Top-ranked Tushka edges OCA
With bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, Tushka’s Samuel Lucas stepped to the plate at Palmer Field.
He needed to make contact with his bat. But instead, Ty Dudley’s pitch made contact with his upper arm to trigger a 2-1 walk-off win for No. 1 Tushka against No. 9 Oklahoma Christian Academy in the quarterfinal of the Class A State Tournament.
“Part of that was this was our first time and they’ve been here quite a bit,” OCA coach Jason Corley said of the hit by pitch. “I think some of that pressure got to us in those situations. We weren’t driving in the runs, and they got that opportunity. Hats off to them. Our kids played great today and we’ve got nothing be ashamed of.”
The game, OCA’s first appearance in the state baseball playoffs, had the makings of an offensive battle early as Tushka (26-2) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first on senior Trevin Wainright’s RBI single. OCA (25-8) answered an inning later as Tushka committed two errors in the frame that eventually scored Donathon Blishen.
But that would be all the scoring until the winning run in the eighth as OCA’s Kaden Kirby and Tushka’s Koty Frank settled into a pitchers’ duel. Frank, who relieved Darin Brown after one inning, pitched seven shutout innings and gave up just four hits. He walked one and struck out three.
Kirby gave up five hits and one run in 119 pitches before turning the mound over to Dudley in the eighth inning.
“They’re going to play at the next level, they’ve got bright futures ahead of them,” Corley said of his pitchers. “So for them, I hope this was a learning opportunity for the bigger stages they’re going to be on in the next four years of their lives.”
With the win, Tushka will face the winner of Amber-Pocasset and Ft. Cobb-Broxton at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.
Roff 13, Fletcher 3
No. 3 Roff capitalized on three errors by No. 6 Fletcher to explode for a 13-3 win in the first quarterfinal of Class A on Thursday.
Thunderstorms Thursday morning pushed the start time back by two hours, but Roff (28-3) was ready to from the get-go.
Dayne Bowerman opened the game up with a double in the top of the first. Bowerman and the
next three Roff batters eventually crossed the plate to go up 4-0 in the first.
Roff cracked the game wide open in the fifth with six runs thanks to two errors and one batter hit by pitch.
Fletcher (26-8) finally got on the board in the fifth with three runs, but Roff’s 10-run lead cut the game short after six.
Wright City 6, Stonewall 5
With Wright City’s five-run lead cut to just one, junior Conner Bastarache stepped on the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning on a mission.
He delivered with near laser-like precision, using just 10 pitches to get the final three outs to keep the No. 2 Lumberjax alive in the state tournament with a 6-5 win against No. 7 Stonewall.
Wright City jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning as Stonewall’s right fielder dropped a fly ball and allowed three unearned runs to score.
By the fifth inning, Wright City (28-4) had stretched its lead to 6-1. That’s when the Longhorns mounted a comeback as Wright City pitcher C.J. Briley lost his command.
Briley walked the leadoff batter and committed an error in the next at-bat, overthrowing the ball to second.
Stonewall’s Cayman Watkins executed a bunt to load the bases, and Ethan Jackson’s two RBI single to left field brought the Longhorns within three.
Landon Grissom followed up with a hit in the same spot to plate another run with no outs. That’s when Bastarache replaced Briley on the mound to finish out the inning.
He gave up just one more run on an RBI single from Clayton Findley to pull Stonewall (19-9) within a run.
But the Longhorns couldn’t completely erase the deficit in the final two frames, and Wright City held on to face Roff at noon Friday.