While it took the “if needed” game to decide the Class 5A West Region III, El Reno High School's softball team is headed back to the state tournament for a third straight season.
The Indians, ranked seventh in the state, defeated No. 15 Deer Creek 8-0 in a winner-take-all grudge match to grab the regional title. El Reno, which improved to 22-12 on the season, won only two games off the Antlers this season – both in the postseason.
“Those were the only two games that counted,” sophomore pitcher Sydney Dow said. “The rest of those games don't matter. We won the games we needed to win.”
Deer Creek forced the extra game with a 3-2 win in the first of the two championship round contests.
El Reno had only six hits in the loss as Maddie Stein went 3-for-4 with a solo home run in the third inning. Tosha White went 2-for-3, including a double in the sixth inning, and scored on a two- bagger by Destinee Foust.
Deer Creek, meanwhile, tagged Dow for nine hits and two walks, but the right-hander kept her team close with seven strikeouts.
After a short meeting in the locker room between games, El Reno came out swinging in the second game.
Stein drew a leadoff walk in the first inning and went to second on a single by Scout Baker. Foust drew a free pass to load the bases ahead of a two-run double by Connor Bushyhead. White followed up with a double to make it a 3-0 lead.
In the second inning, Stein launched a solo home run to left field.
El Reno would tack on four runs in the sixth inning as Sarah Mabry (single), Emily Wilson (hit batsman) and Bethany Roberts (single) loaded the bases. Stein then singled in two runs before scoring herself on a double by Dow.
El Reno had nine hits total, two each by Stein and White.
“We did what we had to do and we knew that we could do it,” Bushyhead said. “Everyone came together as a team. Jumping on them early was a really big factor and when we scored on them first we knew we could keep up the pressure every inning.”
Dow worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the third inning to allow no runs over seven complete innings. She allowed five hits, no walks and struck out six batters.
“I'm excited to be going back to state,” Foust said, who was Dow's battery mate for all four regional games. “We came together as a team in that last game.”
Hitting was a major key in keeping El Reno in the winners bracket of the Class 5A West Region III Championships.
Over the first two games, El Reno banged out 28 hits en route to wins over Deer Creek (7-3) and Southeast (21-0).
In the win over Deer Creek, El Reno got back-to-back doubles in the first inning from Sydney Dow and Connor Bushyhead along with a single from Tosha White to produce two runs.
An inning later, walks by Maddie Stein and Sarah Mabry resulted in two runs off a double by Destinee Foust. In the sixth, El Reno turned an Emily Wilson walk and a Stein single into a pair of runs off a Foust single to the wall.
White went 3-for-3 in the victory, while Foust was 2-for-3.
Dow scattered three runs and five hits over seven innings, striking out eight and walking two. That performance came off the heels of a light workout against Southeast as Dow struck out five of the six batters faced.
Racheal Beck threw one inning in relief, striking out the three batters faced.
El Reno had eight players log a hit, including Foust's 3-for-4 effort with a pair of doubles. Bushyhead was 4-for-4 with three RBIs, while White went 3-for-4 with five runs driven in.
Bethany Roberts had three hits, followed by two each from Dow, Scout Baker and Sarah Mabry, and a double by Stein.