Tri-City Showdown: Newcastle Rebounds on the Road, Edges Tuttle 5–4 to Split District Series

TUTTLE — One week after being no-hit at home by Tuttle senior ace Avery Laird, the Newcastle Lady Racers flipped the script Monday night, grinding out a 5–4 road win to even the Tri-City rivalry series and tighten the Class 4A-1 district race.

Tuttle (now 7–1 in district) burst out of the gate in the bottom of the first. Audrey Watson lifted a sacrifice fly to open the scoring, and Grace Mahan followed with a two-run triple to make it 3–0 Lady Tigers.

Newcastle (4–1) answered in the third. Leadoff spark Baylee Tate ripped an RBI double, Bubba Torrenueva brought home a run with a groundout, and a defensive miscue allowed the tying run to score — all knotted, 3–3. An inning later, another Tiger error pushed the Racers ahead 4–3. Lilly Taliaferro added a key RBI later to extend the cushion before Tuttle clawed back within one in the late innings on Watson’s second RBI of the night.

From there, Adie Loman closed the door. The Newcastle starter settled in after the rocky first, inducing soft contact and working around traffic to strand the tying run and finish what she started.

Pitching

WP — Adie Loman (Newcastle): 7.0 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO

LP — Avery Laird (Tuttle): 7.0 IP, 5 H, 5 R (3 ER), 1 BB, 6 SO

Hitting — Newcastle

Baylee Tate (leadoff): 2-for-4, 2B, RBI Lilly Taliaferro: RBI (go-ahead insurance run) Bubba Torrenueva: RBI groundout Team baserunning: 4 SB (aggressive all night) Team note: Two Newcastle runs were unearned on Tuttle errors (one in the 3rd, one in the 4th).

Hitting — Tuttle

Kynlee Swain: 2 hits, 2 SB Avery Laird: 2 hits Grace Mahan: 2 RBI, 3B Audrey Watson: 2 RBI (SF in the 1st; late RBI to make it 5–4)

Scoring Summary (selected)

T1 — Tuttle 3–0: Watson SF (1–0); Mahan 2-run 3B (3–0) T3 — 3–3: Tate RBI 2B (3–1); Torrenueva RBI groundout (3–2); error ties it (3–3) T4 — Newcastle 4–3: error plates go-ahead run Late — Newcastle 5–3: Taliaferro RBI Late — Final 5–4: Watson RBI pulls Tuttle within one; Loman strands the tying run

What it means: The result splits the Tri-City series after Laird’s no-hit 6–0 win last week and keeps the district title chase alive. Tuttle still leads the standings with two district games left (Harrah, @Cushing), while Newcastle has five to play (at Purcell; Perkins-Tryon; Purcell; Cushing; Harrah) and will need to stack wins — and margins — to challenge in potential tiebreak scenarios.

Up Next

Newcastle: at Purcell (Wednesday, district) Tuttle: Carl Albert Festival (Friday)