Lady Pirates capture 3^rd straight LCT

By CRAIG HALL
PANAMA—A third-straight LeFlore County Tournament did not look good for Poteau here Wednesday night.

Pocola had just forced another game for the championship with a last-inning rally and scored three runs in the bottom of the first.

But Poteau turned the tables on the Lady Indians with its own last-inning rally and the Lady Pirates captured another LCT championship with a 10-5 win over Pocola.

Photo by CRAIG HALL Heavener catcher Arin Morris chases down Poteau's Courtney Allison in the Lady Pirates' 11-8 win Wednesday afternoon.

Pocola had forced the extra game by scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh to win, 11-10, to give the Lady Indians a chance at the championship.

In the second game, the Lady Pirates tied the score at 5-5 in the sixth inning, then scored five runs in the top of the seventh as Olivia Howerton got the rally started with a single. Katie Pierce also singled before Megan Ryburn grounded out, but the winning run scored on the play.

Tournament MVP Courtney Allison tripled to left to knock in Pierce before Brenna Vise, Kylie Brown and Natalie King followed with singles to score the five runs.

This time, Poteau shut down the Lady Indians in the bottom of the seventh and the Lady Pirates could finally celebrate.

Allison had earlier doubled in the fifth inning to drive in two runs and bring Poteau within one run. Pierce also had a great game, going 3-4 and scoring twice.

Poteau also got a couple of big plays by Kylie Cross in the first inning to keep the deficit from even being larger. From left field, Cross threw two Lady Indians out at the plate to keep Pocola from scoring two more runs to go with the three.

The Lady Pirates needed the big game to overcome Pocola’s Taylor Martindale, who had two singles and a triple.

Martindale was also part of the last-inning rally in the earlier game as she scored along with Megan Severe and Tiffany Krigbaum.

In the opening game of the day, Poteau defeated Heavener in the winners’ bracket final, 11-8 despite Taylor Collins hitting her 25^th home run of the year. After Heavener rallied to tie the game at 5-5 in the top of the fourth, Poteau answered with six runs in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead for good.

Also in the early games, Panama eliminated Whitesboro, 8-6, and Pocola send Bokoshe home with a 10-3 win.

That was when Pocola’s bats got hot. The Lady Indians then beat Panama 17-5 and downed Heavener, 18-8, to eliminate the Lady Wolves. Heavener had beaten Pocola 17-7 on Tuesday to send the Lady Indians to the losers’ bracket but this time it was over early.