OILTON—Oiltondidnotmerelyhostasoftballtournament. They owned it.
They beat Dewar. They beat Chandler. They beat Vici. They beat Strother.
Then they beat Chandler again, 6-3, in Saturday’s championship game just to make sure there was no confusion about who’s tourney it was.
Five tournament wins. Seven victories to open the season. No losses.
That is not a promising start. That is a warning. Oilton completed its march through the fi eld Saturday, then slamming the door on Chandler with pitching, defense and the kind of pressure that makes routine plays feel considerably less routine.
The Lady Panthers wasted no time. Hallie Holm opened near Brooklyn Poole followed with a line drive into right fi eld, sending Holm racing to third and advancing to second on the throw.
It was hot. The dirt was dry. The dugout was loud. The runners were already moving.
Jadeann Smith stepped in and laid down a sacrifi ce bunt. Holm broke for home. The throw went to fi rst. The fi rst run crossed the plate. Poole moved to third, and Oilton was still pressing. During Paydee Smith’s plate appearance, the ball got away from the catcher. Poole came charging home while the play came apart behind the plate. Smith eventually drew the walk, and the Lady Panthers had a 2-0 lead before Chandler could settle into the game.
That was the quiet inning. The second was louder. Aubrey McEwen drove a line shot into left fi eld for a double. Two outs later, she was still standing there, waiting for somebody to fi nish the job.
Holm did. With one strike and one ball in the count, Holm ripped another line drive toward left. The ball shot past the defense and kept rolling while McEwen scored easily.
Holm never stopped. She reached third with a triple, and the lead was 3-0. Poole walked behind her, putting runners at the corners.
Then the inning turned into the kind of chaos Oilton had been creating all weekend.
the ball in play. Chandler’s defense misplayed it, then misplayed the scramble behind it.
Holm scored. Poole raced home. Smith reached second. Two runs crossed on the sequence, and the Lady Panthers were suddenly ahead 5-0.
Paydee Smith stepped in next and lined a single into right a run lead.
Oilton had six runs. Chandler had a problem — the Oilton crowd was getting louder.
That was enough o ense because Holm and Smith made sure it was.
Holm started in the circle and worked through three innings, allowing three hits and three runs, only one of them earned. She struck out four and walked one.
Chandler made its only serious push in the third. A walk, two singles and an Oilton error brought three runs home, cutting the lead to 6-3. The Lady Lions had y turned the noise back up.
Holm steadied herself. A line drive came directly back at her. She caught it. Then Kenasyn Prather and D Kennedy handled the fi nal two outs, ending the inning before Chandler could turn a rally into a crisis.
Paydee Smith took over in the fourth. She did not leave room for drama. Smith struck out the fi rst batter swinging, retired the next on a line drive to center fi elder Jadeann Smith, then fi nished the championship with three straight swinging strikes.
One inning. No hits. Two strikeouts. No argument. The 6-3 victory gave Oilton the tournament championship and extended its undefeated start to 7-0.
And those seven wins have not been decorative. The Lady Panthers opened with a 9-1 victory over Class 4A Cleveland. They beat Frontier 15-3, then entered their own tournament and took down Dewar 4-1, Chandler 4-1, Vici 6-0, Strother 7-4 and Chandler again in the title game.
Oilton has scored 51 runs. It has allowed 13. That is an average margin of more than fi ve runs per game.
Holm and McEwen each collected two hits in the championship. Holm drove in a run with her triple. Jadeann Smith produced a run with the bunt and created more trouble with the ground ball that helped break the second inning open. Paydee Smith drove in one run, scored another and fi nished the game in the circle.
Poole reached base, raced from fi rst to third, scored twice and helped make the early innings feel like they were happening at Oilton’s speed.
That may be the best description of this team through seven games.
Everything is happening at Oilton’s speed. Bunts. Throws. Runners. Pressure. Opponents are not simply being tasked with fi elding the cleanly and make the correct decision the fi rst time, on time, while Lady Panthers run amok around them.
So far this season, nobody has handled that equation well enough to earn a “W”.
The championship win over Chandler was not the product of a bunt, a triple, a line-drive single, aggressive baserunning and a willingness to keep forcing the next play.
A series of weapons that make it a lot harder to defend than one or two good bats.
Oilton has several weapons they can use to beat up an opponent.
Holm can pitch. Smith can fi nish. McEwen can drive the ball. Poole can turn a single into immediate pressure. Jadeann Smith can lay down a bunt and change the inning.
The lineup can score in bunches, and the defense can survive the moment when an opponent fi nally pushes back.
Seven games into the season, the Lady Panthers have not trailed at the end of any of them.
They are 7-0. They are home team tournament champions. And the rest of the schedule now knows exactly what is coming.
Oilton is not easing into the season. These girls have already arrived.