Morris senior Avery Tittle was entranced with softball at a young age. When she was little, she would watch her brother play and knew she wanted to take up the sport she saw him enjoy so much.

“My brother has played baseball his whole life, and, so, naturally I wanted to play softball and play it competitively like he did,” Tittle said.

Tittle started playing at the age of four and never stopped since, and has spent the majority of her life out on the softball field. She played all of her high school career and has plans to continue on in college. Softball wasn’t the only sport that Tittle lent her skills. Tittle spent three years of high school on the basketball court.

“Then, basketball, I don’t know, I just saw it and wanted to try it,” Tittle said. “I’m sure my parents wanted me to try it too.”

In her senior year, Tittle helped lead the Morris High School’s fastpitch team to a 14-18 record under the watchful eye of new head coach Ed Vaughn, who also coaches baseball at Morris. The Lady Eagles started strong in the fastpitch season with five consecutive wins at the Cushing Tournament in August of 2019.

“It’s been good,” Tittle said about her senior year. “My team was good. We all worked together to get better and definitely [had] a competitive atmosphere throughout my four years of high school.”

In the third round of the Cushing Tournament, Tittle smacked a grand slam to win and contributed to the Lady Eagles 14-4 win. Throughout the Cushing Tournament, Tittle reigned in a total of four hits, including the grand slam and three singles. Her batting power resulted in eight RBIs for the Lady Eagles.

Morris hit a slump shortly after with the Lady Eagles struggling at the plate. Beggs posed a problem for the Lady Eagles. However, Tittle was one of four Lady Eagles who earned a hit off of Beggs Lady Demons pitcher Kaci Phelps in their second matchup. The Lady Eagles eventually pulled themselves out of their losing streak.

An early loss to the Lady Dragons didn’t deter Morris. Leading a comeback against Preston, the Lady Eagles claimed an 8-7 win at the Morris Tournament.

Tittle smacked an RBI single during the game and catapulted the Lady Eagles into another win over Pocola, 5-4.

Though they never truly regained their stride, the Lady Eagles were able to obtain five more wins before the postseason. Entering the regional tournament, the Lady Eagles were struggling to overcome a recent four-game losing streak. A loss to Pocola in the first round put the Lady Eagles in the consolation bracket, but they were able to pull off a 6-5 win in the second round to keep their season going.

Antlers started with a run in the top of the second inning, but the Lady Eagles overturned their 1-0 lead with a tworun scorestreak in the bottom of the third. Walks gave the Lady Eagles a 2-1 advantage; however, Antlers came back with a run in the fifth inning to tie the game 2-2-.

Another run from the Antlers Lady Cats put the Lady Eagles behind 3-2 in the sixth inning. Tittle contributed to the Lady Eagles’ three-run burst, earning an RBI single to put her team ahead 4-3.

It came down to just one run with the Lady Eagles securing the win off a solo homer from Jessica Wilson, 6-5.

Adair, who was ranked No. 7 in Class 3A, sealed the Lady Eagles’ fastpitch season. The Lady Eagles allowed Adair an early 9-0 lead in the first inning. Unable to make a solid comeback, the Lady Eagles fell 17-4.

Tittle’s slowpitch season also had a strong start this year with the Lady Eagles going 3-3 before their season got cut short due to COVID-19.

“It’s definitely unfortunate, but I will say that I’m glad that it was my slowpitch season instead of my fastpitch season,” Tittle said. “If it would have been my fastpitch season, that would have been really more devastating, but, still, it in any circumstances, whatever season, it’s still disappointing. I’m excited to move on and go play college ball.”

Tittle had 11 at-bats throughout the season and brought in five RBIs. The Lady Eagles had strong moments in the 2020 slowpitch season, including a 23-9 stomping of Foil. Tittle had multiple hits for the Lady Eagles, including an RBI double and three RBI singles.

It wasn’t until the Beggs slowpitch Tournament that the Lady Eagles hit their first road bump. The Lady Eagles fell to Bixby and Haskell due to a slow offensive. Out of 42 at-bats, the Lady Eagles only had seven hits against Haskell and five hits against Bixby.

“I thought it was going good,” Tittle said in regard to the Lady Eagles’ slowpitch season. “We lacked some of our fastpitch players, especially our upper classmen, but we were definitely getting better every game. So, it was going good. It was.”

With graduation just around the corner, Tittle has already committed to the next step in her softball career. She signed to play with Ft. Scott Community College and will be exchanging the orange and black of the Lady Eagles for the grey and red of the Lady Greyhounds, who are coached by Kae Lani Bryan.

“I’m so excited to have to play softball just every day and to play with some great players, play against them, and make even more memories and friendships,” Tittle said. “I’m just excited to better myself to go off to a four-year college. To just experience life.”

Though she’s excited to take on collegiate ball, Tittle will miss certain things about the Lady Eagles.

“I will miss the dugout, our cheers, and everything, and how we would get just so loud,” Tittle said. “I [will] miss going to Sonic before the games and trying to hurry up and get back in time.”

The Ft. Scott Lady Greyhounds had a 5-6 overall record before the NJCAA called off the remainder of the season due to concerns about COVID-19.