SHAWNEE — Sliding into third base safely, Cyril softball’s speedy senior, Fayth Laughlin, let out a loud cheer along with a silent fist pump.
Her advantageous base running that sparked Cyril’s 3-run fifth inning in the Lady Pirates’ 8-1 win over Hammon in the Class B state tournament quarterfinals was reason to smile in and of itself.
But Laughlin was extra giddy for another reason.
Her older sister, Shelbie — who played in her own share of state tournaments back in her day — is getting married this Saturday.
Due to forecasted thunderstorms, the OSSAA decided to play the semifinals and finals of all four state fast-pitch tournaments today at the Ballfields at FireLake, which means Laughlin won’t miss her sister’s wedding — or stroll in last second in her softball clothes.
“It’s funny how God works,” laughed Cyril coach Tim Persinger.
If Cyril (26-5) defeats Varnum today in the semifinals at 1:30 p.m., the Pirates will be playing for the Class B state championship at 6:30 p.m. and Laughlin could arrive at Saturday’s wedding a newly crowned state champion.
“I’m very excited,” Laughlin said of the fun-filled weekend. “All I’m worried about right now is making it to the championship. I’ll worry about the wedding later.”
On the softball diamond and on the basketball court, Fayth has taken after her big sister, Shelbie, who was cheering her on at FireLake on Thursday.
“It’s amazing. Us two, we are best friends,” Fayth said. “I try to out-do her. She tries to out-do me. It’s great competition.”
Seconds after Laughlin’s jubilant slide into third, she put her speed to good use again. On a sharp ground ball, Laughlin darted home and made the Hammon shortstop second guess herself by hesitating with a throw to home plate.
Speed kills on the basepaths.
Laughlin was safe, scoring Cyril’s fourth run. The hesitation resulted in an errant throw to first base, which scored Grace Young from second base to give Cyril a 5-1 lead while essentially sealing the win.
“We work on that a lot,” Persinger said. “If it’s a hard-hit ground ball, we’ll break hard and looking for the throw to make sure everybody’s safe. We just have to read it. Those are heartbreakers for the other team.”
On the flip side, those heads-up baserunning plays are morale boosters for the scoring team.
“I was way pumped as you can tell,” Laughlin said. “Coach is always making me do sacrifices to see how far I can get so I try to do my best to get there and do my job.”
Pirates’ pitcher Ashley Smith did her job to a T, pitching a complete game and striking out 10 Hammon batters.
“Ashley has been just wild these last eight to nine games,” Persinger said. “She’s been so tough.”
Smith also worked herself out of a pair of early jams — stranding runners on the corners in the second and forced Hammon to leave the bases loaded in the third inning. Through four innings pitched, Smith had six strikeouts in a game that was still scoreless.
“I’ve noticed major improvement and major confidence building in Ashley,” Laughlin said. “She finally decided to trust her defense a little bit and once you got a defense like us behind you, you don’t have very much pressure on you. She’s doing really well.”
Cyril struck for three runs in the fourth inning, three more in the fifth and added two insurance runs for good measure in the sixth.
The Pirates got on the board in the fourth with an RBI single to centerfield from Bethany Williams, who went 4-for-4 on the day. Lexi Missey drove in a run with a bloop single to shallow right field before Smith scored on a wild pitch, giving Cyril a 3-0 lead.
“These girls are focused,” Persinger said. “When they (my four seniors) go, we go.”
Hammon’s Delaynie Peters had three hits and doubled twice, including one to the left field wall before she scored the Warriors’ only run of the game in the fifth inning to make it 3-1.
The Pirates notched 11 hits off Hammon starter Julie Walker and tacked on two more runs in the sixth courtesy of Reagan Short’s leadoff double and a costly Hammon error, which plated her and Laughlin to make it 8-1.
Cyril played tremendous team defense, displayed by Grace Young’s inning-ending collision catch in centerfield, to strand Warriors on second and third in the sixth.
Despite Hammon having the bases loaded with no outs in the seventh, the Pirates secured a sac fly and then tagged out a Warrior at the plate in a pickle to prevent a run from scoring.
“My team was behind me and making plays,” Smith said. “It takes a lot of pressure off of me when they make plays, and it makes me happy.”
Spriggs fans 15, pitches Sterling to 5-3 win over Whitesboro
SHAWNEE — Timely hitting is the recipe to postseason success on the diamond.
Sterling had plenty of that on Thursday afternoon at the Ballfields at FireLake as the Tigers scored all five of their runs on two-out hits in a 5-3 victory over Whitesboro in the Class B state tournament quarterfinals.
Facing two strikes with two outs, Reese McGuire lined a two-run single to centerfield, scoring teammates Haley Clift and Brooklyn Stenger to break a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning.
“It was very clutch,” said Stenger, Sterling’s lone senior. “She about gave me a heart attack.”
The Tigers (28-5) tacked on two more insurance runs in the seventh inning to seal the win and advance to today’s semifinals at 1:30 p.m., when Sterling will meet the winner of undefeated Kiowa and Lookeba-Sickles.
Clift, who went 3-for-4, had a pair of timely two-out hits herself, including an RBI single in the first and another RBI single in the seventh for a critical insurance run.
“Haley’s been clutch here lately,” Sterling coach Marty Curry said. “I tell ya, if I had to have somebody at the plate right now, I think it might be Haley Clift.”
Even more impressive than Sterling’s two-out hitting prowess was the Tigers’ pitching performance.
Sterling’s star pitcher Sarah Spriggs pitched a complete game and notched 15 strikeouts — including eight in a row during one stretch from the end of the first to the end of the third inning.
Two-out hits come naturally when your ace is pitching lights out.
“I knew I could do it because Sarah pitchers her butt off for us. So we have to get behind her,” Clift said. “It’s great when everybody behind you is cheering, too.”
Spriggs wasn’t sharp initially. Whitesboro answered Sterling’s opening inning run with a tying RBI double to left field.
Then came Spriggs’ eight straight strikeouts.
“I don’t know if she wasn’t loose enough or what but as the game went on, she got really sharp,” Curry said.
Spriggs got a 1-2-3 inning in the fifth, punctuated by a strikeout. Every strikeout was bigger than the previous one in a game that was deadlocked at 1-1 through five innings.
“Sarah just takes care of business,” Stenger said.
The moment doesn’t faze Sterling’s ace when she’s in a zone.
“I don’t even realize,” Spriggs said of her growing punch-out total. “I just go.”
Nursing a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth and having just given up a 1-out triple, Sterling needed a defensive stop.
So centerfielder Makayla Curry did her best Torii Hunter impression and flagged down a deep fly ball threatening to hop over the fence.
Curry caught up with the rocket just in time to secure the catch while running into the centerfield wall.
“That was a big play,” coach Curry said of his daughter’s critical effort play. “That saved an extra run.”
It scored one Whitesboro run on a sacrifice fly to make it 3-2, but Curry’s ability to absorb contact and hold on may have saved the win.
“That was big. She came through in the clutch,” Spriggs said. “Those plays scare me, but Makayla makes those great catches.”
Luckily for Sterling, no more stellar defense was needed thanks to its final pair of two-out hits in the seventh.
After Clift’s RBI single, Kamryn Turpin delivered an infield RBI single to give the Tigers a 5-2 lead, ultimately sealing the win.
Two more wins today and Sterling can win its sixth softball state championship in program history and first in more than a decade.
“It’s good to get one under your belt and you know what the state tournament is like. Every game we get right now is bonus,” Curry said. “So just relax and go play.”