Bryan County was well represented as Silo and Colbert each reached the semifinals while Calera bowed out in the opening round at the Class 2A state baseball tournament last week in Oklahoma City.
Eighth-seeded Colbert had the biggest win of the bunch with a 3-1 upset of top-rated Preston in its initial contest ahead of a 9-0 loss to eventual titlist Byng.
Silo squeezed by Latta, 1-0, in its quarterfinal but was unable to hold off Tushka in a 6-5 semifinal defeat.
Calera meanwhile ran into Byng in round one and suffered a 5-1 setback.
Colbert Baseball
Kaden Neill proved up to the task on the mound in the first round upset as he worked all seven innings and yielded just four singles, struck out eight and walked only one in dominating the Pirates.
The Leopards built momentum early and maintained it the rest of the way as they scored once in the first inning and twice in the second to give Neill all the breathing room he needed.
Isaiah Lopez and Braxton Reese ignited the initial surge with one-out singles and the run came across on a Brett Parsons sacrifice bunt.
It was a two-out rally by Colbert that produced the second stanza burst as Parker Nesbitt and Tucker Shields each drew two-out walks and scored on a Trevor Jackson double.
Preston answered with a solo tally in the bottom of the stanza but that was all for the Pirates, who saw a 27-game winning streak halted.
Eric Hokett had the only other hit in the game for the Leopards.
Things were a bit tougher in the semifinals after two scoreless innings with Byng erupting for six runs in the third to take control.
Colbert was limited to five hits with Reese accounting for two of those. Jackson, Parsons and Shields all had one single.
Silo Baseball
The Rebels rode their 12th pitching shutout of the season to the first round victory but only managed one run on four hits.
Zane Sander led off the game with a double and came around to score on Aiden Mc-Carty’s sacrifice fly that provided the lone run of the afternoon.
Blane Beauchamp tossed four and two-third frames, scattering five hits and striking out six to earn the mound victory. McCarty had two shutout frames of relief with Nolan Northcott striking out the final batter for the save.
McCarty, Cannon Atwood and Beauchamp joined Sander with the only Silo hits.
A controversial balk call in the bottom of the sixth tied the semifinal game with two outs and Tushka manufactured the winning run in the seventh as they outhit the Rebels 6-2. Both teams committed an uncharacteristic four errors apiece.
Sam Mendenall plated the first two Silo runs in the opening inning on a single to right but the only other Rebel hit in the game came via an infield single from Cord Standridge.
Calera Baseball
A rough start dug the Bulldogs an early 3-0 hole from which they could not recover.
Byng plated two runs in the first stanza and one in the second but Calera was never able to get much going offensively.
The Bulldogs totaled three hits, but none of those figured into their only run of the contest in the seventh inning. They loaded the bases with a pair of walks sandwiched around a hit batsman, but the only run came across on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Jacob Daniel.
Hoff Weil, Jaron Varner and Demarcus Dunn each posted a single for the Calera offense.
Zaiden Craige and Logan Bumgarner combined for the pitching decision, scattering nine hits in six innings.
