Ada hitless in Konawa

Jeff Cali Sports Editor

Konawa September 24, 2008 12:02 pm

— By JEFF CALI
Sports Editor
KONAWA — Ada pitcher Hanna Huling danced her way in and out of trouble against Konawa during the first two innings but couldn’t get off the dance floor fast enough in the bottom of the third.
Melanie Gladden hit a two-out RBI single and cousin Christina Gladden followed with a two-run double in a five-run Konawa third-inning surge that carried the host Lady Tigers to an 8-0 win over Ada Tuesday evening.
To complete her nice night, Melanie Gladden also tossed five no-hit innings in the Konawa victory.
Coach Jennifer Matthews’ Konawa club, who slipped to No. 8 in Class 2A after a surprising 3-0 loss to Tecumseh on Monday, improved to 17-8 heading into the playoffs. The Lady Tigers will be hosting Wewoka in a 2A District doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m. today.
Meanwhile, Ada saw its three-game winning streak come to an end, falling to 10-18 on the season. The Lady Cougars’ next scheduled game is next Monday at Lone Grove (No. 1 in Class 4A) but head coach Scott Simpson would like to find an opponent for a Thursday evening contest.
Huling and the Lady Cougars immediately got into a bind in the bottom of the first after Konawa loaded the bases on an error (a dropped ball on a called third strike), a base hit by Melanie Gladden and a walk to Christina Gladden. But after Sydney Stoup, one of Konawa’s hottest hitters as of late, walked to force in a run and leave the bases loaded with no outs, Huling helped her team squirm out of the sticky situation without further damage. Ciara Kuestersteffen hit a grounder to Shelbey Franz at shortstop, who fired home to new Ada catcher Amory Morgan for the first out. Huling then got a popup and a groundout to end the inning.
In the bottom of the second history repeated itself as Courtney Capps led off with a single, Cheyanne Terry walked and speedy leadoff hitter Brooklyn Akerman reached on an infield single on a ball that dropped just in front of home plate and stayed fair. Huling almost ended that threat after getting a fly ball and a strikeout, but Stoup came through in the clutch for Konawa and delivered a two-RBI single to right-center to push the KHS advantage to 3-0.
In the Lady Tigers' big third inning, Terry easily beat out a routine grounder to Franz — who made a nice throw — for a base hit and Akerman followed with an RBI infield hit of her own (all with two outs). That started the string of four straight KHS hits and produced four of the five runs in the inning. The final Konawa run scored on a passed ball and Stoup tried to score on the same play, but Franz recovered an errant throw and fired a strike to Huling, who was covering home, and the AHS hurler applied the tag just as the runner slid in for out No. 3.
While the Lady Cougars made their fair share of nice defensive plays in the contest, their bats never awakened through five innings against Gladden, who struck out six and allowed just three Ada base runners via walks in the first, fourth and fifth frames. In fact, the Lady Cougars never got the ball out of the infield.
“Not to make excuses, but we got back late from Ardmore last night and we were a little sluggish, especially at the plate,” Simpson said. “And that just can’t happen against a good team.”
The Lady Cougars are still without starting catcher Taryn Jack, who suffered a knee injury during the Durant Tournament.
“Taryn had really started hitting the ball and was playing well,” Simpson said of one of his prize freshmen.
Simpson said Morgan has done an admirable job in her place, especially under the circumstances.
“Amory has stepped up and done a really good job, especially for being thrown out there. She’s really worked hard,” he said.
Although there is no set time table for Jack’s return, Simpson said it doesn’t appear the injury will keep her sidelined for the rest of the season. In fact, he’s hopeful she can return at some point next week.
Simpson said playing a high caliber opponent like Konawa is a good measuring stick for things to come.
“That’s who we’ll face in the playoffs, teams like Konawa. We just have to get after it. We have a lot of work to do between now and then,” he said.

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