— FORT GIBSON — After watching a 12-game win streak come to a halt against top 10 4A opponents Tuttle and Claremore Sequoyah this past weekend at Oklahoma City, Fort Gibson got back on track in the comforts of home Tuesday.

Madison Higley was back in typical form in the circle, holding Wagoner to two hits and the Lady Tigers combined some hard hits with Wagoner’s defensive deficiencies to run-rule the Lady Bulldogs 8-0 in Verdigris Valley Conference action.

After being held scoreless for the first time all season against Claremore Sequoyah at the Hall of Fame Classic on Saturday, Fort Gibson (25-7) turned its offense around with three multi-run innings. Higley (25-6), meanwhile, posted her 17th shutout of the season.

“We went up there this weekend and didn’t have our best performance,” FGHS coach Jaime Snyder said. “Today we were disciplined at the plate, got a good pitch, hit the ball well and took care of things on defense. Hopefully we can get another streak — not that it’s about a streak — but back to taking care of business.”

Wagoner didn’t take care of business, nowhere moreso than in the field. The Lady Bulldogs committed six errors — and on other occasions were victims of misplayed bad hops.

Sydney Murray’s line shot to left in the second, a hit that bad-skipped past left fielder Kali Goforth, scored Raelee Waltman with the first run of the game. Murray got a triple out of the deal and scored when  Mackenzie Williams’ hard liner went off the glove of Mallory Smith, whose throw was off the mark at first, allowing Murray to come home from third.

Waltmann’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0 in the third.  In the fourth, Williams laced a shot to left which Goforth went for on the run. The ball hit off her leg and rolled into foul ground, pushing two runs home. Murray’s single scored Waltmann in the fifth before Kelsey Hornback and Williams reached on back-to-back errors by Goforth and Kelzie Merrell to end the game.

Both teams are young — only one senior was on the field for either team — but Wagoner coach Matt Warwick’s 8-16 team with the only senior in catcher Kelsey Emmons, showed it most.

“We do this sometimes,” he said. “The first time against them (a 12-0 loss in the season opener) we played so badly but I thought we battled with (Higley) pretty good. Her rise ball kept our hitters off balance. I think we’ll be better in a year when we’re used to playing together instead on different summer teams.”

Higley’s riser was effective on strikeout pitches — she fanned eight including five in a row in the third and fourth inning.

“I’ll won’t throw that until I’m ahead in the count,” Higley said. “And I know they swing at high pitches.’

Her change-up got popped over shortstop Emilie Rigsby with one out in the second. The other hit came when Kaitlyn Collins punched an outside pitch into right with one out in the fifth. That led to a two-on one out situation but Higley got Mallory Smith on strikes for the second time and Kayla Teague on a grounder to second baseman Miranda Cherry.

“She did a better job of not panicking and our catcher (Williams) did a good job of calling time out and goint out there to talk with her to save me a conference,” Snyder said. “Part of them growing up as a team is knowing we have to handle those situations.”

Fort Gibson hosts rival Hilldale on Thursday.