NOT SO SWEET
Okarche’s baseball season ends once again in state semis as WC prevails 3-1
OKARCHE THIRD baseman Brett Carnott makes a throw to first during the Warriors’ 3-1 loss to Wright City in last Friday’s Class A-I state baseball semifinals. [KT&FP Staff Photo]
Another fantastic Okarche baseball season has ended one win shy of the state championship game.
The Warriors were downed 3-1 Friday by top-ranked Wright City in the Class A-I semifinals at Oklahoma Christian University.
It’sthesecondstraight spring for the Warriors to be eliminated in the state semifinals.
Okarche also was knocked out in the semis in each of the last two fall seasons.
Friday’s showdown had the potential to be a pitcher’s duel between Okarche’s Easton Roby and Wright City’s Rayner Beene.
They delivered. The Lumber Jax hadn’t been held below four runs all season. That included Thursday’s 6-5 win over Caddo and then a 6-5 victory in the championship game Saturday against Wister.
But Roby held Wright City scoreless until the third inning when Beene led off with a double and scored two batters later when Kase Lindly delivered another two-bagger.
That tied the game up and it remained there until the fifth.
A pair of walks, a pair of errors and a pair of hits allowed Wright City to push home two runs.
Roby was able to get out of the inning with a strikeout and retired the Lumber Jax in order the following frame, but the damage was done.
Beene gave up a pair of two-out hits to Okarche in the top of the first frame.
Brett Carnott’s single was followed by Jett Mueggenborg’s double, which plated Carnott.
That gave Okarche the early momentum, but that’s all the scoring the Warriors would muster.
Beene limited Okarche to three more hits the rest of the game. He struck out five batters, including three of the final four that he faced.
After Okarche scored in the first, the Warriors only got two more baserunners in scoring position.
Roby finished 2 for 3 for Okarche.
Ethan Kirby, Mueg- genborg and Carnott had the other hits.
Okarche, which entered state ranked fifth in the class, finished the season with an 18-8 record.