Sallisaw rallies past Muldrow for first district victory

Things were not looking good early for the homestanding Sallisaw Lady Diamonds in their District 4A-6 home game against the Muldrow Lady Bulldogs on Tuesday evening. However, thank goodness the game went seven innings.

After being down 8-0 in the third inning, the Lady Diamonds slowly but steadily rallied to claim a 9-8 victory over the Lady Bulldogs for their first district win this season — and snap a five-game losing streak.

The Lady Diamonds and the Lady Bulldogs are tied in district wins at one apiece. The same two teams will meet at 5:45 p.m. next Tuesday in Muldrow, with the winner going to finish sixth in the district and likely will face District 4A-5 runnerup Tecumseh in the Class 4A Regional Tournament in two weeks. The Sallisaw-Muldrow loser next week likely will end up at District 4A-5 champion North Rock Creek for a Class 4A Regional Tournament.

Down 8-0 after the Lady Bulldogs (8-15 overall, 1-7 in District 4A-6 play), the Lady Diamonds (3-15, 1-10) started chipping away. An RBI single by Delaney Compton and an RBI fielder’s choice by Jaycie Cox cut Muldrow’s lead to 8-2 after three innings.

After Compton, Sallisaw’s pitcher, retired the Lady Bulldogs in order in the fourth inning, the Lady Diamonds struck for three runs in their half of the inning on back-toback RBI doubles by Sydney Weedon and Madison Green, followed by a two-out RBI single by Natalie Gonzalez to cut the Sallisaw deficit to 8-5 after four innings.

After the Lady Bulldogs, who stranded 10 runners on base in the game, left the bases loaded in the fifth inning, the Lady Diamonds got the game tied on an RBI single by Promise Flute and a tworun single by Channing Wilson to knot the game at 8-all after five innings.

The Lady Diamonds snatched away the win from the jaws of defeat as an error on a grounder hit by Flute scored Compton for the game-winning run for a 9-8 Sallisaw lead with three outs standing between the Lady Diamonds and their first district win of the season.

The Lady Bulldogs got a lead-off seventh-inning single by Amarie Duran, who then had Jordan Johnson enter as her courtesy runner.

No. 2 hitter Danica Tune hit a grounder to Green at shortstop, who corralled the ball and forced out Jordan at second base for the first out.

In Green’s attempt to throw to Cox at first base to try for the double play, Green’s throw hit Johnson, causing Tune to be out at first base due to interference from Johnson.

Compton then got the next hitter to pop up to Green at short to end the game, end the five-game losing streak and get Sallisaw’s first district win this season.

It was all Muldrow early on as the Lady Bulldogs scored five runs in the first inning, with the key hits being a two-run single by Jaydin Dean and an RBI single by Kesslyn Pratt, to put Muldrow up 5-0 after an inning, which became a 7-0 lead after two frames.

In the third inning, Muldrow’s Kaydence Young hit a two-out RBI single to score Amaya Duran for an 8-0 lead.

For the game, Wilson was 3-for-4 with a double, two runs batted in and a run scored, Weedon was 2-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI, Gonzalez was 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI, Compton was 2-for-3 with a double with an RBI and scoring the game-winning run and Green doubled with two RBIs and two runs scored for Sallisaw.

Compton (3-13) got the win, fanning six Muldrow batters.

In defeat, Kaydence Young was 2-for-2 with a run scored and an RBI for Muldrow. Young (2-8) took the loss, despite striking out five batters.