Cruise night at the diamond for MHS in doubleheader romp
Aug. 31—It was fun.
Not always pretty, but fun.
Gifts were plentiful from a very erratic Tulsa Memorial defense in all phases, and Muskogee used a pair of big first innings, sending 11 to the plate in both, and danced to a doubleheader sweep over Tulsa Memorial, 13-0 and 15-0 at Roughers Park on Tuesday.
The scheduled doubleheader started at 5 p.m. and took a thrifty two hours and 15 minutes to complete — with a 20-minute break between games to boot. All that even with totaling 33 hits. Memorial made six errors overall.
Muskogee (8-14) had just two after committing five in an 8-5 loss to Stigler on Monday.
"We swung the bat well and played pretty good defense," said MHS coach Mark Dicus, feeling especially better about that latter part than he did 24 hours earlier. "We needed games like this. Our schedule is a gauntlet of who's-who. We needed some wins, and we took care of business."
In the 13-0 opener, Muskogee had a six-run first, sending 11 to the plate. Jaye Barnoski singled and scored on a passed ball, and capped the scoring with an RBI double. In between, Feather Johnson's two-run single did the most damage, Kambri Johnson singled in another run.
They would add two in the second, then five more in the fourth, the highlight hits coming from Kye Carter's two-run single to center and Feather Johnson's deep fly to left that Stacy Gonzalez misjudged as it sailed past her to the wall. The inside-the-park home run was worth two runs and capped the scoring.
Jaliyah Simmons got the win, going four innings, allowing one hit, that by Katie Sweeney in the first on a single to right. Simmons struck out three. In the fifth, Peyton Jackson struck out the side in her one inning of work.
Game 2 saw the Lady Roughers bat around in the first, scoring eight, and adding six in the second. Kambri Johnson's RBI double started things off in the first, Jackson had a two-run double, Carter doubled in a run in the first, Shelby Morris singled home a pair and scored on Barnoski's inside-the-park homer on a line drive that cleared a new left fielder for Memorial, Erica Ray-Franks, making it 6-0.
"It was some good BP," said Barnoski, who was 5-for-8 on the day while adding five runs, and added she was more impressed with her line drive to the corner in the second inning, a triple that scored a pair.
Prior to the triple, Carter had a sacrifice fly to push across Feather Johnson, who had tripled in Jackson. Carter's sac fly scored one and Terra Williams' bunt single made it 14-0.
That would be more than enough.
Kambri Johnson and Jackson were both 6-for-7 on the day. Feather Johnson was 3-for-5 but with six RBIs, same as Carter in a 2-for-6 effort.
Jackson allowed three hits in five innings, striking out four. She had no walks.
Muskogee hosts Bishop Kelley on Thursday in a 5:30 p.m. contest.
