Sallisaw came into the contest ranked seventh in Class 6A and head coach Scott Farmer was pleased to see his team knock off a Roland squad that is ranked fourth in Class 5A.
"Any time you win in the county, the girls like it," said Farmer. "We have a tremendous amount of respect for Roland and Muldrow and all the schools we play in the county and it's always good when you can beat one of them."
The Lady Diamonds improved to 8-4 with the victory. Sallisaw's losses have been against Jenks, Union, Muskogee and Hilldale, but Farmer believes the Lady Diamonds are improving.
"We win two or three and drop one. We just haven't been able to put the entire package together yet," he said. "We didn't hit real well today, but we played better defense than we have. Defense has been what's hurting us, but we practiced a little bit over the break and we're starting to come around."
The Lady Diamonds were coming off a shutout win over Poteau the day before and gave up just one run on Tuesday. Roland freshman Samantha Barnes gave her team a 1-0 edge with solo home run in the bottom of the first inning.
Britney Philpot pulled Sallisaw even in the top of the fourth inning, doubling to deep center field to drive in Erica Robertson.
Philpot batted 2-for-3 on the day and Farmer said the junior slugger is having a good season.
"She's hit four out of the park this year, so she's turned out to be quite a hitter," said Farmer.
Sophomore catcher Candace McNamee also batted 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Lady Diamonds and she played a key role in the decisive sixth inning as Sallisaw scored twice to take the lead.
Ashley Covington doubled to center field and moved to third on a single by Robertson. Amy Smith's grounder resulted in a Roland fielding error and Covington scored to make it 2-1. McNamee followed Smith with a RBI single up the middle for a 3-1 advantage.
After giving up Barnes' homer in the first inning, Sallisaw retired 11 consecutive Roland batters. Ericka Edwards stopped that streak with a triple in the fifth inning, but was left stranded on base.
Roland's most promising rally came in the bottom of the sixth, when Kensey Clark singled and Jasmine Kirkwood hit a double to put runners on second and third with two outs. However, Sallisaw's Heather McCawley ended the threat by fielding a fly ball in center field for the third out.
Lauren Edwards tried to get another Roland rally going in the seventh with an infield single, but Sallisaw shortstop Robertson got a force at second for the second out of the inning and McCawley caught another fly ball to end the game.
Roland played without junior standout Katie Matlock, who was at a track meet, and managed just five hits in the loss.
The Lady Rangers slipped to 7-3 with the setback. They had claimed a pair of wins over Red Oak and Sequoyah-Tahlequah on Monday. Over the weekend, Roland won three of five games at the Okemah Festival, topping the Muskogee JV, Morris and Bethel and losing to Konawa and Moss.
Sallisaw had nine hits on Tuesday. McCawley and Covington joined Philpot and McNamee with two hits apiece in the victory.
Afterward, Farmer said he's happy with the way Sallisaw has opened the season.
"It's gone good. We went to the Union tournament and placed fourth after losing two games by a total of two runs, so we were in the running for first or second up there," said Farmer. "I've been real proud of the girls. They work hard and they show a lot of class and character-that equals success."
The coach is hoping that this will be the season that Sallisaw can make a breakthrough and advance to state.
"Obviously, we would like to make a run at the state tournament," said Farmer. "We've come so close the last three years and been in the regional final three years in a row, so we'd like to get over that hump."
