The Preston Lady Pirate varsity fastpitch softball team saw their bid for a state tournament appearance in 2022 fall by the wayside this past Friday with a 5-0 loss to the Oktaha Lady Tigers.
The Preston Lady Pirate varsity fastpitch softball team saw their bid for a state tournament appearance in 2022 fall by the wayside this past Friday with a 5-0 loss to the Oktaha Lady Tigers.
The season-ending shutout loss came in the loser’s bracket finals of the Class 2A Region 5 regional tournament in Silo.
The Lady Pirates began their regional tournament action last Thursday with a heartbreaking 5-4 loss to the Lady Tigers, then kept their state tournament dreams alive for at least one more game with a 15-5 thrashing of the Nowata Lady Ironmen last Thursday in the loser’s bracket semifinals.
The Preston softball squad closes out the 2022 campaign with a 25-10 record and a third-place finish in District 2A-7. In Friday’s season-ending loss, three Lady Pirate players - Jadyn Roberts, Hallie Hinds, and McKenna Jones - had their high school fastpitch sofball careers come to a close.
In last Thursday’s regional tournament opener, the Lady Pirates jumped out to an early 3-0 lead with a pair of runs in the top of the first and a run in the top of the second.
Oktaha cut the Preston lead to 3-1 with a run in the last of the third.
After a scoreless fourth, the Lady Pirates regained their 3-run advantage (4-1) with a run in the top of the fifth.
Oktaha pushed across two runs in the bottom of the fifth for a 4-3 contest, then deadlocked the score at 4-4 with a run in the home half of the sixth.
After the Lady Pirates were unable to regain the lead in the top of the seventh, Oktaha pushed across the game-winning run with no outs in the bottom of the inning to hand the Preston diamond squad the heartbreaking 5-4 setback.
The top offensive performers for the Lady Pirates last Thursday against Oktaha were Jadyn Roberts (2 for 3, 2 singles, RBI), Taylan Starr (2 for 4, 2 singles, 2 RBIs), and Na’Braijhanae Phillips (2 for 4, single, double) with two hits apiece.
The final Preston base hit in the regional opener came on a single by Josie Cope.
Other Lady Pirate baserunners in the narrow loss were Roberts (walk), Cope (walk), Kinlee Basquez (walk, fielder’s choice), Celeste Pineda (walk), Kristen Houlby (walk), and Pheobey Finch (fielder’s choice).
In last Thursday’s elimination game against Nowata, the Lady Pirates opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the top of the first. The Preston squad added a run in the second for a 3-0 margin, then erupted for nine runs in the third to extend their lead to double digits, 12-0.
Nowata broke up the shutout bid with a run in the home half of the third, while Preston pushed their lead to 15-1 with three runs in the top of the fourth.
After Nowata made it a 15-5 contest with four runs in the bottom of the fourth, neither team produced any runs in their half of the fifth to award the Lady Pirates the season-saving, run-rule, win.
Jadyn Roberts was the top hitter for Preston in the double-digit win, finishing 4 for 5 with four singles and 3 RBIs.
Other Lady Pirate batters with multi-hit games against Nowata were Emilie Stidman (2 for 4, 2 singles, 2 RBIs), Na’Braijhanae Phillips (2 for 4, single, double, 3 RBIs), Josie Cope (2 for 4, 2 singles, RBI), Kinlee Basquez (2 for 3, 2 singles), and Pheobey Finch (2 for 3, 2 singles) with two hits each.
The final three hits for Preston against Nowata came on RBI singles by Taylan Starr and Celeste Pineda and a 2-run single by Kristen Houlby.
Other Lady Pirate baserunners in the ‘must win’ game were Stidman (walk), Starr (walk, 2 fielder’s choices), Cope (error, fielder’s choice), Basquez (walk), Pineda (RBI walk, error), Houlby (fielder’s choice, hit by pitch), and Finch (walk).
One of Stidman’s RBIs against Nowata came on an RBI ground out in the fourth, while Phillips had an RBI sacrifice fly in the third.
In Friday’s season-ending shutout loss, the Lady Pirates were unable to produce runs in the seven-inning contest, leaving a total of eight baserunners on the basepaths.
Despite being shut out, the Preston offense scattered seven hits in the contest, led by Emilie Stidman (2 for 3, 2 singles) and Celeste Pineda (2 for 3, 2 singles) with two hits apiece.
The other three Lady Pirate hits in last Friday’s elimination game came on singles by Jadyn Roberts, Taylan Starr, and Kinlee Basquez. Starr also reached base on a fielder’s choice in the contest.
The first three and one-half innings of last Friday’s elimination game went scoreless.
Oktaha broke the scoreless deadlock with a run in the bottom of the fourth, then added a run in the fifth and three more in the sixth to hand the Lady Pirates the 5-0 setback.
--- Class 2A Regional Tournament First Round Oktaha 5, Preston 4
Preston:2-1-0-0-1-0-0 4-7-4 Oktaha:0-0-1-0-2-1-1 5-9-1 No outs when winning run scored WP: Needham LP: Kinlee Basquez HR: None --- Loser’s Bracket Semifinals Preston 15, Nowata 5
Preston: 2 - 1 - 9 - 3 - 0 15 - 17 - 2 Nowata:0-0-1-4-0 5-7-2 WP: Taylan Starr LP: Branstetter HR: None --- Loser’s Bracket Finals Oktaha 5, Preston 0
Preston:0-0-0-0-0-0-0 0-7-3 Oktaha:0-0-0-1-1-3-x 5-9-1 WP: Capps LP: Kinlee Basquez HR: None
