Lady Mountaineers earn tourney berth

By Adrian O'Hanlon III, McAlester News-Capital

Eastern is in.

The Lady Mountaineers took wins of 8-0 and 9-3 on Tuesday against Western Oklahoma State College to earn the final seed in the NJCAA Region II conference tournament.

Eastern is scheduled to open the double-elimination conference tournament at 2 p.m. Friday in Midwest City. The championship game is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday.

In the first game Tuesday, Eastern's Winslow Lybrand drove in a run in second before Kirstie Blackwood, Kaylee Bennett, and Zoie Lunsford each knocked in a run in the third for an early 4-0 advantage.

Blackwood and Bennett each tacked on a run in the fourth and Lunsford scored in the fifth on the way to the win.

Lybrand finished 3-for-3 with two RBIs, Blackwood went 3-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs, and Bennett was 2-for-3 with two RBIs.

Rylee Denomy did her part by throwing a no-hitter with 10 strikeouts and finished just two walks away from a perfect game.

The Lady Mountaineers jumped out to a two-run lead in the second game after Denomy doubled in a run and later scored in the first inning.

Eastern added a run on an error in the second before Western answered with two run in the third to pull within 3-2.

The two teams traded a run in the fifth before Eastern pulled away for good in the sixth.

Skyler Shepherd hit an RBI double and Denomy drove in three runs with a triple in the sixth as the Lady Mountaineers cruised the rest of the way to the win.

Denomy finished 2-for-4 with two runs and four RBIs, Ashley Pletcher went 2-for-3with two runs and one RBI, and Shepherd was 2-for-3 with one run and two doubles.