Sydney Pennington hits 3 homeruns in double-header victories over Ponca; Sandites win 14th straight

By: Virgil Noah, Staff Writer

The runs came early and they came often in the Charles Page High School Varsity Softball team's (17-3, 8-0) district doubleheader against Ponca City (14-10, 2-5). The Lady Sandites won both games handily with a 10-0 five-inning run-rule victory in the first leg, and a 15-3 win in the second match-up which went the full seven innings.

Felicity Horn got scoring underway for the day when she singled and later scored on an error in the first inning of game one.

Ponca City loaded the bases in the second, but Madelyn Blair (6-2) forced Kylie Hopkins into a two-out popup which got the Lady Sandites out of the inning without allowing any runs. Jacie Taber hit an RBI double to left center which scored Cameron Clemons in the second inning.

Oklahoma State University commit Sydney Pennington hit the first of three home runs on the night in the home half of the third inning. Freshman Sabrina Usher hit an RBI double allowing Madelyn Blair to score, and scored a run on an errant throw to push the lead to 5-0.  Sand Springs scored the final five runs in the fourth inning on to put the game away, with Pennington, Usher, Madelyn Blair, and Clemons each adding an RBI to their totals.

Madelyn Blair picked up the win on the mound for the Lady Sandites, pitching five shutout innings, allowing just 6 hits. 

Game two saw Sand Springs getting off to an even quicker start, when Pennington sent a towering fly ball over the center field fence for a three-run-homer. Clemons scored on an error and Kimi Presnell picked up an RBI single in the third inning and lead 5-0 when Ponca City finally got on the board in their half of the third. Camenda Osborn doubled in a run to cut the lead to 5-1 and gave the Lady Cats some life. 

The Lady Sandites substituted Elizabeth "Lyz" Luttrell into the game and she quickly added an RBI single to make the score 6-1, and Taber added an RBI on a sacrifice fly to make the lead 7-1. The Lady Cats added another pair of runs to their score on RBI doubles by Osborn and pitcher Kelci Hasenfratz.

With the score 7-3 the Charles Page offense went back to work and didn't look back scoring the final 8 runs of the contest. Pennington led the way in game two with four RBI, Luttrell added three, Jensen Arnold and Presnell each had two. 

Pennington (5-0) picked up the win on the mound pitching all seven innings, surrendering three runs on seven hits and striking out four batters.

The Lady Sandite offense was hot all night, scoring at least one run in eleven of twelve innings played. The pair of victories pushed the Sand Springs win streak to fourteen games, including a 9-1 triumph over former district No. 1 Yukon. Sand Springs is the only undefeated team remaining in District 6A-3. 

The Lady Sandites will return to action Friday at 1:20 p.m. when they play 3A Perry (10-17) on field #9 at Bentley Park in the Bixby Tournament.