Sometimes if the bats aren’t connecting at the right time, it takes some luck and opponent mistakes to pull out a win.
That was a key to victory Tuesday for the Hilldale Lady Hornets as they decisioned Inola in a district contest 4-1.
Both teams had scoring chances in the first two innings but came away empty. Hilldale finally broke through in the third as Lily Beverage led off with a hit but was forced out at second on a grounder by Charlee Medley.
Back-to-back errors by the Lady Longhorns and a passed ball moved Medley all the way around to score the first run. Hilldale added two more runs in the fourth inning as catcher Darian Diles singled to right with one out.
The ball got away from the right fielder, and the track standout Diles raced around to third. Consecutive hits by Brooklyn Crowder and Beverage plated Diles and put Crowder at third, and she scored on a sacrifice fly by Medley to make it 3-0.
Jaylen Dark led off the Inola fifth with a little pop foul towards first base that was dropped by Avary Gardner, and that turned into a walk for Dark. Singles by Byrnlee Pratt and pitcher Kylee Hill scored Dark to make it 3-1.
The Lady Hornets got their final run in the sixth inning when Beverage got a one out single, stole second, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on an error by the shortstop.
Although it was a win for Hilldale, coach Darren Riddle was a little disappointed.
“We had a chance to have some big innings with runners on and just couldn’t get the big hit when we needed,” Riddle said. “Inola stayed close and even had the bases loaded in the seventh with a couple of their power hitters up, but we managed to get out of it. Finlee (Allred) pitched a good game with just a couple of walks, and freshman Kallie Smith came in and threw strikes for two innings, so the pitching was good, but we’ve had a problem all season of getting key hits with people on base, and we’ve got to overcome that.”
For Beverage, who was 3-for-4 in the game, it was a good game all around.
“It wasn’t my best hitting, but whatever works to get a win,” the senior second baseman said.
With the win, the Lady Hornets advanced to 5-4 on the season and remained just a game behind Fort Gibson in the district race, while Inola fell to 4-8 on the year.