Claremore, Pryor and Bishop Kelly advance in Class 5A

BROKEN ARROW — Claremore’s baseball players may have the dirtiest uniforms in the Class 5A state tournament, but the Zebras aren’t about to change them now.

“We’ve kept ‘em since the regional tournament,” Zebras coach Jim Sherl said. “We drove over here with the windows down in the bus.”

Ben Jones’ inside-the-park grand-slam home run keyed the Zebras’ 10-0 run-rule first-round win over Lawton MacArthur on Thursday and gave them four straight postseason wins in their black uniform tops.

The Zebras usually wear cream-colored uniforms at home but they switched switched for the regional tournament and won two games the first day.

“The guys said, ‘They’re lucky, don’t change ‘em,’” Sherl said. “Some of the guys didn’t shower that night and we definitely didn’t wash our uniforms. We wore them the next day and won again. You’ll probably see us wearing them tomorrow.”

Claremore (24-12) advanced to play Bishop Kelley (27-6) in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Friday on the Broken Arrow diamond. MacArthur ended at 27-10.

In other first-round action, Trent Harrison pitched the final three outs and Pryor nipped Carl Albert 7-6. The Tigers (28-7) will face Collinsville (29-6) or El Reno (24-13) in the semifinals at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Claremore led 4-0 in the fourth inning before the fleet Jones sent a liner to the gap in right-center field that rolled to the wall and cleared the bases.

“I thought it was a gonna be a triple,” he said. “When I saw (Sherl in the third-base coaching box) waving me home, I said, `Oh wow, I’ve gotta go.”

Pryor 7, Carl Albert 6

The Titans rallied from a 6-2 deficit to tie in the top of the sixth, but Damon Burrroughs walked to lead off the bottom of the sixth, went to third on Drew Miller’s single past first base and scored on Nick Sizemore’s sacrifice fly.

Pryor avenged firstround losses to Carl Albert in 2013, 2014 and 2017.

Bishop Kelley 7, Duncan 2

Parker Rowland scattered eight hits over 6.1 innings and the Comets used four Duncan errors to give Oklahoma State signee Tyler Polk his first loss in 11 decisions.

The key moment came when the Demons extended Kelley's fourth inning by dropping James Dunlaps' popup with two out. Cooper McMurray followed with a walk, Ryan Gendron doubled home both runners with a liner to left and scored on James Redman's double.