North mobs Lawton in blowout sixth inning

The Edmond North Huskies ripped into the Lawton Wolverines Thursday afternoon, prefacing their upcoming Broken Arrow Tournament with a 12-3 win after seven separate Huskies scored in the bottom of the sixth inning. Gracie Carpenter started what would be North’s final at-bat of the evening with a single that slipped through the left side of the infield. Next up, Channing Lipe moved Carpenter to third on a single to right field, just before Abby Hunter scored the first run of the inning when she plated Carpenter on a hit to left. Lipe then scored on an Evy Aud sacrifice fly, and the gates were open. Kamryn Garvie scored one on an error, and Emily Deramus doubled on a fly ball to center field. Back-to-back walks were handed to Riah Smith and Morgan Thomas, and Carpenter would again come up, scoring another run on a hard-hit ground ball. The spree was the second time Thursday night that Coach Rick Nordyke’s team had the bases loaded with no outs on the board. The first time — in the bottom of the fourth — only netted one run. Coach Nordyke touched on why the second act saw more attendance on the board. “I think they concentrated a little bit more,” Nordyke said. “The other night against Mustang we got beat, but we hit balls all over the place. Mustang just made diving catches. Tonight we were able to find holes and that helped us.” The seven-run sixth inning weren’t the only highlights, though. Senior Jacee Minter began Thursday’s night with a two-strike, leadoff home run in the bottom of Thursday’s first inning. Nordyke said that helped his team get in the right mentality. “It kind of jump starts us,” Nordyke said of his leadoff batter. “When we have everyone hitting — and I’m talking one-through-nine — they feed off each other. They’ve been playing pretty well so it gives the other ones confidence.” Minter’s hammer came with the count in Lawton’s favor. But, with her in a 1-2 hole, she said she knew where the pitch was going to be. “I just knew it was going to be there, so I swung as hard as I could and it went out,” Minter said. She and the defense behind her made it happen on the other side of things, too. After hitting Lawton’s opening batter with an errant pitch on her first toss of the night, the team would quickly turn a double play on the ensuing sacrifice bunt just before Minter closed the inning with one of her six strikeouts. “I told myself my defense had my back,” Minter said, when asked how she settled herself down following the opening pitch. “I knew it was going to be ok. They’re going to make the outs behind me. I trust my defense.” Minter finished Thursday’s contest with two hits — a home run and a triple — with a sacrifice fly and an intentional walk. All-in-all, she tallied two RBIs and two runs scored. Evy Aud scored two runs with her bat, too, batting in the 2-hole right behind her. Aud scored one with a double in the third before a sacrifice fly came in the middle of the sixth-inning rally. Shortstop Emily Deramus led the team in the RBI category, though. Batting cleanup, Deramus scored Minter with a double in the sixth; Aud with a fielder’s choice in the third; and Garvie on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first inning. Gracie Carpenter also had a multi-hit, multi-RBI day when she scored two runners in three at-bats. Carpenter also crossed home twice herself. Between her four responsible runs, and Minter’s matching four, the pair held some sort of claim to 66% of North’s runs scored Thursday evening. Channing Lipe and Abby Hunter also provided valuable production in the bottom of the order, with the 8- and 9-hole batters combining for two hits, an RBI and two runs scored.

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Edmond North High School Athletics

NORTH MOBS LAWTON IN BLOWOUT SIXTH INNING

AARON ALBERTSON

Edmond Sun | 8/15/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Edmond Sun