By Glen Miller

Having had a fly ball chased down at the wall in center field Thursday night, El Reno High School second baseman Tara Nall wanted just one more shot at Deer Creek pitcher Amanda Alston.

The senior got her wish in the bottom of the sixth inning.
With two outs and El Reno amidst a three-run inning, Nall came to the plate with a runner at second base. After battl-ing Alston to a 3-2 count, Nall got the pitch she was wanting and drilled it over the right field wall for a two-run homer — capping the Indians 6-0 win.

“I was determined not to go down without a fight the second time around,” Nall said of her second home run of the season. “I was not going to strike out. She kept trying to get me several times on high pitches and I was surprised I got an outside pitch.”

Unlike her first homer of the year, Nall had no question where the ball was going.

“I felt it that time. I knew it when I hit it that it was gone,” Nall said.

El Reno, moving up to the No. 2 spot in this week’s Class 5A poll, improved to 11-0 on the season with the win and 3-0 in the Suburban Conference race.

Nall’s homer completed a five-run inning for EHS, which included five base hits. Chelsea Jones started the frame with a bloop single to right and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Ashlea Hill. Sydney Dow then doubled home Jones before scoring herself on a two-bagger off the right center field wall by Destinee Foust.

Katie Shemanske bounced a double off the wall in center field to score Foust and set up Nall’s heroics.
“I think everyone was so mad that we hadn’t done anything,” Jones said of EHS’ sixth-inning barrage of hits. “Finally, everyone stepped up and picked up their game.”

Until the sixth inning, Jones and Alston had been locked in a pitching duel. Deer Creek threatened to score in the fifth inning with a walk and a slap-bunt single, but Jones escaped with a ground ball out, strikeout and a pop-up to shallow center field which shortstop Racheal Beck chased down.

The Antlers got two runners on in the sixth before Beck threw out a runner on a grounder. An out earlier, third baseman Maddie Stein snagged a sharp grounder at third and gunned a runner.

“It’s a big relief when the defense is playing like it did tonight,” Jones said. “If I throw it up there I have confidence in the defense that they are going to catch it.”
Jones threw all seven innings, allowing two hits and four walks. She struck out seven batters.

El Reno’s offense gave Jones a one-run lead in the first inning as Nall and Beck both walked and moved up a bag on a Stein sacrifice, before Jones singled home Nall.

The Indians got a double by Stein in the third and Summer Blackowl reached base on an error off a bunt in the fourth – but both runners were left stranded.