Despite elimination, Sallisaw fastpitch softball has ‘made a lot of strides’

BRISTOW – The Sallisaw Lady Black Diamonds varsity fastpitch softball team saw its drive for a 2022 state championship stopped last Friday with a 12-2 loss to regional tournament host Bristow.

Lady Black Diamonds head coach Hillary Gehrke has a lot of which to be proud, during her tenure at Sallisaw, where two years ago as an assistant coach the team struggled and didn‚t win a single district game.

“Last year was my first year after taking over as head coach,” Gehrke recalled. “We won three games in the district, and then this year, we were just two games away from the state tournament. So we‚ve made a lot of strides in the last three years.” In last week‚s first round of the OSSAA regional tournament, Sallisaw won 5-3 in the first game against Bristow, the team that eventually ended the Lady Black Diamonds‚ dream of a state championship. “Emily [Gregory] on the first day pitched really well against Bristow. That put us in a good spot to win. She hit her spots and we had a clean game with no errors. That was probably the best game that we played all year from the first inning to the seventh inning both hitting and fielding [the ball].”

Emma Lessley stood out during that game as well, going 4 for 7 for the day with four RBIs. In the second round, Sallisaw lost 7-1 to a loud and fast Verdigris team that consistently got on base with the bunt.

“Verdigris was just super fast, so they could just bunt and be on,” Gehrke said. “But there was one point in the game when we were just down by one when Maddie [Green] goes to turn a double play and she hit the girl, but they didn‚t call interference. After that, we just kind of let a couple of errors happen. They just let it count when we could‚ve been out of the inning without that one scoring on that play.” Then in the third round, the Lady Black Diamonds faced Bristow in a rematch, but this time the Pirates had the upper hand with the 12-2 verdict. Contributing to Sallisaw‚s elimination was its loss to Verdigris, as the Lady Black Diamonds knew they had to beat the Cardinals twice to stay alive, as well as the lack of a relief pitcher, critical vulnerabilities the Pirates exploited. “I think the last game really took the wind out of us losing to Verdigris, because the team knew coming into that day that we‚ve gotta beat Verdigris twice after Bristow,” Gehrke explained. “Coming into the Bristow game, they were hitting off Emily a lot better. She‚d thrown three games in two days, and she‚s our only pitcher, so it was tough on her. They‚d already seen her all the way through at least three times, so after they‚d seen her a couple of times in that game, they just started hitting her really.”

Despite the disappointing finish, the co-district champion Lady Black Diamonds recorded a season of which they can be proud, working hard enough to get within two wins of a state championship tournament berth.