Wolves Compete With Oklahoma Juggernaut

The Lincoln Wolves baseball team took on an Oklahoma Juggernaut on Friday when they faced the Stillwater Pioneers in the opening round of the Bulldog Classic baseball tournament at Springdale.

According to the school’s website, Stillwater has produced numerous collegiate players and 17 major league baseball draft picks. Among these great players is 1998 graduate Matt Holliday of the St. Louis Cardinals; 2001 graduate and Oklahoma State first round draft pick, Josh Fields, currently with the Dodgers and 2006 graduate Brett Anderson with the Oakland A’s

The Pioneers have a coaching staff large enough to field a baseball team. In contrast, Lincoln has a staff of two with head coach Brad Harris and assistant coach Justin Bounds guiding the Wolves’ baseball program.

Jimmy Harris coached Shiloh Christian to multiple state championships in baseball before taking the Stillwater job.

Stillwater had been listed as Lincoln’s opponent on March 19 but wound up playing at Farmington instead as they traveled east preparing for a weekend of Northwest Arkansas competition — familiar territory for Jimmy Harris.

The Pioneers beat Farmington 10-0 and 7A Fayetteville, 10-4, on Thursday and after posting a win against Gentry on Friday in the first- round of the Bulldog Classic tournament, Lincoln finally got their shot at the Pioneers.

Stillwater would go on to win the tournament by defeating Gravette, 15-2, in the championship game. Their 4-2 win over Lincoln was perhaps the toughest test the Pioneers faced.

Lincoln’s undoing came on a pair of errors on defense allowing three Stillwater runs in the fifth inning on Friday; followed by a base-running error on offense in the sixth inning that killed a comeback with the bases loaded.

There were no errors charged to Stillwater in the contest, which featured another future collegiate baseball player in starting pitcher Jon Littel, who has signed with Oklahoma State.

The tell-tale statistic was nine runners Lincoln left stranded. Lincoln starter Drew Harris allowed one hit and one run, which also involved an error before leaving in the third.

Lincoln battled to get back in the game in their last at-bat in the top of the seventh with Drew Harris reaching safely when Stillwater catcher Greg Hines dropped out a third strike and Emilio Marrufo drove him in with an RBI double, then scored on Dakota Riggin’s single to narrow the gap to 4-2.

This action happened with two outs and Lincoln couldn’t sustain the rally. Stillwater won 4-2 but not before the Wolves made them sweat out the seventh inning Lincoln comeback.