Thursday's 4-team regional tournament with a heartbreaking 13-11 setback to Calera. The Lady Knights then avoided a season-ending loss last Friday with a 22-9 win over the Pocola Lady Indians
State Bound
Thursday's 4-team regional tournament with a heartbreaking 13-11 setback to Calera. The Lady Knights then avoided a season-ending loss last Friday with a 22-9 win over the Pocola Lady Indians in the consolation semifinal round.
The season-saving victory put the Henryetta ladies in the consolation title game against Calera, who suffered a 17-13 loss to host Howe in the regional championship game.
The Lady Knights are scheduled to compete in the Class 4A state tournament Wednesday at The Ballfields at Firelake in Shawnee. The Henryetta diamond squad's first obstacle Wednesday is the top-ranked - and defending 4A state champion - Dale Lady Pirates at 10 a.m. on Field 3. A win over Dale will put the Lady Knights in the state semifinals Wednesday at 4 p.m. against the winner of a first-round meeting between 10th-ranked Washington and seventh-ranked Valliant, who squared off on Field 3 at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The Class 4A state championship game is scheduled to take place Wednesday at 7 p.m. on Field 3 at The Ballfields at Firelake in Shawnee.
A loss at any time in the first two rounds of the state tournament will bring the Lady Knights' season to a close.
In the opening-round loss to Calera, the Lady Knights led 3-2 after one inning of action. After a scoreless second, Calera took the third inning by a 5-2 margin to make it a 7-5 lead for the Lady Bulldogs.
A 2-1 margin for Calera in the fourth made it a 9-6 contest.
The Lady Knights tallied five runs in their final three at-bats, while Calera put up four runs in the bottom of the sixth to hand the Henryetta ladies the 13-11 setback.
HOWE - For the first time since 2015, the Henryetta Lady Knights earned the chance to be one of eight teams to play in the slowpitch softball championship in Class 4A.
The Lady Knights punched their ticket to the state slowpitch softball tournament with a 17-2, run-rule, win over the Calera Lady Bulldogs in the consolation championship game of the Class 4A regional tournament last Friday at Howe High School.
The Henryetta ladies began last
Complete offensive statistics in the opening-round loss for Henryetta were not available.
In last Friday's consolation semifinals against Pocola, the Lady Knights took the opening inning 2-1, then erupted for 11 runs in the top of the second for a 13-1 advantage.
The Henryetta lead was extended to 16-1 with three runs in the top of the third, while Pocola plated five runs in the bottom of the third to make it a 16-6 contest after three innings of action.
Pocola pushed across a run in the bottom of the fourth to cut the Henryetta lead to nine, 16-7.
After a scoreless fifth, both teams tallied two runs in their half of the sixth to send the elimination game to the final inning of regulation with Henryetta in front 18-9.
The Lady Knights plated four runs in the top of the seventh to put the finishing touches on their 22-9, season-saving, victory.
The duo of Autumn Blackbear (4 for 5, 2 singles, 2 home runs, 4 RBIs) and Hulleah Wincle (4 for 5, 4 singles) led the offensive attack for Henryetta with four hits apiece. Autumn Blackbear's home runs came on a solo shot in the second and a 3-run blast in the seventh.
Next offensively for the Lady Knights was Jalynn Joslin, who went 3 for 5 with two singles, home run, and 3 RBIs. Joslin's roundtripper came on a 3-run shot in the second.
Other Henryetta batters with multi-hit games against Pocola were Kasedi Gobin (2 for 5, single, home run, 4 RBIs), Lauren Lee (2 for 5, single, home run, 2 RBIs), Mattie Blackbear (2 for 5, single, home run, 3 RBIs), and Lexi Lollis (2 for 4, single, double, 2 RBIs) with two hits apiece. Gobin's home run came on a 3-run blast in the third, while Lee's roundtripper came on a 2-run shot in the first and Mattie Blackbear's home run came on a 2-run blast in the second.
The final three hits for the Lady Knights came on singles by Katelyn Dwiggins and Emily Smith and a 2-run single by Kaylie Hamric.
Other baserunners for Henryetta in the elimination game were Dwiggins (walk, fielder's choice), Gobin (error), Joslin (2 errors), Lollis (error), Smith (error), Avery Miller (walk, error), and Mattie Blackbear (error).
In the consolation championship, the Lady Knights led 9-1 after one and 12-2 after two.
After the Henryetta defense kept Calera off the scoreboard in the top of the third, the Henryetta offense brought the contest to a close with a 5-run bottom of the third, giving the Lady Knights a 17-2, run-rule, win and a trip to the 4A state tournament.
The Henryetta offense was led by Kasedi Gobin (2 for 3, single, home run, RBI), Lauren Lee (2 for 4, single, home run, RBI), Avery Miller (2 for 3, single, home run, 3 RBIs), Hulleah Wincle (2 for 2, single, double, 3 RBIs), and Lexi Lollis (2 for 2, single, home run, 3 RBIs) with two hits each. The home runs by Gobin (solo) and Lollis (3-run) came in the first, while Lee's roundtripper came on a solo blast in the second. Miller's home run was a game-ending 3-run shot in the third.
The final five base hits for the Lady Knights against Calera came on singles by Mattie Blackbear and Autumn Blackbear, RBI singles by Katelyn Dwiggins and Kaylie Hamric, and a solo home run in the second by Jalynn Joslin.
Other baserunners for Henryetta in the consolation championship game were Lee (walk), Joslin (error), Miller (error), Dwiggins (error), and Autumn Blackbear (error).