MANNFORD — Eufaula had a plan for Cambri Casey. Don’t let her swing the bat.
Four times Saturday, the Ironheads looked at Mannford’s pitcher as she approached the batter’s box and decided she was a lot less dangerous on first base than she was putting pitches in play.
Reasonable strategy… Casey’s bat’s been hot.
One small problem… Casey’s is not the only gun on the Lady Pirates’ cannon deck.
And… apparently, making her angry in the batters box is not recommended on the day she has an opportunity to stand 43 feet away and hurl fastballs at you. Because… that part went badly for Eufala.
Casey threw a complete-game one-hitter, faced just one batter over the minimum and Mannford turned a winner-take-all, losertake- the-fall, regional championship game into a 5-0 shutout Saturday, giving the Lady Pirates the Class 4A regional championship.
It was the kind of response championship teams make after things briefly go sideways.
Mannford had already beaten Eufaula earlier in the regional, but the Ironheads came back Saturday and handed the Lady Pirates a 2-0 loss, forcing one final game for the title.
So Mannford went back out and answered with five runs, seven hits, eight walks, errorfree defense and seven innings of Casey essentially telling Eufaula, “No, you may not.”
She threw 87 pitches, 54 for strikes, walked nobody and struck out four.
Twenty-two hitters came to the plate against her. The minimum possible in a seven-inning game is 21.
That’s less traffic than Basin Road when the trains aren’t moving.
Casey retired the first 13 hitters she faced before Eufaula pitcher Tessa Corsini doubled in the fifth for the Ironheads’ only hit. Corsini eventually reached third on a wild pitch.
Then stayed there — marooned. Casey then retired the next eight hitters to finish it. No walks. No errors behind her. No second chances.
Mannford’s bats took a couple of innings to get warmed up and credit needs to go to Corsini, who threw pretty well for Eufala.
But when the Lady Pirate bats warmed up, they did so with creativity. Brooke Kyser started the third frame with a line-drive single to center. Carlee Maxville followed with a sacrifice bunt, moving Kyser to second.
Then Eufaula, with all due respect for Casey’s bat, intentionally walked her for the second time that night. Solid strategy or otherwise, walking Casey kept her bat safely silent, but it also put a free Mannford runner on base. After Bella Gilbert flew out, Lexi Lovekamp stepped in with two aboard, two outs, and ripped a double down the left-field line.
Kyser scored. Casey went to third. Mannford led 1-0. Then Ella Maxville dropped down a bunt and beat it out for a single, bringing Casey home and making it 2-0.
Two-out damage: A double, a bunt single and suddenly Casey had twice as many runs as she would need all afternoon.
Mannford could have stopped there. But they didn’t know that at the time. And due to that lack of knowledge, the Lady Pirates put the championship game away in the fifth with an inning that featured basically everyone.
Kyser opened it by drawing a walk. Carlee Maxville bunted, reached on an error and ended up at second while Kyser raced to third.
And here came Casey again. Eufaula intentionally walked her again… to load the bases… with no outs.
The Ironheads had once again avoided pitching to Casey, but Mannford had more bats. Gilbert came through first, grounding a single to short that scored Kyser and made it 3-0.
After Lovekamp struck out and Ella Maxville bunted a little heavy into the second out, Eufaula was just a pitch away from escaping with only one run allowed, and maybe a little hope for the future.
Leksikae Coleman had her own vision of the future. Coleman worked a bases-loaded walk, forcing Carlee Maxville home.
4-0. Then Tinley Greenwood bounced a single through the infield, scoring Casey.
5-0. Five different Lady Pirates finished with an RBI: Gilbert, Lovekamp, Ella Maxville, Coleman and Greenwood.
Everybody contributed. Carlee Maxville led Mannford with two hits in three at-bats, including a first-inning double. She also laid down the sacrifice bunt that helped manufacture the first run and scored in the fifth.
Kyser had a hit, a walk and scored twice. Lovekamp supplied the first run-scoring blow with her double.
Ella Maxville had the bunt single that scored Casey in the third.
Gilbert drove home Kyser in the fifth. Coleman forced in another run with her walk.
Greenwood finished the scoring with an RBI single.
Natalee Woods started behind the plate, with Hailey Montgomery later entering the lineup.
And Casey? Her official offensive stat line looked like something assembled by a video game: Four walks. Two runs. Turns out you can take the bat out of the girl’s hands and still spend the afternoon regretting it.
Defensively, Mannford gave Casey exactly what a pitcher throwing a gem needs. No errors.
Ella Maxville handled third. Gilbert worked at short. Kyser took care of second. Lovekamp manned first. Coleman was busy in right field, Greenwood handled left and Carlee Maxville patrolled center.
When Eufaula did put the ball in play, somebody wearing purple and gold got under it or picked it up.
The final inning was almost anticlimactic. Maddison Lee grounded back to Casey for the first out. Kylee Green grounded to Ella Maxville at third for the second. Then Carly Dismukes lined a ball to right. Coleman caught it.
Ballgame. Regional champs. The celebration came only a few hours after the Lady Pirates had watched Eufaula hand them a 2-0 defeat and force the extra game.
That could have rattled them. Instead, the Lady Pirates treated it like an inconvenient scheduling change.
Lose 2-0? Fine. We’ll just play another one where Casey throws a one-hitter, five teammates drive in runs, nobody commits an error, and we’ll take that plaque, thank you very much.
There are shorter paths to a regional championship.
But they got there nonetheless.