Southmoore eyes another 6A title
The Classes 6A-4A fastpitch softball state tournaments continued Friday at the USA Softball Hall of Fame Complex. Here's a quick recap of the semifinals.
Class 6A
Southmoore 5, Mustang 1: Kaylee Carter stepped to the plate with another opportunity to put Southmoore ahead. The sophomore had already smashed a solo home run in the second inning. Now, she stood in a tie game with the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth inning. Carter delivered with a two-RBI single to put the defending champions ahead and the SaberCats rode the advantage to the win.
Southmoore bested Mustang 5-1 to advance back to the Class 6A state championship game. Carter finished with two hits and three RBI.
"I give our girls credit," Southmoore coach Jason Lingo said. "They didn't back down and they stayed the course long enough for our sophomore Kaylee Carter to give us the early lead on the solo shot and it bought us enough time to not be nervous for the rest of them to come to the rescue and join the party."
After Carter's home run, Mustang's Arionna McElroy hit a solo home run of her own in the fifth inning to tie the game. But Southmoore was too much for the Broncos to handle and blew the game open in the fifth and sixth innings, plating four runs.
Every Southmoore batter got on base in the semifinal matchup, with nine recording hits and Lexi Hernandez drawing three walks. The SaberCats, who returned all 10 of its keys starters from last year's state championship team, will defend its title against Owasso on Saturday.
Owasso 8, Stillwater 0:
Preslee Downing struck out eight batters, allowed three walks and gave up just three hits in the seven innings pitched.
Owasso put runs across in the first, third, fifth and sixth innings to tally eight runs on eight hits. Addi Drummond and Downing recorded the team's five RBI with Drummond getting four.
Class 5A
Piedmont 1, Pryor 0: Karissa Fiegener has been special for Piedmont all season. And she continued her hot streak, slapping a double to right field in Piedmont's first at-bat of the game. But that was just the start of her impact in the semifinal.
With Fiegener standing on second, Piedmont faked a bunt and the Pryor catcher missed the ball.
"We got a lucky bounce," Piedmont coach Keith Coleman said. "Lucky I didn't stop (Fiegener) from running from second."
On a passed ball, Fiegener scored from second base. The lone run in the first inning was all the cushion pitcher Payton Schibbelhute needed to seal the win.
Coweta, 10, Durant 5: Sierra Soto had a chance to finally put Coweta on top. The defending state champions once again found themselves behind in the state tournament. But Soto made sure the result was the same as it was in the quarterfinals. A win for Coweta.
With a tie game, in the bottom of the sixth inning, after Kayley Lott hit an RBI single, Soto smacked the go-ahead RBI single to center field to score Dasia Mason. And Coweta added four more runs from there.
After falling behind four runs, Coweta stormed back to take a 10-5 comefrom-behind win over Durant. Coweta totaled 16 hits in the semifinal to advance to the Class 5A state final.
Class 4A
Tecumseh 5, Tuttle 4: Tuttle plated four runs in the final inning, but Tecumseh held on to knock off the defending state champions 5-4 on INTEGRIS Field. Tecumseh scored all five of its runs in the fifth inning.
After Vivian Hayes knocked in Samantha Schweighardt for an RBI single. Bristin Hayes hit a grand slam.
Lone Grove 8, Plainview 0: Emma Wilson threw a one-hit seven-inning shutout to lead Lone Grove over Plainview, 8-0, to advance back to the Class 4A state championship. Plainview's Brooklyn Charnock recorded the lone hit in the second inning.
Lone Grove opened the game with three runs in the first inning before adding another in the third. Lone Grove then put four more across in the fifth inning. C.J. Yeatts, Logan Ketchum, Jordan Ramsey and Mattie Roj all had two RBI to lead to the dominant offense.
With the win, Lone Grove extends its win streak to 24. They'll have to overcome Tecumseh, the team that gave them their last loss, to win it all.