A trio of Bryan County baseball teams punched their tickets for this week’s state tournament with regional and super regional championships last weekend.
In Class 3A, Silo qualified for the spring state tournament for the 24th consecutive year with 5-0 and 6-3 triumphs over Sequoyah Claremore in super regional competition.
In Class 2A Division 1, both fourthranked Colbert and fifth-ranked Calera captured regional titles in impressive fashion. Colbert dispatched Warner (17-2) before sweeping Dibble (4-1 and 8-0). Calera walloped Okemah (17-0) ahead of back-to-back victories against Fairview (5-2 and 5-0).
Silo was slated to meet Davis in the Class 3A state opener while Colbert and Calera are pitted against each other in round one of the 2A event.
Silo
Junior Aiden McCarty was in command throughout the opening contest against Sequoyah, firing a two-hit complete game shutout while adding three strikeouts.
Silo’s offense scored all it would need in a three-run second stanza fueled by Ty Hatley and Warner Bradley singles along with doubles from Blane Beauchamp and Zane Sander.
Beauchamp and Sander each tallied two hits in the game with one apiece from Jacob Wright, Hatley and Bradley.
Nolan Northcott had the hot bat in game two while posting four hits that included a double and home run while driving in five of the Rebels’ six runs.
Silo raced to a 5-0 edge through two stanzas as Beauchamp earned the pitching victory in working four innings in which he yielded one run on two hits and fanned two. Northcott picked up his fifth save of the year, adding three frames of one-hit relief as he struck out three.
Sander had two hits once again with Brycen Salsbury and Cannon Atwood chipping in doubles as Silo improved to 31-6 on the season.
Colbert
It was all Leopards from the start in the Warner contest as Colbert pushed across five runs in the first inning and eight in the second on the way to the run rule verdict.
Trevor Jackson and Braxton Re- ese each belted home runs and drove in two apiece. Eric Hokett tossed in a pair of doubles and two RBI as well. Hayden Bush and Isaiah Lopez also doubled.
Parker Nesbitt, Dalton Cummins, Zane Mischkot and Collin Lopez combined for the pitching decision, allowing two unearned runs on five hits.
Game two was a much tighter affair but senior Kaden Neill was in firm control after allowing a first frame tally, yielding only two hits as he struck out 14 over seven innings.
Colbert trailed 1-0 in the sixth before responding with four runs in its final at bat to claim the win. Brett Parsons and Ian Jordan singled and they advanced on a passed ball and tied the game on a wild pitch. Tucker Shields then put the Leopards in front with a RBI bunt hit and Reese cashed in another run-scoring single.
Neill posted two of his team’s seven hits.
The Leopards rode the momentum of three runs in the second inning and five in the sixth to pull away in the finale as Shields was stellar in six and two-third frames on the mound, striking out 10 while giving up two hits.
Hudson Brigman led the offensive charge with three hits. Isaiah Lopez and Jordan added two hits each.
Calera
Blasting their way to 17 runs on just 12 hits in four innings, the Calera Bulldogs ran away with the regional opening triumph.
Demarcus Dunn accounted for three of the hits and drove in a run. Hoff Weil tacked on a pair, including a triple, and drove in three runs while Zaiden Craige checked in with two hits as well.
Cody Langley and Lex Carlton combined on a pitching two-hit shutout in the fiveframe run rule. They struck out five and walked one.
Calera claimed an early 3-0 lead in the first stanza against Fairview in the initial meeting and held off the Yellowjackets the rest of the way. Logan Bumgarner, Weil and Craige started the uprising with singles and all scored on a Jaron Varner double.
Bumgarner notched three hits to pace the offensive attack, adding in a double to the cause. Craige earned the mound decision, scattering four hits and just one earned run over seven innings. He fanned six and walked a pair.
In the finale, the Bulldogs scored once in the first, twice in the second and once in the third to gradually build the lead which was all that Bumgarner needed on the mound. The senior righthander twirled a two-hit shutout and struck out three.
Craige contributed a pair of doubles and scored twice while Dunn had two hits and two RBI and Talon Rose also notched a pair of singles.
