Oklahoma Class 4A softball: Tuttle wins the state championship in an 11-inning thriller

Zoey Plott again walked up to bat. 

In a tie game between Tuttle and Lone Grove, Plott stepped into the batter’s box for the sixth time. 

She made sure it was her last. 

The junior slapped a hit that bounced once and then skipped over the pitchers head. Olivia McBurnett rushed across home plate for the go-ahead run.

Plott’s RBI single gave Tuttle the lead in the 11th inning.

It was all the cushion Tuttle needed to top Lone Grove 8-6 on the OGE Energy Field to win the Class 4A state championship. The Tigers overcame a 15 strikeout performance from Lone Grove pitcher Emmy Guthrie and a long three hour battle on Saturday afternoon. 

“Yesterday, I thought I was mentally exhausted after that marathon but that was crazy,” Tuttle coach Rebecca Cobb said. “Here lately we have worked so hard on runners in certain places, where you have to hit the ball to score runs and it was picture perfect.”

Throughout the state tournament, Lone Grove had not allowed any runs. 

Tuttle must not have gotten the memo.

The Tigers got started early as Kya Watson hit a two-run home run in the second inning. Kinlee Riley followed Watson in the third inning with a two-run home run of her own to give Tuttle a four-run lead. 

“We told the girls from the get-go, ‘We have to go play our game, stay off [Guthrie's] rise ball,’” Cobb said. “We worked on that this morning before we came and they did an awesome job.” 

 Tuttle put one more run across the plate to gain a five-run lead in the fifth inning. 

That’s where Lone Grove rallied. 

With timely hits from Chloe Yeatts and Guthrie, the Longhorns scored five runs in the fifth inning. The only thing that stopped the rally was a Lone Grove batter stepping out of the box before hitting a potential RBI single.

The teams each scored in the 7th inning and the marathon was on until Tuttle put two runs across in the final inning. 

In the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Tuttle won the championship. Cobb wore a big smile after the game. 

“We went from not probably going to play at all to we were very particular with them,” Cobb said. “making them wear masks, making them stay away from lots of people and to this, it’s just amazing."