After toppling Byng to start district action, the Madill Lady Wildcats saw their slow pitch season come to an end last week with a pair of losses to 10th ranked Bethel in the Class 5A state playoffs.
The Lady Wildcats scored six runs in the final frame to force extra innings against Byng before a walk off RBI single from Laila Pickens won it 10-9 in the bottom of the eighth. Madill couldn’t keep up with the powerful Lady Wildcats in the final two outings, dropping 16-4 and 18-2 decisions.
Coach Shawn Runyan’s club was on the ropes in trailing 8-2 through five innings before putting together the dramatic comeback. The Lady Wildcats started the flurry with a run in the sixth sparked by singles from JoshlynnClayburnandChloe Miller.
Byng got the run back in the seventh setting the stage for the Madill push in its final at bat. Dahlia Marris singled in the first run with the rest of the comeback coming with two outs.
Clayburn walked to load the bases and a walk to Ireland Groeber forced in a run to make it 9-5. Miller singled to score two more with Emily Arnold and Luci Douglass also chipping in hits to knock in the tying tallies.
Marris keyed a pivotal double play in the top of the eighth to hold Byng scoreless, setting up Pickens’ gamewinning hit in the bottom of the stanza.
Madill finished with 10 hits, led by two apiece from Clayburn and Miller. Marris, BrooklynnWashington,Jade Soto, Pickens, Arnold and Douglass each tossed in one.
The Lady Wildcats scored twice in the first against Bethel and carried the 2-0 edge into the third frame before things unraveled on the defensive side. Washington and Soto each singled in front of a Pickens double to right that plated two.
Bethel scored 11 straight to pull away with Madill totaling eight hits in the game. Soto and Arnold contributed two apiece with Washington, Pickens, Clayburn and Ana Pineda all adding one.
In the finale, Madill once again took an early lead with a pair of runs on a Soto tworun homer, but that proved to be all the Lady Wildcats could muster the rest of the way.
Soto notched two of the team’s four hits while Miller and Arnold pitched in one each.