Chuck Larsen
DUNCAN – The host and ninth-ranked Lady Demons punched their ticket to state Thursday with an ugly 5-1 win over No. 10 Chickasha in their Regional championship game.
It was the type of game Chick fans have seen too often this season – killing a rally with some horrible base-running, not coming through with the bats and errors on routine balls.
The Chicks turned the game around for the Demons in the second inning when Heather Doudy unconsciously ran right into a tag at home and Paige Hightower got picked off at second in the same play.
Chick left fielder Evan Bush dropped Caylin Lynch’s two-out fly ball in the Duncan third, allowing an unearned run, then four gaffes in the fourth handed Duncan four more runs, three of them unearned.
Shortstop Kayla Woods booted Madison Pewitt’s leadoff ground ball, Singleton threw the ball away on Ashley Green’s sacrifice bunt then center fielder Ellee Powell muffed Mackenzie Gibbs’ fly ball and made a bad throw-in to score two runs. Powell and right fielder Brooke Cooper didn’t hustle after a single hit in between them by Ashlee Perkins, turning it into an RBI double and a 4-0 lead.
Powell’s third error gave Lynch an extra two bases on her fifth-inning leadoff single, allowing her to score on Sarah Harper’s infield groundout for Duncan’s fifth run.
The mistakes spilled over on offense. Woods singled with two outs in the third but Whitney Adams popped up swinging at the first pitch before she could move into scoring position. With runners on second and third in the fourth, Powell looked at a called third strike right up the gut.
Chickasha finally put something together in the home seventh. Powell reached on a fielder’s choice, Cooper walked and Woods doubled to score Powell before Adams bounced back to the box for the third out.
