Prep fastpitch: Haskell holds off Oktaha in opening-day showdown
Aug. 9—HASKELL — For a long run here Monday, RayLin Morgan had Oktaha stymied.
The Haskell right-hander had a run of 14 consecutive retired batters, but in the end had to escape a bind with back-to-back strikeouts as the Lady Haymakers edged the Lady Tigers 3-2 in the fastpitch season opener between a pair of teams with valid state tournament aspirations.
Oktaha's Kirsten Berry greeted Morgan with a shot down the left field line that bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double. That brought to the plate Mackenzie Eaves, who broke up Morgan's streak of sit-downs in the fifth with a single to left.
Morgan got her on a fly out to Lynzi Kelley at short. After a quick conference in the circle with coach Greg Wilson, Morgan, who had just two strikeouts going into the inning, finished it with back-to-back strikeouts of Cambree McCoy — who doubled home Eaves with the first run for Oktaha — and pinch-hitter Gabbi Davis to end the game.
"They were picking up location signals, which that's part of the game, so I went out there and we made a slight adjustment," said Wilson. "I feel like RayLin and I work together well. Obviously she has the talent, and she has the green light to talk to me."
Her last pitch was a case in point.
"We'd been throwing inside, inside, inside and she gave me the look and I know we were going away (next) and I'd been calling pitches," Wilson said. "She's a competitor. She's fun to watch out there and she gets after it."
She did so with the bat too.
Her single to center with Saylor Brown on via a one-out walk in the seventh was mishandled by Oktaha center fielder Ryleigh Bacon, allowing Brown to come all the way home from first to break a 2-2 tie.
"I went up there just thinking hit the ball and get on base," Morgan said.
Up to then, it was a case of letting her defense help her.
"I was trusting my teammates to have my back and they did," she said.
Oktaha coach Kia Holmes said her team didn't get good at-bats off Morgan. Besides Berry, Eaves and McCoy, the only other hits came in the sixth when Ava Scott singled to left and scored on Peyton Bryan's single to center to tie the game at 2.
"We were taking good pitches and swinging at some that all we were going to do is pop the ball up and we did that a lot," she said. "Haskell's a good team. They always put pressure on you and they did. But more than bats, the thing that's really frustrating is zero earned runs on our part."
The first two runs were more of a reaction error. With Layla Markou reaching on a single to center and Kelley reaching on a bunt, Morgan's bouncer to second in the first was scooped by Brynna Rodden, who glove-tossed to first with both Markou and Kelley running with the pitch. Both scored, and that held up until Oktaha got on the board in the fifth.
"Two good teams," Wilson said. "They're a hard-hitting team and in a third time down the lineup, teams like that find ways to get on."
Morgan allowed five hits, struck out four with the only walk the leadoff pass to Scott. Eaves took the loss, allowing four hits. She had just two strikeouts.
