TAKE STATE!
Newcastle fast-pitch softball head coach Mike Crossley is very excited to be heading back to the Class 4A state tournament today. If weather permits, his talented Racer bunch will face off at 11 a.m. against Grove, who is 28-8 and coached by Jeremy Collins.
“We’re going again to the state tournament and we’re excited,” said Crossley, who has led the Racers’ softball team to 26 of the last 31 state tournaments. “Grove is bound to be good. We’re going to have to play hard and be at the top of our game.”
Last week, the Racers ended the regular season on a great run. First, they beat the Lookeba-Sickles Panthers, 8-0, behind the pitching of junior Taryn O’Brien. She allowed just one hit during her best pitching performance of the year.
O’Brien tossed a shutout and the Racers offense started early. Kennedy Cook drove in a run in the first inning when she doubled. Emma Strange cracked a homer in the second inning.
Newcastle scored four more in the third inning, led by a single from Kelsey Housely and a double by Terra Funk. O’Brien allowed just a single by Angie Sandoval of Lookeba-Sickles. O’Brien struck out eight batters and walked none. Maebree Robertson, O’Brien, and Cook all had two hits against the Panthers. Last Thursday, Newcastle defeated the McLoud Redskins, 9-3, for another victory.
McKenzie Wagoner got things started for the Racers with an RBI hit in the first. The Racers busted the game open with four runs in the top of the seventh as Shannon Pursell, Anna Cox,
and Strange knocked
across key runs. O’Brien got credit for her second straight victory.
In the nightcap, the Racers defeated the Sulphur Bulldogs, 7-1, on Thursday. Wagoner’s sacrifice fly scored one for Newcastle in the first. In the third inning, Wagoner’s double on a 2-2 count scored another key run.
When Newcastle scored three in the sixth inning, the game was over. Wagoner was the winning pitcher, surrendering just one run on three hits over seven innings. She walked none and struck out
13.
Last Friday, the Racers punched their ticket to another state tournament berth with a 13-5 win over Sulphur. Wagoner was again the winning pitcher as she went the distance, allowing 11 hits and five runs while striking out six hitters.
Robertson (along with Emma and Grace Strange) had two hits to lead the Racers, who are now a sparkling 29-2 entering today’s Class 4A state tournament.
“It was a great run but it was a tough regional,” Crossley said. “We’ll take it. We earned it and the kids played well. We swung the bats extremely well and we’re proud of them. We didn’t play our best defense at times and we didn’t pitch our best at times. But, we were still pretty darn good.
“Overall, it was a good outing for us. We’ve now been to the state tournament 26 times in my 31 years. We’ve done ourselves proud and it’s pretty impressive. We just need to come together at the right time.”
Grove will, no doubt, be a very tough opening game for Newcastle. Should the Racers win that one, they would face the Lone Grove Longhorns (25-6), a team coached by Jimmy Miller and a club that Newcastle has already beaten twice this season – 3-0 on Aug. 17 and 8-1 on Sept. 27.
“We would have to go after them again,” Crossley said. “You just have to take it one game at a time. You can’t look ahead and get ahead of yourself. Grove will be a very tough matchup. If we win that one, we’ll play Lone Grove or Oolagah. And, I’ve heard that Oolagah can’t just flat out play!
“If we can get by Grove, we’ll just have another tough game ahead of us. We will just have to play them one game at a time and not get ahead of ourselves.”
The Tuttle Lady Tigers (32-1) are the winningest team in the Class 4A tourney. Their only loss was to Newcastle, 1-0, at the Chisholm Trail Tournament earlier this season. The Tigers are coached by Rebecca Cobb.
“They’re like us,” Crossley said. “They have a great tradition. They’re tough every year and their girls know how to win. It has been an on-going battle between us for over 30 years. It would be really special to meet them in the finals.
“But, both of us have our hands full. We would both have to play well to get there. It’s a very special tournament. You have to earn your right to make it. You don’t get invited to it. We’ll have to go out and perform well. I’ve had teams that get nervous and try to do too much. They don’t stay within themselves and just do what they do best. The atmosphere of the game just overwhelms them.”
With the exception of senior Terra Funk, all of Newcastle’s players will return for next year. And, with a year’s experience at the state tournament last year, the Racers could be primed for a serious run at some state championship hardware.
“We got to the state tournament last year but we dropped two pop flies in the opening game,” Crossley remembered. “Those were plays we make every day. They ended up beating us. Hopefully, we’ll give ourselves a chance to win this year. We just have to make good on it. That’s what we did in regionals – big hits and big plays. Hopefully, we can do that (today.) We need someone – well, everyone – to step up and get after it.
“I know, though, that we’re good enough and that we’re prepared. We’re good enough to win it all. It’s just whoever handles it the best. The best team will be the champions in the end. We’ll see good pitchers and good teams all three days of the tournament. I’m definitely excited for this!”
As for the leaders of Newcastle, Destiny Donahue (44-for-88, .500), Pursell (27-of-70, .386), Wagoner (34-for-89, .382), Kennedy “Bug” Cook (27-of-88, .341), O’Brien (31-of-92, .337), and Robertson (35-of-105, .333) are the best hitters among regulars in the lineup.
Wagoner (with six no-hitters to her credit this season) is the undisputed leader of the pitching circle ›. She has an unblemished 19-0 record and a whopping 206 strikeouts in just 114 innings pitched. O’Brien is the No. 2 pitcher for Newcastle with an 8-2 record along with 61 whiffs in 67 innings of work.
The opening day schedule for today is Newcastle (29-2) against Grove (28-8) at 11 a.m., Oolagah-Talala (30-6) versus Lone Grove (25-6) at 1:30 p.m., Hilldale (24-5) against Fort Gibson (29-9) at 6:30 p.m., and Tuttle (32-1) versus Weatherford (25-5) at 4 p.m. All games will be played at The Ballfields of Firelake, 18160 Range Line Road in Shawnee.