After dropping an 8-7 verdict to Tulsa Edison in the opener, the Durant Lions baseball team was unable to bounce back in a 9-3 season-ending loss to host Pryor in the Class 5A Regional last week.
Durant finishes the year with a 14-19 overall record. The Lions snagged an early 3-0 lead against Edison, cashing in five straight singles to start the game by Cole Robbins, Jared Avalos, Holdan Robinson, Lucas McClure and Graham McIlvoy and looked like they might run away with it before only managing four hits the rest of the way.
A Cole Robbins RBI double in the second frame added to the advantage but Edison scored six unanswered runs until a Durant four-run sixth stanza.
Colton Poore started the flurry with a single and the Lions cashed in a pair of free passes and Eagle error to knot the score. Robinson’s run-scoring double gave Durant the lead but only temporarily.
Edison capitalized on two hit batsmen, an error, a walk and a single to surge back in front for good. The Lions picked up a Poore walk with one out in the bottom of the frame but consecutive strikeouts put it away.
Runs were definitely hard to come by for Durant against Pryor ace lefty Dan Harrington as the southpaw scattered nine hits and struck out eight while holding the Lions scoreless until the fifth inning.
Pryor plated one in the first, five in the third and one in the fourth inning for a commanding 7-0 edge until the Durant offense finally came alive in the fifth.
A Robbins run-scoring single accounted for the first tally with Lucas Mc-Clure adding another in the sixth with a solo home run. Robbins, Avalos and Robinson strung together hits in the seventh to post the final run.
The Lions got two hits apiece from Robbins, Avalos and McClure with Robinson, Poore and Elijah McClure adding one each.