Pocola dumps defending champs for third SP title
Pocola showed nerves of steel in winning the Class 3A state slow-pitch championship at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Stadium on Tuesday, its third slow-pitch state title and first in 15 years.
Several weeks after winning the Class 2A state basketball title, Pocola became the first group of female athletes in LeFlore County to win multiple state titles in a school year.
“They are a playoff veteran team, and it showed today,” Pocola head coach Eddie Combs said.
Pocola (28-4) found major contributions from both its best player and the last hitter in the lineup.
Allyssa Parker was a threat each time she stepped to the plate, reaching base in every plate appearance with six hits and seven walks while driving in four runs. In the first two games at state, she hit home runs in her first at bat and was intentionally walked each time henceforth.
“I just try to hit the ball hard because I know if I hit the ball hard, it will find the gap somewhere,” she said.
Pocola’s No. 10 hitter, Presleigh Riggs went 5-for-8 with a walk and three runs batted in.
“For our 10 hole, to come through and have the hits that she had was the difference of us winning,” Combs said.
Against Morrison in the state final, Pocola broke away early en route to a 9-3 win against the defending champion.
“To beat the defending champs and hold them to three runs with the offense that they’ve got, I couldn’t be more happy,” Combs said.
Parker sparked a fourrun first inning by belting a double down the left field line. Lety Parga hit a two-run double.
Pocola doubled its advantage to 8-0 in the second inning with a runscoring single by Parker, an RBI double by Kylee Smith, a sacrifice fly by Kail Chitwood that scored Parker and a run-scoring single by Maci Maxwell.
Before her RBI single, Parker drilled a foul ball to the left side. Later, she acknowledged that she was sending a message.
“I was swinging for the fences on that pitch,” she said.
Parker stepped on second base and threw it to first for a double play to end the top of the third inning. In the fourth, she jumped high to catch a line drive.
Smith went 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Parker was 3-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Parga was 2-for-3.
Just as she did in the Class 2A state basketball semifinal, Chitwood delivered in the clutch for Pocola in the slow-pitch semifinal against Latta to put her team in the state championship game.
Seven-and-a-half weeks after making the winning layup against Dale in overtime of the state basketball semifinal, Chitwood led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a double and scored on an error for the 9-8 win as the Latta third baseman was unable to catch a throw and the ball rolled into Pocola’s dugout.
“What an ending,” Combs said. “We took advantage of a miscue late. It all started with Kail’s bigtime double to start the inning. Maci’s fly ball was just deep enough where the outfielder felt like she needed to rush the throw, and it was a bad throw, but I’ll take it in that situation, but that’s a perennial state tournament team. I’m so proud of them to battle back against that kind of team.”
Latta had tied it with a two-run home run in the top of the seventh.
After Latta came within 7-6 in the top of the sixth, Kylee Merritt scored on a double play in the bottom half of the inning.
Latta led 4-2 in the top of the third inning before Pocola took control by scoring on an error and a sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the inning for a 5-4 edge and made it 7-4 with a run-scoring single by Riggs and an RBI fielder’s choice of Madison Linker’s bat in the fourth.
Parker hit a two-run home run in the first inning and was intentionally walked in her ensuing three plate appearances.
Linker had a hit, a walk and two RBIs. Riggs went 3-for-3. Mika Scott had a hit and a walk.
Pocola had two big innings in beating Apache 13-7 in its quarterfinal.
Maxwell hit a two-run single in a four-run bottom of the first inning that gave Pocola the 4-2 lead.
Parker hit a home run over the left-field fence in the bottom of the second inning.
After an Apache home run in the third and a bases-loaded walk in the fourth narrowed the margin to 5-4, Parker scored on an error in the bottom of the fourth.
Following a tying Apache two-run home run to straightaway center field in the top of the fifth, Pocola took hold with a six-run bottom half of the inning.
After Parga scored on an error and Kylee Merritt scored on a sacrifice fly, Pocola took advantage of pitching control issues. After intentionally walking Parker, Apache tossed four straight balls in front of Kylee Smith to bring in a run.
After a two-run single by Chitwood, Smith scored on an error.
Smith turned a double play in the top of the sixth, stepping on third base and throwing it to first base. Merritt doubled and scored in the bottom half of the inning.
Parker was 2-for-2 with three walks. Merritt doubled twice and walked. Chitwood had two hits and three RBIs. Smith had three walks and a hit. Riggs had a hit and two RBIs.
Parker savored winning another title in Scott and Linker’s senior year.
“It’s unreal. I’m so glad that we did it with this group of girls and we got to do it one last time with these seniors,” she said.