Poteau girls end Sallisaw Lady Diamonds’ winning streak

The good news was Tuesday evening’s District 4A-6 game between the visiting Sallisaw Lady Diamonds and the host Poteau Lady Pirates got moved to Sallisaw High School’s “Turf of Dreams” due to wet fields in Poteau.

Unfortunately, the home-field advantage did not help out the Lady Diamonds, who saw their four-game winning streak snapped as Poteau pitcher Emma Hackler — a soon-tobe Mississippi State Bulldog — no-hit Sallisaw in a 12-0 four-inning, run-ruled victory.

The Lady Diamonds (6-6 overall, 3-3 in district play) had one inning in which they threatened to score, and that was the opening inning as they still batted first as the visitors.

With one out, Sydney Weedon and Channing Wilson, who each had extended at-bats against Hackler, received walks to put runners at first and second. Delaney Compton’s groundout moved them to second and third, but Hackler struck out the next batter to end the inning.

As it turned out, Hackler ended up retiring the game’s final 11 batters faced as she set Sallisaw down in order in the final three innings. Hackler ended up with six strikeouts.

Hackler truly gave herself all the run support needed in the bottom of the first inning as she led off the frame with a solo home run over the left-center field fence for a 1-0 lead. By the time the final out was recorded, the Lady Pirates (9-2, 4-0) sent 10 batters to the plate, scoring four more runs, to take a 5-0 lead into the second inning.

After scoring once in the second inning, the Lady Pirates put the game into run-rule status with a six-run third inning as Poteau sent 11 batters to the plate.

Compton (5-6) suffered the loss, although she recorded two strikeouts in 2.1 innings.