SAND SPRINGS — The Charles Page Lady Sandites are 10-2.
That is not a typo. That is not a pretty good start. That is a team currently treating the early part of the softball season like somebody forgot to tell them they were supposed to struggle a little.
Their only two losses came at the Rogers State Festival, both by identical 5-2 scores — Friday against Poteau and Saturday against Pryor. Otherwise, Sand Springs has spent August piling up wins, including a 10-1 demolition of Crossings Christian and a considerably more dramatic 5-3 win over Edmond North, last week.
And the word “dramatic” is doing some heavy lifting here. For six innings, the Sandites looked perfectly content to turn Edmond North into another pleasant little entry in the win column. Then the seventh inning arrived, looked around, cracked its knuckles and decided everybody needed some stress.
Spoiler: Sand Springs still won. Barely. The Sandites jumped on Edmond North immediately in the bottom of the first.
Sawyer Briscoe singled, stole third and then scored when Bella Wilson lifted a sacrifice fly to left. One run, nice and tidy.
Lakelyn Harger then dispensed with all that base-running nonsense and blasted a solo home run to right.
Two batters, two runs, 2-0 Sand Springs. Meanwhile, Kylie King was busy making the early lead hold up.
Edmond North put runners aboard in the second, but King worked through it. Raegan Wakeland walked and eventually reached third, Lynlee Elliott walked behind her, but King struck out Kamryn Weber before getting Texiera Claudio to ground out.
Danger showed up on the porch. Danger was informed it had the wrong address.
The Sandites did flirt with a little self-inflicted chaos in their half of the second.
Carlee Brewer walked, Ava Pritchard laid down a sacrifice bunt, and then the inning ended in an unusual sequence that included Brewer being caught stealing home and Pritchard getting caught trying for third before King lined out.
Aggressive? Absolutely. Successful for the Lady Huskies? Let’s move on. Sand Springs still led 2-0. The third was quiet offensively, but Briscoe added another single, continuing what would become a perfect 3-for-3 day at the plate.
Edmond North finally threatened seriously in the fourth. Drue Molenda doubled to center. Ryleigh Combs singled and moved her to third. But the Sandites’ defense turned into a pinball machine in the best possible way when Elliott grounded into a sequence that went Briscoe to Bella Wilson to Harger to Lexi Penner, keeping Molenda from scoring.
Then Bailey Copeland handled a pop-up to end the inning. No runs. Still 2-0.
And then came the Sand Springs fourth inning — the one that ultimately won the game.
Harger walked to open things before Avery McGuire entered to run. Penner reached on a fielder’s choice. Brewer ripped a hard ground-ball single, and Shelby Schuler came in to hit for Pritchard. Ella Pritchard also entered as a pinch runner.
Suddenly the Sandites had bodies moving everywhere. King then doubled to left, bringing Brewer home and moving Schuler to third. 3-0.
Lyla Hansen came on to run for King, and Kam Lumsden delivered the biggest hit of the inning, Just like that, it was 5-0. Lumsden finished with two RBIs from the No. 9 spot in the order.
That is the sort of thing coaches live for and opposing pitchers hate: when you finally survive the middle of the lineup and then the bottom of the order decides it is also going to ruin your afternoon.