Hackler put down a bunt.
After Hackler crossed the plate on an error, Wheat hit a home run over the centerfield wall to give Poteau an 11-5 lead and finish with five runs batted in.
“[Stigler] kind of didn’t take it too well,” Dill said of his team’s rally. “They got down on their side, and then Maggie hit one into the tree.”
Stigler scored four runs, including three on errors with two outs, but Poteau sealed it on a pop fly to get within a game in the loss column of Stigler and Broken Bow.
Lomon went 4-for-5. Hackler had a hit, a walk and an RBI. She also threw five strikeouts.
Morgan Hagen went 2-for-2.
Poteau won 9-5 against Sallisaw on Monday, pulling away with a fifth-inning home run and a shutdown relief appearance by Hackler.
“We have a little inexperience on defense. We’ve been good, but sporadic at times. A couple of long balls did us some good,” Dill said.
Hagen hit a run-scoring double in the bottom of the second inning.
After Sallisaw scored two runs in the top of the third, Poteau answered with five in the bottom half of the inning. Lomon singled, stole second and third base and scored on a groundout by Hackler to start the spurt.
Abby Martin scored on a Kennedy Cox single. Two batters later, Wheat knocked a run-scoring double and scored when Hagen reached base on an error.
Hackler led off the fourth with a home run over the centerfield wall for a 7-2 lead. Two errors in the top of the fifth precipitated two Sallisaw runs.
Hagen’s two-run shot hit the Lady Pirates sign above the centerfield wall, putting Poteau’s lead at 9-5 lead.
Relieving Briley Bowman in the sixth inning, Hackler held Sallisaw to one hit while throwing five strikeouts in two innings.
Poteau has three district games left after today. District 4A-8 standings