MANNFORD — The Lady Pirates didn’t just win a couple of ballgames; they staged tutorials in how to manufacture runs with a dugout chant a perfectly timed bunt and a solo home run. Mannford thumped Locust Grove 13-3, edged Jay 6-4, split a gritty home-and-home with Poteau, and, true to program DNA, made every rally feel like a neighborhood block party with cleats.
Oct. 1, Mannford 13, Locust Grove 3
Bottom 1, and the Lady Pirates rolled out the welcome mat like it was Lake Life weekend at the Harabor.
Brooke Kyser set the tone with a hard ground-ball single up the middle, Carlee Maxville matched her with a liner to center, and — after one loud pop out — Jayden Jenkins split right with a rifle-shot double to score both runners. Emma McCrackin followed with a scorched-earth single to left that chased Jenkins home as she took second on the throw. Baylei Alexander lifted a shot to center for a run-scoring double, then Bella Gilbert answered with her own opposite-field two-bagger to plate Alexander and sprint to third on the throw. When Taylin Greenwood stung a hard hopper, the misplay at second let Gilbert trot home for a 6-0 first-inning foundation.
In the second, Maxville reached on a skyhigh pop so perfectly hit to the gap that it couldn’t be corralled. Next, Cambri Casey did grown-up work — an old-school sac fly — to widen the cushion to 7-3.
The third was more Purple Pirate pandemonium. Alexander punched a single to center; Gilbert’s fielder’s choice kept traffic on the bases; and then came Adley Elliott’s bunt that should go in the dictionary as a bunt’s very definition. Add in a first baseman’s error that let two runs score and turned Elliott’s small ball into big damage. Casey capped it with another sac fly that played like a three-ring circus — deep enough to score one, wild enough on the relay to chase two more home. By the time the dust settled, three crossed and the lead swelled to 12-3. An inning later, Rosaline “Roz” Baker flared a single to right to score Elliott for the 13th run, because round numbers are for math class, not softball.
Alexander pocketed the win with five bluecollar innings, four strikeouts and just three hits allowed. At the dish, Alexander went 3-for-3, Casey drove four, and Jenkins, Kyser and Maxville stacked up multi-hit lines like jalapeño chicken at the Steer Inn buffet.
That same evening, the Poteau Pirates snuck one over the Mannford ladies with a 1-0 win.
Oct. 2, Mannford 6, Jay 4
The Lady Pirates opened the door politely for Jay, then slammed it shut. In the first, Kyser walked on four straight throws — your classic table-setter — then Maxville laid down a sacrifice to move the runner. Casey then split center with a two-bagger to score Kyser. Jenkins followed with a routine grounder that turned anything but; a thirdbase misfire let Casey hustle home for a 2-0 start.
The second-inning manufacturing was so efficiently Mannford it ought to come with a Webco logo. Bella Gilbert wore a pitch, stole second, skipped to third on a wild one, and watched Elliott dead-leg a perfect bunt for a get-on, get-over, get-in sequence that plated Gilbert. Tinley Greenwood obliged next with a clean single to center to score Elliott for 4-0, because good bunts deserve good rewards.
In the third, Casey ripped another double, Jenkins took one for the team, and the Pirates played chess while Jay fumbled with checkers. Alexander’s sacrifice turned into a reached-on-error that jammed the bases, and Gilbert’s fly to center sparked a relay jumble. Casey tagged and scored, the throw scattered, and Jenkins never stopped running — two more across without a clean base hit, the stuff of dugout wildness and bus-ride giggles. That 6-0 cushion held up as Emma McCrackin went the distance, scattering six hits and letting defense behind her do the talking — including a slick 1-6-3 double play to smother a Jay rally.
Oct. 2, Mannford 1, Poteau 0
Bottom 4, scoreless, tension you could slice with a sunflower seed shell after three innings of a textbook pitching duel. Maxville went down on strikes. In the circle, Poteau’s Emma Hackler is peppering the zone like a pitching machine. Casey steps in to the soundtrack of a quieted crowd and a pitcher working fast.
First pitch. Crack! Casey met it flush and sent a hard, climbing shot arcing to center—no wind, no doubt. The ball cleared the deepest part of the fence and left the yard, dropped somewhere in the bus barns, and landed Mannford’s only run on the only swing the Purple Pirates truly needed. Jenkins followed with a bouncer back to the circle — Hackler to first for the out — and McCrackin grounded to first after a pair of fouls. The half-inning read like a haiku: Strike, strike, strike, one out; Casey blasts a homer, two outs; one run, enough, win.
Casey then finished what she started, sealing the shutout with five total strikeouts from the staff and the kind of tempo that makes umpires check their watches.
Oct. 2, Poteau 6, Mannford 2 — Lessons that stick The Lady Pirates took one on the chin, 6-2, in Poteau. Credit the home side and file it in the “pay it forward” drawer; by week’s end Mannford had already returned serve with Casey’s masterpiece and another one-run ballgame.
Poteau 4, Mannford 2 — Tight rope, tight takeaway In the re-rematch, miscues spotted Poteau two early, and a solo shot in the third made it 3-0. Mannford’s answer still carried the Lady Pirate’s signature. McCrackin and Jenkins both drove in runs, Casey stacked another 2-for-3 day, and the Lady Pirates loaded the late innings with base runners the way this town loads boats at the Plainview ramp.
But sometimes the ball finds a glove; sometimes it finds the bleachers. This night, it found enough leather to keep Mannford two shy.