By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
EDMOND – Four swings of the bat.
That was basically the difference in the game between Yukon and Edmond Memorial Monday night.
Memorial slugged four home runs, three from Beth Damon, to hand the Millerettes a 12-2 District 6A-2 loss at Edmond.
The game was a continuation from earlier in the year that was stopped due to lightning in the bottom of the first.
And, Memorial used two first inning home runs to open a 3-0 lead, but it was Damon’s second home run that gave the Lady Bulldogs a lead that they would not give up.
“We gave up four home runs and they accounted for nine or 10 of their runs,” Millerette head coach Katy Hoke said. “We just have to keep the ball down and off of the plate when we are facing a team like that. Memorial has very good hitters, I am not going to take that away from them.
“We just have to make adjustments and we unfortunately didn’t,” she said. “At the plate, we need to shorten up our swing and be more aggressive with it.
“I thought after we scored two runs in the second that we were back in the game. We just fell flat, the intensity we had against Deer Creek and Westmoore when we were in it, the intensity we had and yelling for each other, but we just went flat in this one. You can’t do that against these kind of teams, you have to keep the momentum going.”
The loss dropped the Millerettes, 6-7 overall, to 3-2 in district play, but remained in fourth place. Memorial, 10-2, improved to 5-0 in the district and sits on top of the race.
Trailing 3-0 after giving up two first inning home runs, the Millerettes did make a run at the lead in the second, scoring a pair of runs to cut the lead to 3-2.
Maddie Montgomery was hit by a pitch and Ariah Mitchell reached on an error to start the rally. With one out, Tori Hughes hit a hard ground ball that was misplayed and allowed Montgomery to score. Kinsleigh Thomas grounded out to drive in the second run.
Memorial answered with Damon hitting her second home run, a two-run shot to make it a 5-2 game. Damon was 4-for-4 on the night with eight runs batted in.
The Lady Bulldogs made it 7-2 in the third on an RBI single and scored two more runs in the fourth to open a 9-2 lead.
Yukon tried to get a rally going in the fifth after Thomas singled and Presley Bryant walked, but a strikeout ended the threat.
Memorial ended the game in five innings on Damon’s third home run of the night, a three-run shot with two runners on.
“We came back after those two first inning home runs and I felt we were in the game in the second,” Hoke said. “You can’t keep giving that to them and once they got that next one, they were up here and feeling it and had it rolling.
“We told them girls we had to make the adjustment and get that momentum back on our side,” she said. “We had to go out and make things happen and we couldn’t get that momentum back after they hit that third home run.”
The Millerettes had only the one hit in the game and had just four baserunners on the night.
Yukon will host Westmoore in their second meeting of the season on Thursday and the game will be the Millerettes’ pink-out night supporting Central Elementary teacher and Librarian Jessica Adams.
A ceremony will be held at 5;30 p.m. and the varsity team will play at 5:45.
The game is expected to be played on the new turf field at the high school softball complex.
