MANNFORD — By the end of the week, the race for the fastpitch hardware in District 4A-5 had all the suspense of a weather forecast in July: hot, dry, Mannford.
The Lady Pirates finished unbeaten in district play after handling Cleveland 7-2 on Sept. 21 and then reducing the district championship game against Bristow to a 20-1 batting clinic three days later.
In Cleveland, Cambri Casey made sure the Lady Tigers never got comfortable.
She threw a no-hitter, with 14 strikeouts and allowed no earned runs across seven innings. Cleveland scored twice without recording a hit. Hey, it happens.
But Casey also did damage at the plate, going 2-for-4 with two RBIs, while Tinley Greenwood and Carlee Maxville added two hits apiece. Mannford finished with 10 hits.
Quick and easy. Then Bristow came to town for a batting demonstration (a. k. a. The district championship).
This game went south for Bristow right off the bat — literally.
Mannford scored 13 runs in the first inning. Thirteen.
It’s like the game difficulty was set to easy and Mannford did a fast walkthrough.
Bella Gilbert had seven RBIs (not a typo) and two home runs in the 20-1 win, opening with a two-run homer in the first and a three-run shot in the third.
Her first inning was ridiculous on its own.
Gilbert singled home Cambri Casey and Carlee Maxville, then later came back around in the lineup and launched her two-run homer to left with Alyssa Caruthers aboard.
And Mannford was not done using the first inning as a batting cage.
Brooke Kyser drove in two with a single. Casey drove in two more. Ella Maxville tripled home two (cue video game cha-chings).
By the time Bristow finally escaped and reached the second inning, the scoreboard already leaned hard.
Mannford added four more in the second. Then Gilbert came back up in the third with Carlee Maxville and Caruthers on base and slapped another home run, this one to center, to make it 20-0.
So, at that point the transaction was essentially complete and Manndford was just sticking around to collect their merchandise.
Casey took care of the circle, allowing zero hits over four innings while striking out six. Bristow’s lone run was unearned.
So across the two districtclinching wins, Casey allowed exactly zero hits. Zero. Cleveland had none. Bristow had none. Twenty combined strikeouts. I don’t know why Bristow’s batters bothered to carry their sticks to the plate. Casey was throwing absolute smoke.
Meanwhile, Mannford piled up 28 hits of their own over the two games. Against Bristow, Gilbert, Leksikae Coleman and Carlee Maxville each had three hits, while Lexi Lovekamp, Kyser and Ella Maxville also had multiple-hit games.
There was no dramatic finish. No late rally. No scoreboard watching. No complicated district math… just Mannford handling Cleveland, dismantling Bristow and finisheing their job undefeated in 4A-5.