The Henryetta Lady Knights will be taking the first steps toward a hoped-for state championship Wednesday afternoon.
Henryetta will be hosting the regional tournament with Prague and Westville. The Lady Knights drew a first round bye in the three-school bracket.
Gametime will start at 11 a.m. with Prague and Westville then Henryetta will be playing the winner of that game at 1 p.m.
The Lady Knights are going into the tournament with 22 wins and only eight losses this fastpitch season. Prague is 14-8 while Westville has 12 wins and 11 losses.
Henryetta took the district title with a nine-inning win over Eufaula last week. A two-run walk-off homer by Serenity Rex broke a 5-5 tie with the Lady Ironheads. It was her second home run of the night and the third in the game. HHS senior Shelby Kilhoffer had a three-run homer over the right field fence in the third inning to put Henryetta ahead 3-2.
Eufaula had an RBI run in the second inning then another in the third for the short-lived lead before Kilhoffer went long.
The Lady Ironheads added three more runs in the fifth for a 5-3 advantage.
The second pitch to Rex went out of the park in the fifth to get the Lady Knights within one of the tie. They would tie it up with an RBI double by Rex that scored Makayla Greenhaw in the seventh forcing the extra innings.
In the eighth, Eufaula had one runner on base with a walk but couldn’t add to the score. In the ninth, the Lady Ironheads were thrown out to first twice then had a fly out to short setting Henryetta up for the win.
With two outs on the Lady Knights, Kilhoffer had a single to left field then Rex slammed the ball on the second pitch for the walk-off victory.