Extra effort pays off for Southmoore
Southmoore coach Jason Lingo had a reason to be nervous.
Deer Creek loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth inning of Friday' s Class 6 A state softball semifinal trailing by one run. Southmoore pitcher Brinly Maples had just thrown two balls to make it a 3-2 count.
“I thought the two balls before hand were really close ,” Lin go said .“I thought the girl was taking her l i fe i n her own hands by t aking t hose ki nds of pitches. … I told our pitcher, throw it as hard as you can right down the middle.”
Maples reared back and threw a fastball across the plate. Once again the Deer Creek batter didn't swing but this time, the umpire punched her out.
The SaberCats ran to near home plate and hugged each other to celebrate their 2-1 win Friday afternoon at the
USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex.
The Sabercats scored both of their runs in the seventh and eighth inning after being held to just one hit the first six innings by Deer Creek pitcher Terin Ritz.
But impressive base running gave Southmoore life in the seventh inning.
Brooklyn Wilson entered t he game as a runner.
She stole second and then advanced to third on a sacrifice fly from Maples.
Taitum Bradshaw then hit a ground ball to the short stop and Wilson took off and slid into the home plate to beat the tag.
In the eighth inning, Wilson again entered the game as a runner as Southmoore faced a firstand-third situation. After a pitch, Wilson trotted out to second where she intentionally was caught in a pickle. Riley Sharp, who was at third, took off for home and slid just around the tag for the goahead run.
After coming back to win in the final inning of the quarterfinals on Thursday, Southmoore came back late in the semifinals to top Deer Creek in extra innings on Friday.
“I really am proud of our kids and their resiliency because overall we' re really young ,” Lingo said .“We don't have any seniors out on the field in the starting lineup. So for those kids to have never been in this situation, they've done an excellent job.”
South moore will try to win its first fastpitch state championship in four years Saturday against Owasso at 5 p.m.