Making annual appearances in the state tournament last week, the Caddo slow pitch softball fell just shy of a fifth consecutive state title while the Bruin baseball team dropped an opening round decision in the Class A baseball state tourney.
The Lady Bruins blasted Merritt, 121, and then won a wild 21-20 extra-inning decision over rival Tushka to return to the Class 3A state finale. They weren’t as fortunate however in a 13-2 loss to top-ranked Arapaho.
On the baseball side, Caddo couldn’t get its offense in gear consistently while suffering a 6-2 loss to AmberPocasset.
Softball
Caddo raced to a 4-0 lead and then closed with eight unanswered runs to dispatch Merritt in the tournament opener.
Malone was a perfect four for four at the plate to pace the Lady Bruins 15-hit charge. Brylee Daniel contributed three hits and knocked in two while Presley Beck and Gage Vaughn each had two hits and drove in three. Kayden Prince also tossed in a two-run triple.
A wild, back and forth affair with Tushka was not decided until the eighth inning as Vaughn came through with a walkoff single that scored courtesy runner Maddie Dufur to break a 20-20 deadlock.
The Lady Bruins exploded for 24 hits in the contest and scored at least once in all but one inning. Their big eruptions came via five-run second and sixth stanzas.
Daniel blasted two home runs as part of her three hits and drove in a whopping seven runs. Vaughn hit for the cycle with a single, double, triple and homer while knocking in four runs. Beck posted a triple and home run with five RBI.
Braylee Malone notched five hits in the leadoff spot as Hughes added three hits along with two apiece by Kayden Cowan, Prince and Laynie Busby.
After the emotional semifinal win, it took Caddo a bit to get going in the title match as Arapaho built a commanding 13-0 edge through three innings.
The Lady Bruins finally got on the board in the fourth with a Beck solo homer. Vaughn singled and scored on a Prince single for the other Caddo tally.
Baseball
The Bruins plated the game’s opening run on Bayler Black’s first inning solo home run but that proved to be the final lead of the contest.
Am-Po broke on the board in a big way in the third stanza, notching all six of the Panthers’ runs with two outs. They picked up three singles, a triple, two walks and a double in a flurry that was the brunt of the offensive attack.
Caddo responded with a tally in its half of the frame as Jake McKay and Black led off the inning with singles. A Jase Counce sacrifice fly plated the run but the Bruins only managed two hits the remainder of the contest.
Jet Rose fired the first two and twothird innings on the mound, scattering six runs on five hits while Boen Proctor tossed the remainder of the contest and yielded just one hit with a pair of strikeouts.
The Bruins wrapped up with seven hits as Black and Rose notched two of those apiece. Cale Wigington chipped in a double while McKay and Noah Carvell each produced one single.