After jumping out to a 3-0 season start, the Durant Lady Lion softball ran into a trio of Class 6A juggernauts while dropping their final three contests in the Broken Arrow Festival last weekend.
Coach Jimmie Wyrick’s crew fed off the momentum of their opening win over Ardmore last week to throttle Antlers, 8-0, and then outlasted Dewey, 8-5, in its first outing at Broken Arrow. They ran into a buzz saw after that in falling to Southmoore (8-2), Broken Arrow (10-5) and Bixby (16-2).
The Lady Lions will face several stiff tests again this weekend at the Murray State Festival in Tishomingo.
In the Antlers victory, Durant scored in all but one inning while overcoming four errors to score the run rule win. Emma Sherrer was nearly perfect over four no-hit frames, striking out seven while recording the pitching decision. Kenzie Trotter yielded one hit through two frames of scoreless relief.
On the offensive side, Anslee Morse and Dasia Lewis were the Lady Lion catalysts as each contributed two hits, including a double apiece. Sherrer posted a hit and two RBI while Trotter had a hit and drove in one.
Facing a perennial state challenger in Dewey, Durant rallied with three runs in the final stanza to pick up the win. Harper Plymale opened the rally with a double and freshman Allee Cooper came through with the go-ahead single to left. Sherrer followed with a run-scoring hit as well before Cooper came across on an error.
Things got a little dicey in the bottom of the stanza, but Sherrer slammed the door, working around a couple of DHS errors and two hits while leaving three runners stranded. She allowed one earned run on nine hits and fanned three in the complete game victory.
Morse finished with three of Durant’s eight hits in the game. Lewis added one hit and two RBI with Cooper, Sherrer, Korbyn Robinson and Plymale each chipping in a hit.
Durant snagged an early 1-0 edge as Alli Pratt notched one of the two Lady Lion hits in the game with a second inning single but the powerhitting Southmoore bats answered with four tallies in the bottom of the frame as well as the third inning. The Lady Lions scored a final run on a Lewis RBI single in the fifth.
Against Broken Arrow, the Lady Lions dug an 8-0 hole before cutting the margin in half with four runs in the third stanza as all the tallies came across on a Lewis grand slam. Plymale and Cooper had hits in the fourth to lead to the final Durant run.
The Lady Lions picked up an early 2-1 lead over Bixby before the Spartans countered with 14 straight runs.
Morse and Cooper singled in front of a Robinson double during the early DHS uprising.
