By Bryce McKinnis
MOORE — Southmoore pitcher Karissa Reddout, who dueled with Moore’s Erika Summitt for seven innings Thursday night, breathed a relieved sigh as Kaylee Baxter brought in the go-ahead run of a 1-0 Battle of the Big Cats win.
“One run changes the game. It can change anything,” the Southmoore junior said. “I think my team learned that it doesn’t matter how good the other team is, you just need to make sure that you have confidence in yourself — and that you’re one run better. It’s OK to have one run as long as you are putting everything together at once.”
Freshman shortstop Lucely Kutz, who scored the sixth-inning run, hit a triple down the left foul line to put the defending 6A state champions (6-2) in scoring position before Baxter rang her in.
“She’s [Kutz] a good player,” Southmoore 17th-year head coach Jason Lingo said. “Already this year, as a freshman, she’s had a few big moments. She had the game-winner against Westmoore to blow it open, so she’s done a good job for us, and we’re excited to have her for three, four more years.”
The crosstown rivals, who met in last year’s 6A state quarterfinal game and battled to a 5-3 decision, toiled to a stalemate before that. A mild wind blew the flag above center field toward home plate as several hits from both teams hung in the sky and fell into the others’ center field glove.
“We’ve played [Moore] a bunch in the state tournament and we’ve played them in the state finals twice, and slow pitch, we’ve done the same thing,” said Lingo, under whose leadership the program has won eight combined state titles. “If you want to talk about good softball programs in the [OKC] metro, Southmoore and Moore are going to be included in those. That’s what makes these rivalry games fun.
“I thought both teams played a really good, clean game of softball tonight. We just happened to get one more run to win it,” Lingo said.
Asked how the SaberCats persevered to victory, Lingo said without hesitation, “our pitching.”
“Karissa Reddout went out on Tuesday night at Putnam City North, and she did not have a very good outing,” Lingo said. “We just challenged her the last couple days, said ‘Hey, you’re still going to get the ball against Moore. Let’s go out there, let’s figure it out, and let’s make it hard on them,’ and she really did from the very first inning. I’m very, very happy with the way she performed today.”
Lingo also credited junior catcher Kandace Burnett for her performance on the receiving end of that connection.
“I couldn’t be more proud of those two juniors,” Lingo said.
“It was very nerve-wracking, but I just decided to tune in and just take control of the game,” Reddout said. “It also helps that my defense was really great today.”
The SaberCats continue their 2024 slate in the Hall of Fame Festival at Devon Park in Oklahoma City this Saturday against Piedmont and Bethany. They play at Broken Arrow at 7 p.m. Monday then a double-header at Sand Springs at 4:30/6 Tuesday.
“It’s really important for us to come up with this win for our district standings. We’ve already dropped a game to Yukon. We can’t afford to drop a whole lot more and still do what we want to do in the playoff scenario, so this was a major win for us,” Lingo said.
The Lions (4-2) look to break their two-game skid on the road against Yukon at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. Battle of the Big Cats round 2 is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Sep. 5 on Moore’s turf.
