Published: October 10, 2008 04:17 pm         

Moss slips past Tupelo in Class B

Oklahoma City — After making and cleaning up one mess after another through the first six innings of Thursday’s Class B quarterfinal contest with old rival Moss at Hall of Fame Stadium, Tupelo pitcher Shanna Davidson finally ran out of miracles in the seventh.

Davidson had allowed just one unearned run and had stranded 10 baserunners when fifth-ranked Tupelo scored twice in the bottom of the sixth to take a 3-1 lead. But the sophomore righthander — who had already hit the leadoff batter twice in the game — brushed Kacie Long with a 1-0 pitch to start the seventh, and the fourth-ranked Lady Pirates went on to score four times on just one hit — a three-run triple by Cheye West — and steal a 5-3 victory.

With the win, Moss (26-8) advanced to a semifinal showdown this morning with top-ranked Red Oak, which beat Binger-Oney Thursday. Tupelo, which had beaten Moss in their only two meetings during the regular season, finished 30-7.

In the other game involving an area team in Class B Thursday, No. 2 Sasakwa got a three-run first-inning homer from sophomore catcher Nikki Nail and a big game on the mound and at the plate from senior Elda Isaacs and freshman Marissa Shaffer to beat Forgan, 5-1. The Lady Vikings advanced to a semifinal meeting with suprising sixth-ranked Arnett at 4 p.m. today. Arnett upset defending champ Leedey 3-1.

MOSS 5, TUPELO 3

After Davidson (20-5) hit Long with her second pitch in the seventh, she walked Moss cleanup hitter Pam Brittain on four pitches before Hillary Price bunted foul on a 2-2 pitch for the first out. Paris Robinson quickly fell behind 0-2 but battled back to walk after fouling off a couple of pitches at 3-2 to load the bases for West, who drilled a 2-2 pitch to right-center to give the Lady Pirates their first lead of the game.

“Everybody goes through that — she just happened to go through it on a little bigger stage,” Tupelo coach Brian Davis said of Davidson’s bout of wildness in the seventh. “I thought we outplayed them everywhere except where it counted, and that’s what’s disappointing. Shanna was a little wild today, but she’s a big reason we were here in the first place.”

The last-ditch Moss rally wrote a disappointing finish to Tupelo’s 10-game winning streak entering the state tournament and was especially tough because it more than offset the two-run outburst in the bottom of the sixth that put the Lady Tigers on the cusp of a first-round victory for the second time in the last three fall state tournaments.

Davidson started the sixth-inning rally by beating out an infield single on a routine ground ball to shortstop, then Tupelo cleanup hitter Landra Nelson blooped a single to left. Lindsey Davidson sacrificed both runners into scoring position, and Shanna Davidson scored the go-ahead run on a ground-ball single up the middle by fellow sophomore Grace Leland. Another sophomore, Chesna Henry, followed with a ground ball to short to plate pinch-runner Kaci Bullard with an insurance run.

Tupelo took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a two-out single by Lindsey Davidson, a wild pitch and a bloop single by Leland that fell among three Lady Pirates in shallow center field, then the Lady Tigers helped Moss to an unearned run in the top of the fifth on a one-out error, an infield single and a fielder’s choice grounder to third.

The damage could have been worse, but with runners at first and third, Leland made a sliding grab of a Robinson line drive up the middle for the final out.

Tupelo then wasted another scoring chance in the bottom of the inning, when Amber Roberson couldn’t advance after reaching on a two-base error leading off.

Shanna Davidson’s sidestep of a potential big inning in the fifth was just one of several escapes she had over the first six innings.

Moss loaded the bases with nobody out in the first on a hit batter (Bailee Cartwright, who was brushed by Davidson’s first pitch of the game), a bunt single and a walk, but Brittain popped out to Leland at second, Hillary Price retired Cartwright at the plate on a tapper back to the mound, and Robinson grounded out to second to end the threat.

In the third, Kyra Underwood was hit by Davidson’s second pitch in the third and moved to second on a sacrifice before Tupelo senior shortstop made a couple of sparkling defensive plays — a leaping stab of a liner off the bat of Brittain and nice throw on the run after fielding a sharp grounder up the middle by Price that deflected off Davidson’s glove — to end that threat. Then in the sixth, West lined a single to right leading off, and Moss nine-hole hitter Natasha Babb reached on a bunt sigle with one out, but Davidson struck out Cartwright for the second time in as many innings and coaxed a fielder’s choice grounder from Underwood to keep the game tied and set up Tupelo’s go-ahead rally in the bottom of the inning.

In addition to playing a solid game defensively at second base, Leland had two of Tupelo’s seven hits. West finished 2-for-4 to pace a six-hit Moss attack.

SASAKWA 5, FORGAN 1

Nail, Sasakwa’s sophomore catcher, followed one-out singles by Wynter Wind and Isaacs with a laser over the left field fence to put Sasakwa up 3-0, and that was more than enough for Isaacs and Shaffer, who combined on a six-hitter. (34-5) Isaacs — who also had three of the Lady Vikings’ nine hits and scored twice — started and allowed one hit over the first two innings, then she returned to the mound and also worked around a two-out walk to pitch a scoreless fifth. Shaffer pitched the other four innings, allowing five hits and Forgan’s only run in the fifth, and she drove in the final two Sasakwa runs with the first of her two doubles in the game, after Isaacs doublea and Nail was hit by a pitch with two outs.

Six of the Lady Vikings’ nine hits were for extra bases. In addition to Nikki Nail’s homer, Shaffer’s two doubles and the two-bagger by Isaacs in the third, Sasakwa got a leadoff triple by Jacklyn Nail (who was thrown out at the plate attempting to score on a ground ball back to the mound by Isaacs) in the top of the seventh and a leadoff double by Cerissa Palmer in the fourth.

     

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