Pirates working to surpass hurdles, return to state
Poteau’s baseball team prepares to take another shot at winning its district, getting a regional tournament at Town Creek Park and making the state tournament with a good amount of experienced players after being eliminated due to mistakes in its regional last year.
“We have the type of squad that we can get to the state tournament,” said Poteau head coach Ryan Dill, who is in his third year leading the program.
The Pirates went 25-12 in 2023 after losing its two games against regional champion Cushing 2-1 and 6-5, taking the first loss due to a wild pitch and a throwing error in the sixth inning and the second game on a wild pitch in the eighth inning.
Poteau baseball head coach Ryan Dill said the team is ready to adjust mentally and get back to state after missing out the last two years.
“We are working on that. We feel like we’re a little more experienced than we were,” Dill said. “Early in the season, we have some injuries to deal with, so we need some younger guys to step up.”
The Pirates return two of their top pitchers — Aiden Sockey and Coby Bell. Sockey threw 77 strikeouts in 54.2 innings (1.41 per inning) with 60.8 percent of pitches as strikes while Bell had 76 strikeouts in 61.2 innings (1.23 per inning) with 61.2 percent of pitches as strikes last year.
Hudson Burdick, who pitched a significant amout last year, will miss the season due to a knee injury.
With Pierce Ballard and Jagger Dodson expected to miss an extended period of time due to injury, Poteau will look for young players to fill the void for
the No. 3 spot. Calloway Warren and Peyton Eggleston have racked up varsity innings.
[Warren] is going to be expected to give us big innings,” Dill said.
Sophomore Tristin Hagen is expected to become eligible on March 20.
“He’ll be a good arm for us,” Dill said.
Also, Dill said Caston Fox will be ready to go for
varsity pitching as a freshman.
Sockey, Bell, Warren and Dax Collins are among the best returning hitters.
Poteau’s District 4A-2 opponents include Broken Bow, Stigler, Hilldale, Checotah, Muldrow and Wagoner. Wagoner, Checotah and Hilldale replace Fort Gibson, Sallisaw and Stilwell.
“Broken Bow is going to be better. Broken Bow had a lot of freshmen last year,” Dill said. “The district won’t be any easier. We still expect to win it. Stigler and us are still at the top — we’re No. 1 and Stigler’s at No. 2. They’ve got the one big arm — [Jace] Gould. If we can beat him, that would be good.”
Poteau will open the season at Heavener on Friday at 4:30 p.m. The Pirates’ home opener will be on Monday at 5 p.m. against Broken Bow.
Besides the LeFlore County Tournament, which will be April 1-6, the Pirates will be in the Tiger/Zebra Classic in Pryor March 28-30 and will play at the Gulf Coast Classic in Gulf Shores, Ala., March 18-20.