Lady Jackets come from behind for clutch win

It’s the kind of grit Morgan Dutton wants to see.

“You got punched early,” the Kingfisher High School softball coach told her team. “But you kept punching back.”

And Kingfisher got the last punch Tuesday evening.

Callie Blair’s one-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning scored Leni Murray from second base as the Lady Jackets grabbed a 4-3 come-from-behind home win against Weatherford.

“That’s the kind of fight I want to see the rest of the way,” Dutton told her team, which got its second District 4A-3 win in as many days.

It evened the season series with Weatherford, the defending state champ that beat KHS 6-4 on Sept. 4.

The victory moved KHS to 5-4 in the district with three games remaining in the regular season.

The Lady Jackets are now in a logjam with the Lady Eagles, Woodward and Bethany for second place in the district behind Elk City.

Kingfisher still has games remaining against the Boomers and Bronchos.

The Lady Jackets got punched early with three big hits.

Two of them were off the bats of the first two batters in the game, Weatherford’s Kaitlyn Bryant and Jossalyn Schulz.

Bryant slapped a groundrule double to lead off for Weatherford and then Schulz, who hit two homers against Kingfisher in their first showdown, powered one to the left-center field wall.

Kingfisher centerfielder Kendall Farrar made a play on the ball, leaping into the air.

That led to the third punch.

The ball went just out of Farrar’s reach and the sophomore collided with the wall at the same time the ball did.

As she crumpled to the turf, the ball caromed into the outfield enough that both Bryant and Schulz scored on the play.

After taking some time to recuperate and being checked out by coaches, Farrar stayed in the game. She would make her mark later, but at the plate instead of in the outfield wall.

And after giving up the two big hits to start the game, KHS freshman Kennedy Stewart settled in for the Lady Jackets in the circle.

She held Weatherford scoreless the rest of the first and didn’t give up a run again until the sixth inning.

Kingfisher managed to tie the game for the first time in the bottom of the third inning.

Farrar led off the inning by reaching on an error and scored two batters later when Kinlee East slapped a double to right field.

After Addison Johnson reached on an error, advancing East to third base, Shelby Davis tied it up by legging out an infield single.

Bryant and Mills struck again in the top of the sixth.

Bryant reached on a oneout single and moved to third on a double by Schulz.

Bryant then put the visitors up 3-2 on Payton Mills’ RBI sacrifice fly.

The Lady Jackets struck back.

Liliana Garramone led off the bottom half of the sixth with a double. She eventually got to third base before Farrar was able to do her part with her bat.

Her fly ball with one out was deep enough to score Garramone and tie the game.

Stewart worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning, which provided the home team the chance to win it in the bottom half.

They got off to a great start as East led off with a single, her third hit of the game.

Johnson followed with a walk, then Davis reached on a fielder’s choice as the Lady Eagles forced out East at third on a ground ball. Dutton sent Murray in to run for Johnson at second and Ryan Scammahorn for Davis at first.

That set up Blair, who had already reached base twice in three previous atbats via walks.

This time she popped the second pitch of the appearance just between the first baseman and right fielder.

Neither could get it and Murray raced home for the winning run.Stewart gave up just four hits in her seven innings and all four were to Bryant and Schulz.

Those two went a combined 4 for 6 with 2 RBIs and accounted for all three runs.The rest of the lineup was 0 for 19.

Stewart struck out two and didn’t surrender a walk.

East was 3 for 4 with an RBI and run scored.Garramone was 3 for 3 with a run while Davis went 2 for 4 with an RBI.

Farrar finished with a goose egg on her eye, one hit, one run and an RBI.