Watson sisters aid team in 8-3 home win

Whatever Josie Watson did on Monday head coach Lee Linsenmeyer wants her to do it again. Watson and the Lady Jays scored eight unanswered runs to take down Perkins on Monday afternoon.

Watson was impressive at the plate by going 3-for-3 with two RBI’s, including the go-ahead run in the fifth inning en route to an 8-3 home win. Chelsey Watson, sister of Josie, collected two infield singles and brought in the eventual winning run.

“We told Josie to eat the same breakfast, or whatever it was she did,” the coach said with a smile. “Really, the bottom part of our lineup helped us a lot today and is the reason why we made this come back.”

Bailey Shaffer collected the win in the circle and got going after some minor adjustments.

“We noticed they (Perkins) liked swinging at those high pitches so we moved the ball to some other locations and really helped us out. She pitched really well,” Linsenmeyer said.

Guthrie improves to 4-5 on the season and will try to get to the .500 mark against heavy favorite Carl Albert in Midwest City on Tuesday.

Perkins struck for two runs in the first inning and another in the second inning before Guthrie started to scratch away.

Shaffer and Trista LeGrande started the third inning with a single and double. Linsenmeyer called for the squeeze bunt, but instead the play resulted in a double play. However, Hannah Dean followed that up with a single to bring in LeGrande and the first Lady Jay run.

Guthrie scored another run in the fourth inning with the bottom of the line-up doing the damage. Josie Watson singled, Sydney Little reached via error and after a wild pitch Watson scored when Shaffer reached by error to cut the deficit down to one, 3-2.

The Lady Jays took the lead for good in the fifth inning when Madison Dutton and Dean each reached by base on balls, Chelsey Watson earned an infield single to load the bases. Kaycie Carroll and Josie Watson each collected RBI singles to go up 4-3. Callie Anderson brought in the fifth run when she reached on a fielder’s choice.

The final touches of the scoring came in the sixth inning with base hits coming from Dutton, Dean and Carroll along with a few miscues by Perkins.

“We just can’t come out and play like we did in the first three innings,” Linsenmeyer said. “We focused up in the fourth inning and on and played well with a few base running mistakes.

Runner up finish in El Reno Tournament

After starting the season at 0-4, Guthrie collected three straight wins in the El Reno tournament to make their way to the championship game.

In the finals, Duncan came away with the 2-1 win.

“I think we turn the corner in El Reno. We talked about being accountable for what we do and I believe that helped along with and going back to some of the basics in practice,” Linsenmeyer concluded.