LeFlore fights through state quarterfinal
LeFlore’s softball team had a strong start, but battled from behind while losing its Class A state quarterfinal 12-7 to Lookeba Sickles on Tuesday at USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.
Harley Robinson hit a two-run single in the top of the first inning. Lookeba-Sickles was ahead 3-2 at the end of the inning.
“They were all excited. They weren’t intimidated by it, even though all of them except a couple of them had never been to the state tournament,” LeFlore head coach Jason Waits said.
Following LookebaSickles’ two-run second inning, LeFlore (21-18) scored Lori Cogburn on an error and Kaylen Hudlow on Bryson Brown’s single to get within 5-4 in the top of the third.
“We kept fighting, but Lookeba was fielding it really well. They were in the right spot a lot of times, even when we had line drives at the end, they were standing right behind second base. They had some good field shifts on us. We still hit the ball pretty well,” Waits said.
Lookeba-Sickles stretched the margin to 9-4 by the fourth inning.
Hudlow and Makinsie Pebley scored on sacrifice flies in the top of the fifth, narrowing it to 9-6.
After three LookebaSickles sixth-inning runs, LeFlore scored its last run on a sacrifice fly with two outs in the top of the seventh with Cogburn crossing the plate.
Robinson had a hit, a walk and three RBIs. Pebley and Cogburn both had a hit and a walk.
This was LeFlore’s first appearance at the slowpitch state tournament since 2019.