The Preston Lady Pirate varsity slowpitch softball team saw their bid for a state tournament appearance fall short last Wednesday at Dale High School.
The Preston Lady Pirate varsity slowpitch softball team saw their bid for a state tournament appearance fall short last Wednesday at Dale High School.
The Lady Pirates had their season come to a close last Wednesday with back-to-back losses a the Class 4A regional championships, falling to the host Dale Lady Pirates by a 13-3 margin and coming up on the short end of a 23-12 decision to the Heavener Lady Wolves in the loser’s bracket semifinals.
The Preston diamond squad finishes 2022 with a 16-14 record and ranked 13th in Class 4A.
In last Wednesday’s opening-round meeting with Dale, the host Lady Pirates opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first. The Preston squad cut the deficit in half, 2-1, with a run in the top of the second.
Dale tallied two runs in the home half of the second for a 4-1 margin then added eight in the third to lead 12-1 after three innings of action.
The Preston ladies pushed across two runs in the top of the fourth to make it a 12-3 contest, while Dale plated a run in the bottom of the fifth to end the game on the run rule, 13-3.
Celeste Pineda was the top offensive performer for the Preston squad in the loss, going 2 for 2 with a pair of doubles and 2 RBIs.
The other five Preston base hits against Dale came on singles by Kate Smith, Kinlee Basquez, Kylea Quammen, and Jade Horn and an RBI double by Karris Tecumseh.
Other Preston baserunners in the opening-round contest were Smith (fielder’s choice) and Jadyn Roberts (fielder’s choice).
In the season-ending loss to Heavener, the Lady Wolves opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the top of the first.
The Lady Pirates broke onto the scoreboard with a run in the bottom of the second to cut the deficit in half, 2-1, after two innings of action.
After Heavener made it a 7-1 contest with five runs in the top of the third, the Preston squad erupted for eight runs in the home half of the frame to take over the lead at 9-7.
Both teams tallied three runs in their half of the fourth to make it a 12-10 Preston advantage after four innings of play.
Heavener regained the lead at 15-12 with five runs in the top of the fifth then plated eight runs in the sixth for a 23-12 margin.
The Lady Pirates were unable to produce any runs in the bottom of the sixth to suffer the season-ending 23- 12 setback.
The Preston squad finished with 12 hits in the contest, led by Celeste Pineda, who went 3 for 4 with three singles and a walk.
The duo of Kate Smith (2 for 4, 2 singles) and Kylea Quammen (2 for 2, single, double, 3 RBIs) also recorded multi-hit games for the Lady Pirates against Heavener with two hits each. Quammen also drew a pair of walks in the contest, including an RBI base-on-balls in the third.
The other base hits for the Preston diamond squad in the loss came on a single by Pheobey Finch, RBI single by McKenna Jones, RBI double by Karris Tecumseh, 2-run double by Jadyn Roberts, and 3-run single by Emilie Stidman.
Other baserunners against Heavener were Tecumseh (fielder’s choice), Jones (2 walks), Finch (walk), Kinlee Basquez (error), and Jade Horn (RBI fielder’s choice, walk).
Class 4A Regional Tournament
First Round
Dale 13, Preston 3
Preston: 0 - 1 - 0 - 2 - 0 3 - 7 - 0
Dale: 2 - 2 - 8 - 0 - 1 13 - 14 - 0
WP: Caram
LP: McKenna Jones
HR: Dale: Parkman, Caram (2), Snyder
Consolation Semifinals
Heavener 23, Preston 12
Heavener: 2 - 0 - 5 - 3 - 5 - 8 23 - 21 - 2
Preston: 0 - 1 - 8 - 3 - 0 - 0 12 - 12 - 2
WP: Morrison
LP: McKenna Jones
HR: Heavener: McGee (2)
