October 15, 2022

Aubrey Pyle knew it would be trouble when she slapped a ground ball to third base.

With two runners on base in a tie game with two outs, the senior catcher from Piedmont knew she had to make it to first.

“I am the slowest person on the team,” Pyle said, “and I was going, ‘crap don’t mess this up.’”

Pyle moved quickly enough to cause an errant throw from third. As she stepped on first and the ball sailed by her, two more runners scored for Piedmont.

The two runs were a part of a three-run surge in the sixth inning to give Piedmont its first lead of the game.

The Wildcats never gave it back.

With a big sixth inning, Piedmont came from behind to top Coweta 5-3 for its second consecutive fastpitch state championship. The championship caps a 40-3 season for No. 1 ranked Piedmont. The Wildcats did not lose to a Class 5A opponent all year en route to its third title in four years.

“We felt comfortable we would have our inning,” Piedmont coach Keith Coleman said. “If we kept fighting and plugging along, we would have our chance.”

The Class 5A rematch from last year featured a big momentum shift in the later innings. But it started with a surge from Coweta.

The Tigers opened the first two innings, storming to a 3-0 lead as Kayley Iott, Sierra Soto and Chaney Helton knocked in RBI for Coweta. But the three runs were all Coweta would be able to muster as Piedmont’s junior pitcher Payten Schibbelhute found her rhythm.

“I knew my team could come back, we were good at coming back,” Schibbelhute said. “If I folded it wasn’t going to be a good turnout. I just told myself to keep trying and keep going.”

As Schibbelhute shut out Coweta, the Wildcats added five combined runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth inning. Paislee Clark knocked in Addison Cassady in the fourth, Tayvin Davis hit in Peyton Gray in the fifth and Gray started the sixth-inning rally with an RBI single to score Brooke Butler.

Piedmont took down Duncan 14-2 in the quarterfinal, Carl Albert 5-0 in the semifinal before securing the title. 

“We got kids that are super tough,” Coleman said, “they know how to fight, they know how to win, they know how to never give in and that’s how that happens.”